In the profession and practice of alternative healing and massage therapy, therapists are often faced with ethical dilemmas on a daily basis. I am currently working as a certified massage therapist and holistic health practitioner. I have every intention on using my degree to broaden myself and immerse myself further up the chain of massage therapy. Obtaining my degree in Organizational leadership will be the backbone of my goal to one day either manage or own a spa or healing center.
I have the experience of working the front desk of a spa, working as a massage therapist at a spa facility, and in addition to running my own business as an independent contractor. All three of those areas are a crucial part of a massage therapist professional carrier and it entails different types of daily ethical dilemmas. Not many of us are aware of the challenges we face in this line of work. I think it is important to evaluate the different levels in this profession to clearly understand the complexity of the ethically responsibility each of us hold as a direct representation of our field.
Most of us are very unaware of the ethical dilemmas that are faced when working at the front desk at a spa or a healing center. Most massage therapist has some type of ongoing feud with the front desk operations. It usually involves issues with unfair scheduling and the lack of scheduled mandatory breaks. Even though in today’s world, most of us rely on the use of debit cards or credit cards, just like grocery stores and markets, spas usually have large amounts of cash being deposited daily. The front desk staff is primarily responsible for receiving and handling our tips that we get from our clients.
There are some cases when clients will directly hand the tip to the therapist directly after the session but most clients’ need changed for the tip. Most establishments will not allow the therapist to collect their tips until at the end of their shift. Individuals who work at the front desk are faced with the ethical dilemma of deciding if they should actual give us our full tips or skim a little from each therapist. Every therapist will express that at one time or another they have experienced the front desk or management of stealing or skimming the therapist tips.
The individuals in of running the front desk, know that we have no way of knowing if our clients actually tipped the therapist or not. As a therapist, it is extremely taboo to ask a client if they have tipped you and how much they left you. Unfortunately that would be the only way of finding out. The secondary ethical dilemma that massages therapist face with the front desk operations is they have the ability to manipulate your schedule, therefore negatively affecting your financial stability and wellbeing.
This is a real problem for female therapist and female front desk operations. I have never heard of a male therapist having this specific issue with female front desk employees. If there is a beef between two female employees, you can count on the front desk purposely not booking the therapist with clients as much as the other therapist. Font desk operations also like to play favorites and will usually book up the popular therapist first before the other not so popular therapist. The front desk operations will also deny any claims of this because it is considered discrimination.
In the previous section, I expressed the ethical dilemmas and daily scenarios that massage therapist and front desk operations have to continually battle with each other. What most people do not understand is that most establishments operate the front desk and massage therapist separately. This is why I had to split up the front of the house operations with the back of the house operations. Working as a massage therapist at a spa usually comes with numerous ethical dilemmas. Massage therapist have been known to have ethical dilemmas hen it comes to giving the clients their full time or having conflicting thoughts about taking extra money to perform unethical practices. Charles Lee goes into to detail to explain examples of inappropriate behavior, intercourse, masturbation, oral sex and any direct or indirect physical contact unrelated to professional massage therapy (Lee, C). This is a serious and real issue that most of us like to pretend it never happens. Just like any profession, there is always a strong temptation to risk everything to make more money and get ahead of the game.
History has shown us that it is only a matter of time before the truth comes out. Based on my interviews, it seems like the main reason why therapist may skim time off a client’s session may have to do with the therapist’s energy level or the client crossed the line in an inappropriate way. Working as an independent contractor comes with a lot of responsibility and work. Even though most massage therapist dislike the front desk operations, they do play a viable role in the daily functionality of the spa.
As an independent contractor the primarily responsible for every aspect of the business fall on your shoulders. Based on my years of experience in working as an independent contractor and interviewing three other independent contractors, we all seem to bring up the same ethical dilemmas that we face. Not every independent contractor reports his or her accurate earnings to the IRS. The can present a number of issue for the massage therapist. Massage therapist deal with lots of cash and we are capable of fudging the numbers to obtain personal gain.
The next big ethical dilemma has to do with mixing sexual acts with massage. It is stated on the American Massage Therapy Association website, “Sexual misconduct is a serious matter that must be attended to (Polseno, 2007). ” Independent contractors are not as monitored as a therapist who works for an establishment. The temptations to make more money are very real, unfortunately some therapist fall into the trap of not practicing massage ethically due to financial hardships. Charles Lee expresses, “establishing boundaries can be an ongoing and dynamic process (Lee, C).
Establishing boundaries from the very beginning and sticking to them, it the sure way to avoid temptation to fall off the ethical path. Charles Lee also explains, ” boundaries also help us and our clients feel at ease physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally (Lee, C). ” It was great to get all this information down on paper because massage therapist usually only have each other to discuss these ethical issue with each other. People that are not familiar with these very real ethical dilemmas think it is taboo to discuss them. Sometimes people ask us questions but get uncomfortable when we tell them the reality of our profession.
The front desk operations usually like to live in their fantasy world and pretend that these ethical challenges arise daily. I explained about the experience of working with the front desk of a spa, working as a massage therapist at a spa facility, and lastly, running a business as an independent contractor. All three of those areas are a crucial part of a massage therapist profession and it entails different types of difficult ethical dilemmas. Bringing these situations to the surfaces helps us professional come up with better ways of dealing with ethical dilemmas.