Instructor Conundrum

When I started PB, I was happy to take class from any instructor on the schedule.

But as time passes, I’ve become pretty selective. I’ve gone from ”I’ll take any instructor” to “I prefer these instructors” to a hard “only these instructors.”

I wish I didn’t have to do this, but the onboarding of new hires who seem to be struggling with the challenge of juggling all of the PB balls (and I acknowledge there are many) has been rough.

A long time ago, I quietly went to management about one of them—she was impossible to understand on the mic (screaming and poor diction) and had no idea what she was doing with hands on adjustments. I gently suggested that she needed more training.

Nothing happened. Or, nothing happened that made her instruction feel solid. I took her class once or twice more and then put her on my “not that instructor” list.

A few weeks ago, she showed up last minute to teach a class i was taking (the original instructor cancelled at the last minute so I had no warning) and I felt awkward leaving. I took the class. I think it was as bad or worse than the first one.

Every once in a while I relent and try a new instructor if the schedule doesn’t feature one of my favorites and I still want to take class.

This week, I took a chance on a new instructor. It was awful. The class had only 1/3 of the normal attendance for that time of day. She was very nice but there were at least a dozen times when the sequencing was poorly demonstrated, virtually no hands on adjustments, and loads of verbal cues that just didn’t make any sense. I wasn’t the only one in class having issues. The applause at end of class was sparse. Not a good vibe.

I won’t go to my studio manager again. It put me in an incredible awkward position, and my constructive criticism was filed away in the “we can’t please everyone” file.

But I am wondering: how are instructors evaluated? Is there continuing education and supervision for newer less experienced teachers who just don’t deliver the goods as well as others? I would assume that class numbers would tell part of the story but I’m not sure if that makes a difference.

I’d love to hear from employees or former employees about the quality control issues that seem to be a feature and not a bug in the system. I don’t want to be “that client” but I am still trying to figure out if there is a way to offer constructive criticism to the correct person who may be able to tinker with some of the challenges.