So. As a Registered Massage Therapist, my payment is correlated to my hours worked. No clients equals no money for me. If a client is paying me for an hour, I am working on them for an hour. Same for two hours and so on. Because you are technically paying me per minute, I feel as though it is stealing if I do not give you the time you paid for; and if I am late getting started… If I didn’t show up on time, if I was late getting out with my last client, I will still do a full hour, because it is my fault we are starting late.
Now. Here’s the important bit. If YOU are late, if YOU arrive at my clinic fifteen minutes late, IF YOU DECIDE THAT HEY I AM ALREADY TEN MINUTES LATE I MIGHT AS WELL STAND OUTSIDE THE BUILDING RIGHT NEXT TO THIS WINDOW AND HAVE A SMOKE MAKING ME ANOTHER FIVE MINUTES LATE, then I am finishing when we were scheduled to finish. If you are the one causing a late start to an appointment, I am not going overtime.
Sure, there are some exceptions. For example: you are nice, and can apologize for being late. Or, you know, just not being an asshole.
I, however, will not feel guilty when you come to the front desk, having been blatantly late because you were fucking smoking outside the building or some other bullshit and didn’t say a word of apology and tell me that you didn’t get your full hour so you shouldn’t have to pay full price.
No. You booked that time; you booked MY time. My time is money. Do not expect me to go overtime because you decided you needed a smoke even though you were already late. Do not expect me to break down and discount you because you get pissy with me. As far as I’m concerned, you paid me to watch you smoke outside.
To recap - if I’m late getting to your massage, I will go longer to give you an hour, because you were here when you were supposed to be and I was the one who wasn’t. But if you are late, and especially if you don’t even acknowledge the fact, you are not getting a minute over your scheduled time. You respect me, I respect you. Simple, simple.
Yeah. I feel this. It seems like this should go without saying.
Most days, my booking is set up so that I have just enough time to turnover between clients. Obviously, if you book an appointment for a certain time, that’s the time I have available to work on you. I’m not going to work longer than that, because that’s cutting into another client’s time.
Granted, if it’s my fault that we’re running late, I will move things around to make sure you get your full time, or discount you, or otherwise do something to make it right. But that’s WHY I don’t run late. It throws off my entire day off.
(If I do have time to spare and the client is someone I have a good relationship with, or they were late for some unavoidable reason, or they’re in a lot of pain, etc., I do go over sometimes. I go over sometimes even with clients who were on time, just because it seems like they need extra work.
But I’m never obligated to do that. Just like clients are never obligated to tip me. Tipping is a way for clients to voluntarily express special appreciation for me, and extra time is my way to express special appreciation for them. It’s not something anyone is ever entitled to.)