I couldn't sleep last night. I had a little crying spell over nothing new and tried to go to bed. I think I was slipping in and out of dreams about work. o_O "I'm supposed to work on this muscle group and I have to fill up this many more minutes and what products should she take home with her to help with her particular issues and will I have time to talk with her after we get done and was that her right or left leg she told me to go easy on and I've got a million other things on my mind so is the massage I'm giving less than my best and...." Oh my gosh it was awful. And then I realized that my cat wasn't in bed with me, or even in the room, so I had to go find her since I was awake anyway at 4:45 in the morning. Fortunately she was still nearby.
Wasn't sure how I'd fare today.
Wednesdays, we all meet with Mary and go over our stats for the previous week - how many clients we had, how many we'd like to have, how many products we sold, how many rebooks and requests, etc. I flat out said to her today in the nicest way I could, "Is anyone actually encouraged by these meetings? Because I'm overwhelmed and DIScouraged by them." Maybe ten minutes after I finished up with her, I was taking a break (the only one I had to take!) and Jenn came in and asked if I could come up to her office; she wanted to show me something. When she had me sit down across from her at her desk, I got all tense and nervous, like either she was going to give me some new and uncomfortable "challenge" or tell me I needed to sell more products or worse....
She pulled out five sheets of spreadsheet papers. One was my records for the last two pay periods (I've only been here for two). The others were records for previous employees. She proceeded to tell me to calm down, hold a pretty rock, push the "Staples. That was easy." button, and understand that I'm doing very well. She said that all other figures aside, one of the best ways to see how a therapist is doing performance-wise in the eyes of the clients is to look at the volume of tips being given. She pointed to my figure for the second pay period, but it didn't mean anything to me at the time. "You earned one of THE highest amounts of tips. Higher than a lot of the nail techs, the estheticians, the hair stylists... I mean, okay. Nobody can touch David. But you were way up there." Then she went over some of the other figures before comparing them to the previous therapists - some who worked part time and did very poorly, part time and did okay, full time and did quite well, etc. Then we went through the records of the tips. One person, on one occasion, over the course of a combined eight-year period or so, made a higher figure than I did... in my second pay period.
Guys, I'm not in this for the money and I'm not meaning to brag on that. But I do care about the people who come to see me and I had no tangible way to know whether I was really on the right track or not. Most people won't tell you, "Oh my gosh, that was the worst massage I've ever had and I'm never coming to see you again!" even if they're thinking it as they check out.... And I hesitate to believe every "That was great." ho-hum sounding response.
But I'm pretty sure they wouldn't shell out a lot of extra money on top of the spa's fee if they didn't like the service.
This was encouraging news. Despite stressful nightmares.
2 comments:
And my lil Lady Frog is worth every penney they shell out in those tips! Look at it as the Holy Spirit's way of encouraging you. I reckon the Lord is well pleased with you, good & faithful servant of nimble fingers, strong hands, & compassionate heart!
Jess, I am so glad you received good feedback. I too woke up this am at 0400 for no reason. I did have a scary dream last night that disturbed me a little so maybe that is what woke me up.
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