Customer service comedy

Two weeks of solo shifts and I’m discovering that working at the rec center is less “inspiring people to fitness” and more “explaining that no, the treadmill doesn’t have an ‘easy’ setting.”

Customer service comedy

Today’s greatest hits: Why can’t I use the rowing machine like a regular bike? (Physics, sir. Physics.) Can you turn down the resistance on the stair climber? (That’s… the point of the stair climber.) And my personal favorite: Is there a machine that just does the workout for you while you stand there? (I wish, buddy. I really wish.)

The behind-the-scenes stuff is actually way more involved than I expected.

Clipboard organization is apparently a crucial job skill.

Inventory logs, equipment maintenance schedules, incident reports for every stubbed toe. Yesterday I spent an hour trying to figure out why we were missing three medicine balls only to find them in the men’s locker room being used as “really uncomfortable pillows” by some guys taking post-workout naps.

But honestly? I’m loving it more than I thought I would. There’s something satisfying about helping someone figure out a new machine, even if it takes explaining the concept of “resistance” seventeen different ways. Plus Jake keeps showing up during my shifts with coffee, which doesn’t hurt the whole experience.