Virgin Active reviews

Joined as a Sales Manager at a struggling club. Although predominantly non-grad initial impressions of General / Area/ Regional management were good. Very unpleasant behaviour once I joined. Sales Consultants were gym enthusiasts who were just passing through and wanted an easy ride, if they weren't actually using the gym for 1-1 1/2 to 2 hours at lunch they were seeking the gym staff for training tips or chatting with members at reception networking for training buddies. They got quite aggressive at times about doing their job. Other behavioural problems endemic such as daily homophobia and bullying tactics to claim others sales to the point of concocting a convoluted 'system' to justify each claim which was fiercely defended. No management backup to tackle bad behaviour. Combined with general managements shockingly clueless sales knowledge (told me exactly what to say in meetings verbatim as though it were my own contribution and thought the standard KPI's were something I'd dreamed up to 'slave drive' - awkward!) I was managed out within two months for lack of teamwork. Can't say I wasn't a little relieved! The professionalism was weak making my job pretty impossible at times but shed some light on why that club consistently underachieved - I was told my tenure wasn't so bad compared to a more recent end of month with no sales at all!! Apparently general management had mismanaged the team so badly they weren't talking to each other at all, something echoed in my time there. Patterns repeating themselves... Not worth the poor pay- £20k pa is not a management salary, especially not in sales and especially not in London. The day job was literally behaviour management upwards, downwards, and sideways, very little sales management. Aspirations for Area Management progression would have been undermined by the bad renumeration also making the company as a career option a no go. Much management talk internally about not liking people and whimsically ending their careers at the company which was off-putting. Disappointing company culture.

A lot of the role, even heavily product based are orienting towards being operations based, giving less importance to the actual product and quality of the product. The company is always streamlining, so be open to plenty of change. Your experience in the company will rely heavily on the quality of your line manager. From the company strategy point of view, a trade off has been taken to pay lesser Than industry standard to generate higher profit. Given the brand and size of the company, it doesn't overtly affect the company per se, apart from creating a high employee churn. In management, be ready to work considerably more than your contracted hours if you want to do a half decent job and progress. There is a tribe culture in place, which has been cleverly implemented so all the hardship you face is glossed over and swept under the rug. Lots of politics, beauraucracy and red tape, so a great experience to learn from which will make you a robust manager.