Whenever I take my staff out to tea, or to dinner, I always make them go around the table and tell me "war stories." In other words, tell me their most difficult, awkward, gross, or tough situations with clients in the room. I've always been avidly curious about what goes on behind those closed doors, given that I'm not a technician myself.
Well, as you can imagine, these stories were quite entertaining.
Of course, there is the usual gross fare: like a client who forgot to completely clean themselves and was coming in for a Brazilian, or a client who had toilet paper still sticking partway out of her rear-end.
Then, there are the high-stress stories: one of my poor estheticians had a client whose skin seemed to react to everything she put on it, and she had to keep taking off products and putting on new ones.
Then, there are the stories that are just BIZARRE: one massage therapist related that a certain client just could not be pleased with ANY kind of massage stroke, whether effleurage or petrissage or percussion or open fist or open hand or elbows or thumbs. Instead, she wanted to be wrung. Like, you know, giving someone an Indian rope burn? But it turned out that even being wrung was not what she wanted. Exasperated, the massage therapist simply asked her to leave - the heartache and headache was apparently just not worth it to her.
Listening to the stories from the safety of a lunch or dinner table, of course, these seem absolutely hilarious to me and I laugh loudly and heartily when I hear them related. But I can imagine how having to deal with it live and in an enclosed room could change my perspective really fast. So here's to the wonderful technicians out there, not only on my staff, but on those of all spas around the world. They really do put up with a lot!
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2 comments:
I stumbled onto your blog and smiled reading your post. I only get massages a few times per year and I just love them. I often wonder how the gals can just be quiet for so many hours of a day. I love the one hour of quiet, however I have noise all the other hours of MY day. If all their clients want quiet, they are quiet a lot of hours of their day. Nice blog.
Audrey :)
Hello! Yes, it is true, I have often wondered myself, how is it that they can remain so quiet? Actually, what my staff tell me almost unanimously is that they love to do massage because they also drop into that zone with the client. As healing as it is to receive a massage, it is apparently just as healing to give one. This makes sense if you think about it, because when someone is touching you, they are making such a close personal connection with you that you would feel if they were distracted, or worried, or sad, or angry. So, they love the quiet because they like creating a quiet space to heal and feel good for their clients. Aren't massage therapists wonderful?
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