Dennis & I are due to re-up at the gym, so I thought I'd just get it out of the way after sweating on their machines tonight. What was a little weird was how the guy at the desk couldn't get to the contract forms (or even my old contract so I could just initial it). Apparently, the boss locks those cabinets when s/he leaves.
True, "empowerment" can be a slippery term and all. But when an employee doesn't have the toolset necessary to let a client pre-pay for an entire year's worth of service...really?!
Fortunately, this is the kind of place where I can leave a post-dated check at the front desk and be reasonably certain that the forms will be waiting for me to sign on my next trip in. Which makes such protocol seem even more counter-intuitive than it would in a big-box kind of place. But overall, it reminded me of learning about Wal-Mart's policy of searching employee bags for stolen merchandise: If you can't trust your employees, why should the customer?
