Author: Mark Liskey

Where’s the money, right? In the US, the Fed and the States are overwhelmed and even though financial relief has been promised, a lot of us haven’t seen a dime.

And in the next couple of weeks many of us have a major decision to make. It’s this: If I’m allowed to go back to work, will I?

Without reliable virus testing how can I ensure that my client and I (and the community) will be safe?

And then there’s what does massage look like once we’re working? Are we wearing masks? How much time do we have to schedule clients apart to disinfect?

Will there be another interruption if there’s a resurgence? How bad will that be? Will we be out of work again? And for how long?

Do you want me to just shut up?

Here’s the thing, I’m not highlighting the questions that all of us have swirling in our heads to be an instigator. I’m asking these questions so that we can think this through and take actions that allow us to do massage in a safe and profitable way from here on out.

I’m even going to get a little Suzy Sunshine on you by saying as bad as your situation may be at this very moment as a massage therapist, it’s going to get better. And, ultimately, we can return to (or create) thriving businesses in the months and years to come. But that’s only going to happen if we take action now.

Here’s my first action step:

1. Chill for a minute.

I’m not trying to be dismissive of the gravity of the situation we’re in. If you have kids at home with zero income coming in you’re stressed. Period. You’re thinking how can I stay in an industry that will be shut down with each pandemic?

Who wants to navigate through this again? I certainly don’t, but consider this: The US and many other countries were caught flat-footed when Covid-19 struck. No systems in place. No procedures to follow. They’re just figuring it out as they go. But next time (yes, there will be a next time) it will be better.

How much better?

Good question.

I think that depends, unfortunately, on how painful this experience is. The more we suffer as a nation because of Covid-19, the more energy and money that will put into us being prepared for the next pandemic. I’m going to go out on a limb and say we’re going to be prepared.

The next time I expect us to go on the attack before the virus attacks us. We’ll flatten and bend curves through mitigation. Federal and state governments will get assistance and stimulus monies to people fast because there will be systems in place that can handle distribution. That means (1) money will be available for us when we’re not working and (2) money will be distributed in a timely manner.

Basically, having going through the experience of Covid-19 will give us a leg up on the next pandemic. And that’s something we should be able to count on.  

Did that help you chill some?

Okay, that’s enough chilling. Lol. We got some work to do.

Soon, many of us will be forced to ask ourselves this question:  When the work-stoppage is lifted will it actually be safe for me to see my clients?

Mask don’t protect against aerosolized viruses, and if there’s not reliable testing to determine who is infected when we’re allowed to go back to work, then we’re faced with a money versus safety/health decision.

There’s only one way to ensure that we keep society safe and prevent massage therapists from starving and that is for massage therapists to continue to get financial relief until it is safe (reliable tests readily available) to go back to work.

I happen to be very close to an area of high infection. So, to me having reliable testing before I go back to work is important. But if I were in an area where there was a low infection rate, that’s a different story and I’d have to do some investigating before I made a decision.  

If you’re in a situation like I am and agree that you shouldn’t return to work until there’s reliable testing, then you’re going to want to…

2. Email your governor and state representatives.

If you don’t like to write, you can use and/or amend this:

Dear Governor ___________,

I’m a massage therapist. I want to return to work, but am concerned that without readily-available, reliable Covid-19 testing my clients and I are at risk for contracting and spreading the virus.  

By the nature of my business I’m in close contact with my client for 60 to 90 minutes at a time in closed room. Though I plan on wearing a mask and will offer a mask to each client, I know that a mask will not protect either of us from aerosolized Covid-19.  

I understand that you have an extraordinary amount of work on your plate. I don’t want to add to it. I just want to relate to you the everyday realities of our industry so that you can make the best return-to-work decision for massage therapists going forward. Thank you.

If you are successful and the return-to-work order is delayed in your state until there is ample, reliable testing, you can count on financial relief being available until July 31, 2020.

From Patch.com: “’Within the CARES Act, there is the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program that creates a temporary, federal unemployment insurance plan for individuals not otherwise eligible for state benefits – self-employed, independent contractors, gig workers.’

Besides giving self-employed workers the opportunity to collect unemployment benefits, PUA provides all qualified self-employed workers an additional $600 a week that starts April 5 and ends July 31, 2020.”

Here’s more information about collecting unemployment and PUA: Economic Relief for Self-Employed.

One last thing about reaching out to your governor and state representatives: It’s more than protecting you and your clients and community now; it’s also about helping to shape return-to-work guidelines for massage therapists when the next pandemic hits.

This is squeaky wheel time. If we don’t squeak, we don’t get attention.

If you choose to email your governor and state legislators and get responses, please let me know:  mark@makethemostofmassage.com.

Okay, I’m going to switch gears here. The third and final action for having a massage income that is predictable during a pandemic and thriving during non-pandemic times is an action of remembrance to be used when you start working again.

Huh?

Sorry, here’s what I mean in less words:

3. Use the lessons from the pandemic.

Specifically, I’m talking about making others feel really safe while you’re ensuring that they are actually safe.

When I went to my favorite vegan restaurant the other day, Joseph, the owner, wearing a black surgical mask and vinyl gloves, brought my food order out to my car. Seeing him dressed like he was going into the lab to engineer the Covid-19 vaccine made me feel that he soooo had my back.

The cashier at Whole Foods who wiped down the conveyer belt before I put my groceries down gave me warm fuzzies all in inside.

My neighbor who maintained proper physical distancing as we passed on opposite sides of the street made me want to hug him.

All these people were demonstrating that they were looking out for me, and that made me feel awesome.

That’s exactly what I want my clients to feel.

And this where we win the game with massage spas like Massage Envy and Hand & Stone.

Can the Hand & Stone front-desk person make a new client feel safer and more cared for than you can?

Fat chance—especially now when so much more care and attention to detail is needed.

And think about the nightmare massage spa owners have to walk back into. How do they keep a 15-room facility disinfected, especially with 10 minute breaks in between clients? And they have a lot of employees. Who will want to go into a facility with that many people in it?

Can you say petri dish?

This time coming up, though challenging, is our time my self-employed sisters and brothers.

But we need to take action.      

We need to survive now and be the squeaky wheel when it makes sense.

And when we go back to work we need to make clients feel safe and cared for by wearing masks, scheduling ample time to disinfect in between clients and doing whatever we need to do to adapt our business to the new world of massage.

The meteorite (Covid-19) has hit.

Dinosaurs will go extinct.

Others will give up.

But you and me, we got this.

And we got the next one.

I’m here if you need me:-)

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What does the time period between the Covid-19 work stoppage and the Covid-19 resurgence look like for massage therapists?

Really?!

I know, it sucks, but we have to look at the Post-Stoppage/Pre-Resurgence time-frame, Q2 into Q3, more specifically May through August, in order to be prepared and successful when we go back to work.

What I mean by prepared is that it’s not going to be business as usual when we return to work, and I’m not just talking about from a revenue perspective. I’m talking about from an operations perspective.

During that time we’ll still have to implement safety measures to help curb the Covid-19 resurgence in the fall.

That means we need to come to terms with what massage life may look like when we can return to work. Let’s just say it’s going to be different.

Operations Adjustments Post-Covid-19 Work Stoppage

For starters, at the most basic level I’m expecting some operations guidance/rules from the State and/or State Board of Massage. In addition to that we, you and I, will have to figure out what we and our clients will accept as safe when doing massage.

Here are operational changes that my wife, Lisa and I, are planning for our offices:

1. Wearing masks

Depending on when we go back to work masks may be required. Even if they’re not, we plan on wearing them.

We’ll also have extra masks for clients who want to wear them.

Okay, I have to admit that I balked at this one when Lisa first mentioned it because…well…let’s just say that I can be cost-conscious (cheap) at times, and I saw costs rising with more masks and more laundry and more hand sanitizer and more paper towels and more and more and more…

But what is the ultimate cost if you don’t offer clients masks?

Well, for one, your client may not feel as safe as you think. Even though mask wearing is primarily to protect the people around the mask wearer, a mask on a client is an extra barrier of protection for capturing water droplets should your mask move as you’re working.

And here’s the one that really hit home for me: A client may not want to get a massage knowing that she is not doing everything she can do to protect you from her if she is unknowingly a carrier. That’s how I’d feel if I were the client.

2. We’re going to schedule longer breaks in between clients.

Why?

So that we have time to thoroughly disinfect the office and so that there are never two clients in the waiting room at the same time.

3. We’re going to only have one therapist working at a time.

A lot of times we have more than one therapist working in our Phoenixville office or there is overlap. But our plan, at least in the beginning, is to have only one therapist in the office at a time.

This occurred to me the other day when our business phone rang. (Yes, I jumped. OMG, what the hell is that?!)

She was a referral from a PT, and wanted to come in when we opened back up. Great! I told her that I was probably going to be working with her, but it could also be Lisa or Rob.

That’s fine, she said, but then asked, Will they be there when I’m there?

Huh….I hadn’t thought about that, and that’s what I initially said to her. But as the conversation went on and I had time to think about things I assured her that only one massage therapist would be in the office with her. It just makes sense for both safety and comfort reasons.

4. We’re going to keep our main office door open, and we’ll have signage up telling clients what to do.

I really appreciated the idea of letting customers know what they should do in terms of Covid-19 safety when I went to Whole Foods the other day.

First of all, the Whole Foods around us put One Way street directions signs in the aisles which no one followed, but was a great idea to regulate traffic flow and prevent a situation where people are trapped if they’re trying to maintain a six foot distance.

They also have foot decals on the floor to indicate where you should stand as you wait to check out.

But the best thing of all was not what Whole Foods did, but what a Whole Foods cashier did. She gave me clear instructions on how I should proceed with the check out.

First, she had me wait where I was standing on the foot decals as she wiped down the conveyer belt.

Then she said: You can stand there (at the beginning of the conveyer belt) to load your items.

Cool. I loaded my items.

Then she said, You can stand there until I’m finished ringing you up.

“But I brought my bags. I can bag. Or can I?”

Sure, she said, walk through to the end of the conveyor belt and you can bag from there.

Physical distancing maintained. Boom.

As weird as this sounds, she made my day.

I knew exactly what to do to keep her safe, me safe and the world safe.

And believe me, I’m not a rules-kinda-guy. I want to do my own thing when I want to do it—until the stakes are my life or someone else’s life, then I want clear instruction.

And that’s what we are going to give our clients when we get back to work—a safe environment and a piece of mind through new operating procedures and clear instructions.

How about you?

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