How well do you know your therapist? Do you know their name? I mean their last name? You have a right to know their first and last name. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) has an online data base setup so you (the consumer) can search out any licensed professional to see if they have a strike on their license or not. If you don't know their last name, how do you find out? The answer is simple, you can't and it's by design.
What makes the massage field unique is that's its very life giving in the proper hands, but its potential to be used as a front for prostitution and human trafficking is overwhelming. Most of the laws and regulations already in place do absolutely nothing to make this business any better or safer. In The Illinois Massage Licensing act (Act 57 - section 225 ILCS 57/32) which is up for repeal on January 2022 reads as follows "Licensure requirements Sec.32. Display-Every holder of a license shall display it or a copy, in a conspicuous place in the holder's principal office or any other location where the holder renders massage therapy services." There are no exemptions, yet when you walk into any franchise, they are strangely absent. Instead, they're allowed to keep them under lock and key in a file cabinet in back. It's corporate policy that you're not allowed to know your therapists last name and encourage the use of nick names. They say that's its for the therapists safety but if you call your therapist by their last name in front of their employer, they'll be fired on the spot. Corporate will call it an attempt to steal their client and It doesn't matter if it was a weekly client and they never missed a session. I wouldn't go to a chiropractor or a dentist who refused to tell me their last name and either should you.
Every Spa franchise loves a rock star, someone who can sell a membership, someone with years in the field, credentials and someone who can fill a schedule. But the problem is, some rock stars have a strike or two and you have no way of finding out so you can make an informed decision. Every spa I've ever worked at had someone on the schedule with an assault strike. They do this to conceal a persons identity so they can make as much money as possible, because it's all about your credit card number and the sale. If you're one of those ethical kind of rock stars that witnessed something that you shouldn't have seen and you reported it? They can make you disappear since no one ever really knew who you were.
These franchisees don't own anything, they're only leasing a brand and while corporate slowly bleeds them dry, it always takes them a few years before they realize that they made a bad investment because it's corporate who makes all the money and it's also why they change hands every few years. By structure they are doomed to fail and they're almost forced to turn a blind eye to wrong doing and extra curricular activity so they can make their payroll. So if a therapist is performing happy endings, allowing their client to masturbate during session or selling them marijuana which is more common than you think, most owners don't want to know about it, as long as they can fill their schedule and not get caught. But if they get busted? They know nothing. It's why they have more cameras in back on their therapists than they do at the front desk or lobby. They also listen in on private conversations in their break rooms via two way intercoms. These sharks love a good money maker and will knowingly risk public safety for profit.
Despite their zero tolerance policies they in many instances, will punish the whistle blower for reporting violations that you would think any business owner would want to know about. They are numbers people, not people people, so if there is a problem? They would rather not know about it because now they'll have to deal with it, and if the person in question is one of their money makers? They'll cut (your) hours to shut (you) up, impose illegal fines, cut your pay, manipulate your schedule and take clients away that requested (you) so you're only making minimum wage and if you try to apply for work anywhere else to pick up a few hours, they'll arbitrarily expand your "no compete" contract from 10 miles to as far as 30 miles from their location so you're stuck working for them and no one else. You can't quit them, they quit you. They claim to reserve the right to change any rules, at any time, for any reason and without notice. Anything you sign, your agreeing to what it says as it's written now and whatever it (may) say in the future. Some will go as far as sending out a mass email to have you blackballed locally. Everything is shrouded in anonymity and they do it to harbor felons. Most of them don't want the ethical kind of therapist. They want a good hustler that can fill their schedule and keep their head down and mouth shut no matter what.
The first spa I worked at, I was in a couples session and paired up with a gay therapist. His client was the husband, mine was the wife and they talked through the whole session. As we neared the end of the session the gay therapist started performing a happy ending on his client while he was talking to his wife, who was making eye contact with him the whole time. I spent my lunch hour in the office reporting what I witnessed and management told me that they had to be careful how they handled this therapist because he was gay and they were afraid he might sue if they handled it wrong. The owner called an emergency meeting after I reported it, called me out by name in front of everybody, cut my hours the next day and refused to pay out a sign on bonus. When I applied at another location, the other owner called my present owner and informed him. He told me that my place was there and he would have to "release me" before I could be "allowed" to work anywhere else and if I tried to leave again, I would never see that bonus. He also let me know that he could make sure I never find another job in the state. But the gay guy? He was required to re take a draping class and had a stern talking to.
Any decent reputable therapist would see what these places really are and run like hell the other way. I seriously question the ethics of any so called therapist who would choose to make a career at a franchise. I was sexually assaulted by a female therapist at the last spa I worked at and was fired for reporting it. Call a lawyer? I did, and was told that I most certainly had a case but I would have to come up with a large cash retainer to get started and was told it could get expensive. They would only take the case pro bono if I were a female or minority. As a condition of employment, they'll make a therapist sign a waiver giving up their right to a trial by jury if they go public with anything about them no matter what they do guilty or not. Read Massage Therapy in Crisis available on Amazon for more detail.
I also have to share my concern and disgust about how the State of Illinois claims to be working to prevent human trafficking in massage yet appears to be encouraging it by repealing language in the Illinois massage licensing act on January 2022 that requires a social security number. The Illinois Massage Licensing Act (225 ILCS 57/17) "Sec.17 Social security number on license application. In addition to any other information required to be contained in the application. Every applicant for an original, renewal, reinstated or restored license under this act shall include the applicants social security number." These spa franchises are structured in such a way that many of them can, will and do exploit legal citizens for cheap labor and it won't be long before they figure out a way to profit from this flood of undocumented labor as well in this already over saturated market. In Illinois, instead of holding these predatory spa chains and those random alphabet Asian owned illicit massage businesses (IMB) accountable, they create a committee of people with more focus on the diversity of the group and making everyone feel included instead of appointing people who could actually get something done. They'll draft some meaningless yet symbolic piece of doctrine to justify their paycheck and slowly over time it all gets repealed. The solution? Simple. Require them to follow the law and post all therapists licenses in the lobby with first and last name, license number with home address redacted with a black sharpie as I'm required to do. Insist that laws like this are permanent! Why should they ever go up for repeal? So these clowns can have another meeting on our tax dollars to talk about it some more? Illinois knows better, they just don't care. There's more profit in fighting it, than fixing it.
The beauty of being an independent is that I can work alone to provide a safer more professional family friendly environment for decent conservative people. I love what I do and I'm doing very well because of it. You don't have to book with me, just don't book at a franchise. Instead, find an independent therapist locally and support them. Right now, the wrong people are running the show and they have deep pockets but they're not above the law. If you have a membership at a franchise spa, then you should demand to know your therapists last name. You have a right to know. Ask them which specific law says they can legally withhold that information from you. If they're honest they'll say it isn't a law, but it's corporate policy.
Sincerely,
Lonnie T. Locke LMT
(Owner and head therapist)
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