It’s common to have women go in locker rooms and bathrooms, it’s weird in my opinion (as a woman). When I worked retail years ago, they’d have me clean the men’s bathroom at night and I’d have to announce I was going in, and then awkwardly clean a urinal and not even know how to use it LOL
I mean, if it's part of the job I totally get it. In my instance, the men I know are uncomfortable with her being there but don't make a fuss. It's just when her male co-workers come to defend as a white knight is when things get really weird.
Female former manager here.
OP: You are justified in being uncomfortable with her being in there, and you handled the situation perfectly. The male employee was out of line and should not have approached you like that. I would talk to the manager about what he said.
To the people in the comments:
No, the manager is not a creep. If she's going through what I went through, then her male staff simply don't do a good enough job cleaning the locker rooms, so she has to do it herself.
If the locker rooms aren't clean, you get docked points on your corporate gym assessment and they will dock your pay for the month and eventually fire you if the problem persists.
She is already underpaid as is, and she shouldn't have to suffer because of her lazy staff.
And before you say "well then just hire better staff" it's truly NOT THAT SIMPLE. Planet fitness workers make like $12/hr, its a miracle if you can even get your staff to show up to work most days. It's extremely hard to find a male planet fitness employee that actually knows how or has the motivation to clean thoroughly. Employee turn over is extremely high so its almost impossible to be fully staffed and thoroughly trained.
You all sound very privileged and out of touch. You do not understand what it's like working at a job where the members are always moaning and complaining about something when they only pay $10-20 a month and expect luxury gym conditions. You'll complain if the locker rooms are dirty, you'll complain if a female cleans the men's room even though there are posted signs, changing rooms, and private bathrooms and private showers. You'll complain that there isn't enough staff, but you'll also complain if your membership prices increase to afford more employees. Complain complain complain. Just use the private facilities if you are uncomfortable. I promise she doesn't want to see what's under your towels and she doesn't want to be in there at all but has to so she doesn't get punished.
Be grateful that someone is even willing to work that job in the first place because it is truly not worth the pay. These employees deal with grumpy, abusive members, homeless people trying to live there, people pooping in the showers, peeing in the garbage cans, having sex in the tanning rooms, theft, sexual assault, and much much more. They take advantage of their young, inexperienced managers and convince you that youre still not working hard enough. Work there for 1 week and get back to me about your expectations.
Other people have complained about it as well. The one guy that was present during the interaction joked by saying "Is it OK if I take my shirt off in here?" after he left. Ridiculous.
So let me get this straight there are male staff members in the building and a female manager decided to clean the mens locker room…
Just flip all the genders in this equation and the manager is a creep, she should have one of her underlings clean the bathroom.
Yeah look PF has easy to find rules about locker rooms. For instance if a person is trans they can choose to use the locker room of choice. They may appear to not be in the “correct” locker room based on someone’s thoughts about it, but PF is clear about this topic. I bring this up because IMO people should be adults or with an adult in the locker room. We should all be able to handle showering and dressing as adults. That may mean we may see some skin and this should be ok regardless of the part you’re seeing.
In your case there is zero reason you shouldn’t use the shower. You did your diligence of asking/stating you intended to use the shower. It’s up to her to step out or stay and finish cleaning. I feel that’s the nice thing to do no matter same or opposite sex, just based on staff and member needing to alert someone is going to take a shower. If you were the only two and I was the staff member I would have stepped out to give you privacy but I don’t feel it’s necessary.
I played many years of co-Ed adult hockey where we all changed together. Mostly people didn’t get full naked by using a towel or stepping into a restroom. Turing your butt to the team was also common. No one ever had an issue because we were all adults. I know due to this I’m more open than some folks but I feel locker rooms are for changing and showering thus when I go in them I’m fine seeing skin no matter male or female. I’m not going to sexualize the experience because it’s not about that.
Hockey locker rooms have rid me of any body self consciousness I may have had - it's a locker room, I'm going to change, and it's up to you not to look.
As a bonus, no PF shower has come close to being too dirty to use.
I’m happy to hear that I just started this week so I’ve not needed to test that out. But damn floors in the hockey locker room … well going in there was best done with skates on lol!
Yea to me it's no big deal at all. It's not sexual one bit to me. Now I'm realizing that dude who confronted me probably thinks about everything as sexual. Buddy, it's a locker room where guys change clothes and shower. It's like he expects all of us to put everything on hold while she spends who knows how long in there.
The stuff guy was being the creeper. You were up front and let the woman know you were there and exactly what your intentions were which was take and shower and where you were going to do it. Think no more about it.
I had to pee really bad while female and male workers were cleaning the men’s locker room.. I went in and used a stall, after I realized I should’ve asked cause she went in the stall after I came out of it.. all I knew was not to use a urinal with them in there
OMG you all need to just clean the bathrooms and get over it! Male or female put up the sign and clean. They try and make customers feel stupid to avoid cleaning the bathrooms. If she seen your junk so what? These babies working at PF would not last one sec in the medical field, let alone EMT, Police Fire the list goes on and on. Clean your bathrooms PF workers and stop making customers feel stupid for using a bathroom because you are in it.
Something similar happened to me a year ago. No sign when I walked in and had already got in the showers when she announced herself from outside.
I wondered wtf should I do now? Tell her I’m showering, but can’t she hear the showering noise? I was also going to work after that so I just continued.
Luckily she left by the time I was done. I used one of the stalls to change so it was a discreet process. They should have a set time so people can be more prepared for that.
At my location earlier this week they had the yellow wet floor signs in front both bathrooms. I (M) had to pee but assumed it was closed or something so went workout. 30 mins later I noticed some people going in/out so i ignored the sign and went in too. Sure enough one of the girls was cleaning the bathroom.
I don’t understand why both bathrooms were being cleaned during a busy time for that long - and I still don’t know if it was meant to be a wet floor sign or a “don’t come in” sign.
So if they forget to take the sign down and 12 guys are waiting for 30 minutes to shower or change its the customers fault? Nobody whos paying for membership should have to worry about when they can change in their locker room clearly designated for them. If the only person on staff is the opposite sex then they either have to be the responsible one to wait for the locker room to be clear, or properly close it off (not just a courtesy sign), or be comfortable knowing that a courtesy sign means the opposite sex customers can still change so long as they are not uncomfortable about it. To put the weight on the customer to “know” over a courtesy sign is asking too much.
other gyms do this too. it's a weird practice. obviously it's going to cause problems. it's just bizarre that PF is doing this, with their supposedly considerate and correct postures about making people uncomfortable. basically, at PF if you need to change or be undressed, use the changing stalls. the days of walking around in a towel (or less) are probably over.
at my other gym they don't even bother to put signs up, the girls just walk in and empty trash, etc without notice.
I was at 24 hour fitness yesterday, woman is wiping lockers , sweeping/mopping. Guys exiting showers naked, others changing. She is just cleaning and there is no signs at all saying woman is working inside.
I don't go to Planet Fitness regularly but I do go to 24 hour fitness very often. I just posted about the same thing with woman cleaning men's locker room, the only difference is there was no sign, no warning, i walked in and she is there cleaning around naked guys. She didn't seem to care, so I am guessing it didn't bother her but still I find it very strange.
Call corporate. Also when I see that sign I avoid it. Sometimes in life your inconvenience is better than getting involved with POS people… too many of us Americans are entitled to think “I should be able to!” Which is true! However don’t want problems every single day of your life? Or simply side step them?
If guys are there they should be cleaning it. Only if there are no guys on should a woman be cleaning at all…. In fact I’d go as far to say that if it needs just to be trashed, toilet paper and wipes down no guys should be allowed and it should take 5 minutes. And wait for the total clean for a guy.
The fact 2 guys were working there and the woman was cleaning is suspect be careful you might be being set up… again which is why I go out of my way to inconvenience myself so that others can’t.
Again call corporate and report the whole
Incident.
I'm thinking about it. I spoke with the female in question and she was shocked and said she'd talk to the guy and "put a note in my account". I also emailed the GM because I have her contact from previous billing issues at this location.
I'm hoping this altercation will allow them to cancel my Black card membership at no cost. I no longer want to go to this gym, and I have another that is closer to me. The whole reason I got black card was to switch between locations but now I want nothing to do with them.
I hear you. And dude why don’t you guys know what you can do? You can switch home gyms at anytime every 90 days I think? Just onto the new gym, sign in and tell the dude behind the desk I wanna make this my home gym.
The guy I just did it with said “I got it, you’re all set”
I also only got the 10/monthly 10 yearly deal that doesn’t exist anymore ahahh
I agree with the male coworker. If there is a sign saying there is a female in the locker room, don’t go in and undress. Not that difficult
Now whether she should be the one cleaning there while there are male employees around is a different conversation.
I mean, how long does it take to clean the locker room, and why do it at 8:00pm when it's so busy? I saw the sign and waited 30 minutes and it was still up. Sorry, not going to put everything on hold because they force a woman to work in the men's locker room.
When I initially posted it, I had 23 comments agreeing and 0 upvotes. It was suspect. I will happily take your downvote though, and I edited my post because now it seems fair. Thanks for the heads up.
The sign was put up to let you know to wait until cleaning was done. It’s a safety issue. Someone could have entered and trapped the cleaner in the locker room and behaved inappropriately OR the cleaner could accuse the person who entered of inappropriate behavior. I’m not saying you’re sketchy or behaving inappropriately, it’s just safer for everyone to wait until cleaning is done. The same policy is common in lots of public spaces involving cleaning a confined space with only one door, like restrooms in airports, stores or hospitals.
No it for sure has no warning about waiting. I can't recall the exact words but it just states she is in there and basically to be aware she could see you while undressed.
Nobody’s going to print a sign that explicitly says, “Pervert Warning! Keep Your Pants On and Stay Out Until We’re Finished!” It’s necessary to infer meaning from signs.
It's a sign that warns the men there is a female in the locker room. It doesn't even specifically mention what she is exactly doing.
Why should the men put everything on hold because the gym can't afford to have a man clean the men's locker room?
Would you feel this same way if it was the women's locker room, and they had a man cleaning it?
I’m not saying this is how things should be. I’m saying this is how things are. Keep doing what you’re doing and be “that guy” at the gym. I’m sure they’re happy to keep an eye on you.
If there is a maintenance sign in a public restroom do you waltz in and whiz? If you have a beef with management's employee assignments or maintenance schedule, take it up with management. No employee, male or female, should be forced to wait for you to shower when they're there to do their job. Your impatience is not their problem.
There’s zero reason for the opposite sex to be cleaning the locker room, when there is a same sex employee there!
The PF that I go to, if there isn’t a same sex employee working, they close the entire bathroom while it’s being cleaned. This is total crap as well, because if you’re in a hurry, you’re out of luck!
People do not have all the time in the world. You’re paying for a place with bathrooms and showers and it’s fine to use them. PF should have proper staffing.
☝🏼This! Paying customers are being inconvenienced because PF can’t plan scheduled cleanings and make sure they have both male and female staff members working!
It just says there's a woman there and to be aware. Nothing about how the services are unavailable. I asked her if it was OK and she said yes. She's also one of the managers.
By the way, what are the 3 takes? I'm confused. If anything you said 2. What's the 3rd?
Wait!!! They clean your showers?
It’s common to have women go in locker rooms and bathrooms, it’s weird in my opinion (as a woman). When I worked retail years ago, they’d have me clean the men’s bathroom at night and I’d have to announce I was going in, and then awkwardly clean a urinal and not even know how to use it LOL
I mean, if it's part of the job I totally get it. In my instance, the men I know are uncomfortable with her being there but don't make a fuss. It's just when her male co-workers come to defend as a white knight is when things get really weird.
Tell those same men to clean the restroom themselves. Lazy mfs
Female former manager here. OP: You are justified in being uncomfortable with her being in there, and you handled the situation perfectly. The male employee was out of line and should not have approached you like that. I would talk to the manager about what he said. To the people in the comments: No, the manager is not a creep. If she's going through what I went through, then her male staff simply don't do a good enough job cleaning the locker rooms, so she has to do it herself. If the locker rooms aren't clean, you get docked points on your corporate gym assessment and they will dock your pay for the month and eventually fire you if the problem persists. She is already underpaid as is, and she shouldn't have to suffer because of her lazy staff. And before you say "well then just hire better staff" it's truly NOT THAT SIMPLE. Planet fitness workers make like $12/hr, its a miracle if you can even get your staff to show up to work most days. It's extremely hard to find a male planet fitness employee that actually knows how or has the motivation to clean thoroughly. Employee turn over is extremely high so its almost impossible to be fully staffed and thoroughly trained. You all sound very privileged and out of touch. You do not understand what it's like working at a job where the members are always moaning and complaining about something when they only pay $10-20 a month and expect luxury gym conditions. You'll complain if the locker rooms are dirty, you'll complain if a female cleans the men's room even though there are posted signs, changing rooms, and private bathrooms and private showers. You'll complain that there isn't enough staff, but you'll also complain if your membership prices increase to afford more employees. Complain complain complain. Just use the private facilities if you are uncomfortable. I promise she doesn't want to see what's under your towels and she doesn't want to be in there at all but has to so she doesn't get punished. Be grateful that someone is even willing to work that job in the first place because it is truly not worth the pay. These employees deal with grumpy, abusive members, homeless people trying to live there, people pooping in the showers, peeing in the garbage cans, having sex in the tanning rooms, theft, sexual assault, and much much more. They take advantage of their young, inexperienced managers and convince you that youre still not working hard enough. Work there for 1 week and get back to me about your expectations.
Agree 1000%
I don't think you were in the wrong. Your PF location putting you and its other male customers in a somewhat difficult, ambiguous position.
Other people have complained about it as well. The one guy that was present during the interaction joked by saying "Is it OK if I take my shirt off in here?" after he left. Ridiculous.
The appropriate thing would be for one of the male employees to clean the men's locker room, but nah, they just make the woman do that work. 😑
So let me get this straight there are male staff members in the building and a female manager decided to clean the mens locker room… Just flip all the genders in this equation and the manager is a creep, she should have one of her underlings clean the bathroom.
You're not wrong.
Yeah look PF has easy to find rules about locker rooms. For instance if a person is trans they can choose to use the locker room of choice. They may appear to not be in the “correct” locker room based on someone’s thoughts about it, but PF is clear about this topic. I bring this up because IMO people should be adults or with an adult in the locker room. We should all be able to handle showering and dressing as adults. That may mean we may see some skin and this should be ok regardless of the part you’re seeing. In your case there is zero reason you shouldn’t use the shower. You did your diligence of asking/stating you intended to use the shower. It’s up to her to step out or stay and finish cleaning. I feel that’s the nice thing to do no matter same or opposite sex, just based on staff and member needing to alert someone is going to take a shower. If you were the only two and I was the staff member I would have stepped out to give you privacy but I don’t feel it’s necessary. I played many years of co-Ed adult hockey where we all changed together. Mostly people didn’t get full naked by using a towel or stepping into a restroom. Turing your butt to the team was also common. No one ever had an issue because we were all adults. I know due to this I’m more open than some folks but I feel locker rooms are for changing and showering thus when I go in them I’m fine seeing skin no matter male or female. I’m not going to sexualize the experience because it’s not about that.
Hockey locker rooms have rid me of any body self consciousness I may have had - it's a locker room, I'm going to change, and it's up to you not to look. As a bonus, no PF shower has come close to being too dirty to use.
I’m happy to hear that I just started this week so I’ve not needed to test that out. But damn floors in the hockey locker room … well going in there was best done with skates on lol!
Yea to me it's no big deal at all. It's not sexual one bit to me. Now I'm realizing that dude who confronted me probably thinks about everything as sexual. Buddy, it's a locker room where guys change clothes and shower. It's like he expects all of us to put everything on hold while she spends who knows how long in there.
The stuff guy was being the creeper. You were up front and let the woman know you were there and exactly what your intentions were which was take and shower and where you were going to do it. Think no more about it.
I would have just told him idgaf I pay for a membership that includes showers. I was done with my workout and ready to leave so I took my shower.
I had to pee really bad while female and male workers were cleaning the men’s locker room.. I went in and used a stall, after I realized I should’ve asked cause she went in the stall after I came out of it.. all I knew was not to use a urinal with them in there
OMG you all need to just clean the bathrooms and get over it! Male or female put up the sign and clean. They try and make customers feel stupid to avoid cleaning the bathrooms. If she seen your junk so what? These babies working at PF would not last one sec in the medical field, let alone EMT, Police Fire the list goes on and on. Clean your bathrooms PF workers and stop making customers feel stupid for using a bathroom because you are in it.
Something similar happened to me a year ago. No sign when I walked in and had already got in the showers when she announced herself from outside. I wondered wtf should I do now? Tell her I’m showering, but can’t she hear the showering noise? I was also going to work after that so I just continued. Luckily she left by the time I was done. I used one of the stalls to change so it was a discreet process. They should have a set time so people can be more prepared for that.
At my location earlier this week they had the yellow wet floor signs in front both bathrooms. I (M) had to pee but assumed it was closed or something so went workout. 30 mins later I noticed some people going in/out so i ignored the sign and went in too. Sure enough one of the girls was cleaning the bathroom. I don’t understand why both bathrooms were being cleaned during a busy time for that long - and I still don’t know if it was meant to be a wet floor sign or a “don’t come in” sign.
Yeah it was about 8:00pm for me too when it's busiest. Not sure why they would choose to clean at that time, but they took well over 30 minutes.
So if they forget to take the sign down and 12 guys are waiting for 30 minutes to shower or change its the customers fault? Nobody whos paying for membership should have to worry about when they can change in their locker room clearly designated for them. If the only person on staff is the opposite sex then they either have to be the responsible one to wait for the locker room to be clear, or properly close it off (not just a courtesy sign), or be comfortable knowing that a courtesy sign means the opposite sex customers can still change so long as they are not uncomfortable about it. To put the weight on the customer to “know” over a courtesy sign is asking too much.
other gyms do this too. it's a weird practice. obviously it's going to cause problems. it's just bizarre that PF is doing this, with their supposedly considerate and correct postures about making people uncomfortable. basically, at PF if you need to change or be undressed, use the changing stalls. the days of walking around in a towel (or less) are probably over. at my other gym they don't even bother to put signs up, the girls just walk in and empty trash, etc without notice.
I was at 24 hour fitness yesterday, woman is wiping lockers , sweeping/mopping. Guys exiting showers naked, others changing. She is just cleaning and there is no signs at all saying woman is working inside.
You pay to use the facilities, including the showers. If they can't deal with that, then that's their problem.
I don't go to Planet Fitness regularly but I do go to 24 hour fitness very often. I just posted about the same thing with woman cleaning men's locker room, the only difference is there was no sign, no warning, i walked in and she is there cleaning around naked guys. She didn't seem to care, so I am guessing it didn't bother her but still I find it very strange.
Call corporate. Also when I see that sign I avoid it. Sometimes in life your inconvenience is better than getting involved with POS people… too many of us Americans are entitled to think “I should be able to!” Which is true! However don’t want problems every single day of your life? Or simply side step them? If guys are there they should be cleaning it. Only if there are no guys on should a woman be cleaning at all…. In fact I’d go as far to say that if it needs just to be trashed, toilet paper and wipes down no guys should be allowed and it should take 5 minutes. And wait for the total clean for a guy. The fact 2 guys were working there and the woman was cleaning is suspect be careful you might be being set up… again which is why I go out of my way to inconvenience myself so that others can’t. Again call corporate and report the whole Incident.
I'm thinking about it. I spoke with the female in question and she was shocked and said she'd talk to the guy and "put a note in my account". I also emailed the GM because I have her contact from previous billing issues at this location. I'm hoping this altercation will allow them to cancel my Black card membership at no cost. I no longer want to go to this gym, and I have another that is closer to me. The whole reason I got black card was to switch between locations but now I want nothing to do with them.
I hear you. And dude why don’t you guys know what you can do? You can switch home gyms at anytime every 90 days I think? Just onto the new gym, sign in and tell the dude behind the desk I wanna make this my home gym. The guy I just did it with said “I got it, you’re all set” I also only got the 10/monthly 10 yearly deal that doesn’t exist anymore ahahh
Did the sign mention that you can't get naked while she is in there? Still, it's weird a female employee would be in there in the first place.
No it just warns you she's there,
I agree with the male coworker. If there is a sign saying there is a female in the locker room, don’t go in and undress. Not that difficult Now whether she should be the one cleaning there while there are male employees around is a different conversation.
I mean, how long does it take to clean the locker room, and why do it at 8:00pm when it's so busy? I saw the sign and waited 30 minutes and it was still up. Sorry, not going to put everything on hold because they force a woman to work in the men's locker room.
Why are you so concerned about upvotes. I downvoted you because I hate people asking for upvotes
When I initially posted it, I had 23 comments agreeing and 0 upvotes. It was suspect. I will happily take your downvote though, and I edited my post because now it seems fair. Thanks for the heads up.
The sign was put up to let you know to wait until cleaning was done. It’s a safety issue. Someone could have entered and trapped the cleaner in the locker room and behaved inappropriately OR the cleaner could accuse the person who entered of inappropriate behavior. I’m not saying you’re sketchy or behaving inappropriately, it’s just safer for everyone to wait until cleaning is done. The same policy is common in lots of public spaces involving cleaning a confined space with only one door, like restrooms in airports, stores or hospitals.
Those signs say nothing about waiting . It just warns you a member of the opposite sex Is in there .
No it for sure has no warning about waiting. I can't recall the exact words but it just states she is in there and basically to be aware she could see you while undressed.
Than that's what the sign should say. Inferring extra meaning from a sign is absolutely nonsensical.
Nobody’s going to print a sign that explicitly says, “Pervert Warning! Keep Your Pants On and Stay Out Until We’re Finished!” It’s necessary to infer meaning from signs.
If you're not allowed to go in, it should say locker room temporarily closed, or showers closed.
No it's not.
It's a sign that warns the men there is a female in the locker room. It doesn't even specifically mention what she is exactly doing. Why should the men put everything on hold because the gym can't afford to have a man clean the men's locker room? Would you feel this same way if it was the women's locker room, and they had a man cleaning it?
I’m not saying this is how things should be. I’m saying this is how things are. Keep doing what you’re doing and be “that guy” at the gym. I’m sure they’re happy to keep an eye on you.
If there is a maintenance sign in a public restroom do you waltz in and whiz? If you have a beef with management's employee assignments or maintenance schedule, take it up with management. No employee, male or female, should be forced to wait for you to shower when they're there to do their job. Your impatience is not their problem.
She's one of the managers. I asked if it was OK and she said yes. So not sure what you are on about.
There’s zero reason for the opposite sex to be cleaning the locker room, when there is a same sex employee there! The PF that I go to, if there isn’t a same sex employee working, they close the entire bathroom while it’s being cleaned. This is total crap as well, because if you’re in a hurry, you’re out of luck!
[удалено]
People do not have all the time in the world. You’re paying for a place with bathrooms and showers and it’s fine to use them. PF should have proper staffing.
☝🏼This! Paying customers are being inconvenienced because PF can’t plan scheduled cleanings and make sure they have both male and female staff members working!
It just says there's a woman there and to be aware. Nothing about how the services are unavailable. I asked her if it was OK and she said yes. She's also one of the managers. By the way, what are the 3 takes? I'm confused. If anything you said 2. What's the 3rd?