[Rivière]

Well just over a week later after she's returned and already we've had a joyful conversation of her basically not giving a crap that our good manager (S) is being crapped on by the bad one (D). As soon as I mentioned D's name, she said how she really liked him and then said, 'I take it you're not a fan of D then?' I said that I like D as well and I think he has a good personality, just his managerial skills are bad, and that he constantly leaves everything to S. Her reply was, 'That's between them really isn't it...' and she looked at me in that 'I don't give a crap because it doesn't affect me' sort of way. And then when I expressed how bad his behaviour is that the man can't even change a single bin during his shift, and that he just takes off whenever, she was like, 'I don't do office politics'.

So you're telling me that D not printing maintenance sheets so nobody can track equipment maintenance...

D not caring about the fact we physically can't do the shifts he's tried to put us on...

D not caring about our wellbeing even though we tell him something is wrong (like me with my knee and still demanding I do a cycle class with it)...

D asking us what classes we want to teach then completely ignoring us and putting us on the things we just said we'd prefer not to do (such as the cycle class in my case)...

D not even putting classes up on the gym's timetable for members to book on and then have them complain to us...

D not sorting out the cleaning equipment before he finishes his shift and have gym members complain to us....

D leaving way before his shift is due to end, or not even turning up for several hours past it so when there's a managerial problem we need help with, no body is around...

...all these things are 'office politics'...? Maybe it's just me, but these things directly affect us. And not only that, if S wasn't around, nothing would ever get done. Because S is on annual leave for a week, D has claimed he's really ill and is 'dying' so needs more shift cover. He keeps wanting us to cover his shifts from 10 until 6 PM, on top of the fact we have clients and our own shifts to work on.

But hey ho, those things that physically affect all staff is just to do with D and S not sorting things out between themselves.

It was even more infuriating because S actually met up with her during the lockdown to see how she was doing and to be a friend to her. And this is how she repays her? Maybe I just have different principles to a lot of other people, but to me, if someone bends over backwards for me and tries to help me, I like to try and return the favour by doing it for them. S has really helped me during my time working at that gym, so I try and support her as much as possible in return. It's like she forgets S is a human being way before she was a manager. I don't want S to quit because of the pressure D puts on her because he's useless.

Even all the other PT's comment on how bad D is and that S ends up doing all the work. Yet for some reason she can't. She has to suck up to D thinking he's this great guy. She hasn't been here for a whole year near enough. She hasn't had to deal with his terrible management skills. And even then, her only response to my comments on D's poor managerial skills was, 'I've had worse'.

If I didn't like her before, I certainly do now.