Problems Most of Us Didn't See

Well, despite the problem with the one particular instructor, the other instructors thought that, for the most part, things were going okay. However, we were very wrong. Our incredible coordinator was apparently catching all kinds of hell and grief from this problem instructor and those above her in the chain of command. She protected all of us from this and for that, we are extremely grateful! However, after while, it became an unhealthy situation for the coordinator and she resigned from her position.

I believe this was the beginning of a terrible downward spiral of the group fitness program. Despite the facts that a large number of our group fitness instructors were highly qualified for this now open coordinator position (at least 8 with the certifications, teaching abilities and former coordinator experience), not a single one of us was offered the chance to apply for the job. Instead, someone was simply GIVEN the job that many of us felt wasn't qualified... Who got the job, you ask? Yup, you guessed it - that one problem instructor. I needed to understand why this happened so I simply asked the question. The answer was this: "We hired her as the coordinator because we wanted someone who could be at this facility 40 hours a week and someone that could jump into a class and cover it in an emergency." Okay, I'll give them the 40 hours a week thing - I'm not there full time so I can neither confirm nor deny this claim. However, since this instructor (and she admits it herself) cannot teach any choreography style classes, the latter part of the justification/answer did not follow.

So many of the instructors were caught in this dilemma now -- teaching group fitness at a facility that has its leader who in most of our opinions, shouldn't be there. We loved teaching there because of the members - the members made the teaching experience fun an enjoyable. The members actually made me look forward to driving across town to "yell" at them even when I didn't feel like it! So, rather than abruptly quitting, the instructors thought we'd stick it out and give this new coordinator a chance.

We thought she'd be willing to start taking classes and learning about the aerobics side of things to help her grasp the job of an aerobic/group fitness coordinator. Once again, we were wrong. After more than 9 months, no instructor I talked to had seen her take a single class... (I'm not saying she didn't but I couldn't find any supporting evidence...)