Typical Day

Today was a whirlwind. There was a residual flow of business from Valentine’s Day; lots of couples came in that couldn’t get a chance to come in together during the workweek. Thank goodness there was room assignments!! A typical day operates as follows: I show up to work fifteen minutes early (any later than that and you are technically considered as coming in late), find an empty locker to put my purse in, and then go up to the front desk. Once there, I sign myself up to a room on the sign in sheet and get my cream and holster. Then, I go back to the break room where the lockers are and look at the flatscreen computer monitor they have that shows all of the appointments for the day. When my client arrives, their name is underlined and that way I know that they are up front. If there is a little folder image next to their name that means they are filling out paperwork. At top of the hour, say 4:00, I walk up front and find the client’s medical chart at the side of the front desk to review their medical history and make notes for the session. With chart in hand, I walk over to the sitting area and call out my client’s name. Once they identify themselves, I greet them with a smile, handshake, and introduction. I then invite them to follow me and lead them to the assigned room I am in for the day. The first question I ask is what kind of massage they want. Since I can only do Swedish and Deep Tissue I just ask them which one they want. It’s about half and half as far as responses go. Then I ask them what “areas of concern” they have, or if anything is bothering them. Most commonly the responses are the neck, shoulders, and low back. Then I instruct them to disrobe to their level of comfort and get under the sheet and blanket face down with their face in the face piece. On their chart I write “RMH” (meaning I reviewed their medical history) and either “FBSM” (for full body Swedish massage), or “FBDT” (for full body deep tissue). Then I make a comment on what their problem areas were and sign my initials at the bottom. I leave them to disrobe, make notes on their chart, turn the chart in to the front desk so it can be filed, fill up my cream, go to the break room and wash my hands, and then return to the room where I give a knock and then go in. As Jack Meagher puts it, "Massage is the study of anatomy in braille.(massagenerd)" I agree that massage is about learning the body in a physical way because my massaging experience confirms it.
The hour long massages are actually fifty minutes hands on time so it starts at five after the hour, say 4:05. I end the session at 4:55, go to the break room to wash my hands/arms, rush up to the front waiting room to get them a cup of water, go to the linen cupboards and get a clean face piece cover and two flat sheets, and return to outside the room to wait for them to get out. This is always a tense period of time. I’m just hoping to death that they don’t take forever getting dressed and mess up my entire day’s schedule. As soon as they emerge, groggy and sleepy-eyed, I hand them their water and instruct them to drink plenty of it through out the day in order to flush out all of the toxins that were released in the massage. They thank me, sometimes hand me a cash tip (half the time its on credit card), and walk away. As quickly as possible, I rush in the room, rip off the used sheets and face piece, throw them on the floor by the door, wipe down the face cradle with a Clorox wipe, and redress the table with the fresh sheets. I take the dirty sheets to the laundry cabinet and put them in the dirty pile, then run to the break room and stare at the computer screen. I find my column, scan it for my next client’s name, and then rush up front, find their chart and begin again. I am a “4/6” which means I can do four massages in a row with a maximum of six for the entire day. Upon my hiring, I was able to tell my boss how many massages in a row I was comfortable doing and that’s what they set it at. At the end of the day after I change the sheets of the last client, I simply go up front, turn in my cream and holster, ask for tips (some clients leave cash tips in an envelope when they checkout), and say my goodbyes.

http://www.massagenerd.com/Quotes_of_Massage.html