Pros
The major appeal to working with Chilli Pilates is the stable hours. You're salaried to 40 hours a week, and you get holiday pay. It is minimum wage (plus commission - which I'll discuss), but you are getting a sense of stability. The senior instructor staff (to make it clear, not management), are incredibly knowledgable and teach you lots about the biomechanics of the body - how and why we move - and this is a great foundation of knowledge often lacked by pilates instructors, as many courses don't cover this. I will always be exceptionally thankful for the guidance and support I received from this small group.
Cons
However, unfortunately, the cons outweigh the pros. Biggest con - you get no official certification from their training academy, yet, if you leave within 30 months you are expected to pay money back towards the training. This is an ethical/moral issue - as what exactly are you paying for? The training agreement is MANDATORY and benefits the business as it allows you to teach the classes, but now with regulations tightening across the country, this is not a transferrable qualification as other studios want you fully qualified. So if you don't stay with Chilli, you'll likely have to pay again to be certified. A qualification costs around the same as Chilli's training agreement (£2,400). When questioning Chilli, they said that the money to be repaid on the termination of employment, covers the cost for the tutors who trained you, and your insurance. Now you don't have to be a genius to see through this. Insurance is roughly £70 PER YEAR for freelancers, and on a normal reformer course, you pay the same amount of money - for the tutors time and the qualification - yet with Chilli you come away with a rubbish certificate which claims that you have "attended the academy" and nothing legit. It's a money making scheme to cover up their ridiculously high turnover of staff - most stay around the year mark and then leave. I'd strongly advise you to read the contracts thoroughly. If you are like me and not particularly clued on on legalities, I couldn't stress enough the importance of getting someone else to read through and tell you whether taking this job is worth your time. There is no part of the contract that is clear that you don't get a qualification, or breaks down what is covered within it. So here is your clarity. They also have the right to put you in any location within your 45 minutes even if it is a studio you haven't applied for. They can change your schedule whenever they want. Change your location whenever you want, etc. They have little regard for your wants and needs, they will just do whatever they want and refer back to the contract. If you're injured and have to leave, you still have to pay back your agreement. Certain management have appalling HR skills, and there are often cases where staff are reduced to tears, or resignation, based on the way they have been spoken to. Even members comment on how badly we're treated, especially the ones who have been coming for years and have seen it all. Members are retained because the classes are cheap. This is due to the unqualified instructors and the repetitive, basic and beginner class plans that don't allow for client or instructor development. Instructors are expected to be puppets - teach what you're given and don't add any personal flair. They like everyone to fit in the exact same mould so that when inevitably, a popular instructor leaves, they can be easily replaced by the next puppet. There's no incentive to do 1-1's and the facilities in most studios are far below average PT and therapy wise, and most clients will be reluctant to pay £70/£80 per 50 minutes when they can go to a gym or a physio and pay less. Staff also get only £21 if a client pays £70 (30%) and FURTHERMORE you only actually see this money if your hit their new dashboard points system, which is a scheme to make it as hard as possible for the staff to hit above minimum wage. You get points/class credits for covering when staff are on holiday, or unwell (and trust me, there are so many people calling in sick or resigning constantly, you'll be called out 24/7 all over essex, beds and herts to cover their arses with no thought of the toll that's taking on you, and even then you'll probably still be scraping around thinking about how many hoovering forms you can get away with putting in that day to rack up 2 extra points because you're behind! It is worth noting that a small group of staff have stayed for the long haul, because they are highly favourtised, at the expense of the other instructors. So overall, money's bad, job's exhausting, lots of travel, management are hard work, and when you leave you'll undoubtedly have a huge and unjustifiable debt to pay back. You have been officially warned.