Almighty Coach

"Max, these two years, I’ve enjoyed working with you guys. I am also very satisfied with your training program, but I am a hiking enthusiast, and I’ve always wanted to challenge Mt. Everest. Standing on the highest point on earth is one of my dreams. This is the reason I am changing training centers. As you know, climbing Mt. Everest is a very dangerous thing. It is very taxing on the body. If my physical condition isn’t good, I might die on the way, and my body might not even be able to be carried down. I need to be responsible for my own life."

The voice on the phone paused for a moment, then said, "One of my friends is also a hiking enthusiast, and we both joined a mountaineering club. Just last week, he successfully climbed Mt. Everest. Before he went, he went to Coach Lee’s physical fitness training center and did physical training for three months. So, I also plan on spending three months and focusing seriously on my physical training. Then I will go and challenge Mt. Everest in September!"

Max put down the phone. He looked depressed.

"Another client lost, and it’s that Coach Lee’s physical fitness training center again! They’ve already opened up quite a few branches, and they have stolen some of my business," Max said coldly. He grabbed the performance report for the past three months with a look distress.

In these three months, the Ironman Training Center had lost many of its VIP clients, making its performance deteriorate a lot. In the service industry, the higher-end the customers, the higher the profit. Sometimes, the cumulative profit from several normal clients would not be sufficient to cover for the profits from a single VIP client. It was similar to the profit from selling a luxury villa, compared to the profit of selling dozens of small houses.

Amongst these VIP clients, almost all of them went to Coach Lee’s Physical Fitness Training Center. More accurately, they went to coach Li’s new branches. And the manager of one of those branches was Chris Payton.

This made Max feel like he had lifted up a stone to smash his own legs. Payton had once come to the Ironman Fitness Center to look for a job, but Max had directed him to Dai Li’s training center. Max originally wanted to create trouble for Dai Li. He never thought that within a few short years, Payton would grow to become a coach that was capable of operating independently.

"It can’t go on like this!" Max slumped against the chair and lowered his head to think.

That Coach Lee’s Physical Fitness Training Center is expanding too fast. They opened three branches in such a short time, but it seems like he doesn’t understand that fitness centers are not like chain supermarkets. Opening more stores don’t necessarily bring more benefits. The most important thing is to have is talented employees. Coaches are a fitness center’s core.

After reaching that conclusion, Max suddenly laughed a delighted laugh. He had a plan.

...

Jones sat on the sofa, quietly looking at the contract in front of him. His face was filled with hesitation.

Jones was a coach. He had worked in many different gyms. Two years ago, he applied to work at Coach Lee’s Physical Fitness Training Center.

In those two years, Jones had some achievements. He had some steady clientele in his hands, and at the same time, he also felt that his coaching skills had improved. In the past, he could only work in small to medium sized gyms, coaching ordinary people. Now, he could coach professional athletes.

Not long ago, Dai Li had opened up a new branch, and seeing that Jones was a senior employee of the fitness center, he was appointed to be the deputy manager of the new branch. This counted as a promotion for Jones, but just as he was about to make this big jump, he received the contract that was in his hands.

The Ironman Fitness Center’s boss, Max, personally went to see him and gave him the contract. The contract promised to give him a salary that was five times his current salary. It was very obvious, Max was there to scout him away.

Jones was just an average coach. His skill level was limited to normal gyms. As such, his salary was naturally not very high. Going by his actual coaching abilities, the salary Dai Li gave him was very generous. But when he saw the salary that was offered by the Ironman Fitness Center, he was seriously tempted.

Of course, Jones knew that he would have to work for his pay. In other words, if he took the salary, he would have to demonstrate higher value.

I’ve been working in Coach Li’s place for two years. I’ve learned quite a few things. I’ve already seen the training programs he makes for professional athletes, and they don’t seem to be anything special. I should also be able to come up with them. And now I’m not the same as I was, I definitely can deal with professional athletes.

Jones looked at the salary in the contract again, and he finally made his decision.

...

As the sky began to brighten up, the ringtone from the phone woke Dai Li from his dreams. The caller ID showed that it was an international number. Dai Li recognized that it was an international call from Blake.

"Randy, what’s the problem?" Dai Li answered the call.

"Li, I want to congratulate you first on your engagement. I’m terribly sorry for disturbing you at this hour—" Blake started to say, then stopped. "It is night in America right now, so it should be the morning over there, shouldn’t it? Is the sun already up?" Blake asked.

"No problem. I should be up as well." Dai Li sat up, rubbed his eyes, and asked, "If you’re calling me at this hour, is there a problem at the training center?"

"We’ve met with some trouble, yes. Yesterday, I received a resignation letter from Jones. I didn’t give it too much thought, but today, I received four more resignation letters. Which means, within two days, five of our coaches resigned. And they were all full-time coaches." Blake then gave the names of the other four.

Dai Li was suddenly fully awake. So far, in Dai Li’s training center, there were thirty full-time coaches in all of the branches. Having five resign in one go meant that they lost one-sixth of their people.

Dai Li immediately logged into the system. The team pyramid showed that their names were missing. And the titles that Dai Li gave them had all become vacant. This meant that they were no longer part of Dai Li’s team, and they could no longer have a place in the team pyramid.

On the other side of the phone, Blake continued to say, "I think someone is trying to steal our people. I did some research, and just as I thought, all of the people who resigned went to the Ironman Training Center."

"Ironman? Their boss is called Max, right?" Dai Li asked.

"Correct. This is definitely Max’s doing. He offered them very high salaries to steal them from us. I am worried that besides these five people, there might be others who will resign. We have now already lost one-sixth of our manpower. If another four or five people tender their resignations, our daily operation might be affected," Blake said.

"We still have some part-time coaches, so we can use them to stabilize things first. And another thing; you need to recruit new people immediately," Dai Li said.

"I will do that, but more importantly, I am worried that this might affect the others. People are sheep. Five people resigning within five days might influence others to leave. Even if we retain them, the instability brought about by constant personnel change might affect their work performance. Employee morale might be affected," Blake said.

Dai Li nodded. "This is a problem. Alright, I’ll buy a ticket immediately, and I’ll head back tomorrow."

"That would be for the best." Blake let out a long breath. "If we have the boss here, I think it might help to placate the employees’ emotions and stabilize the place!"

...

When Dai Li arrived in America, Blake’s worries really turned into reality.

Returning to the training center, Blake explained while driving, "Right now eight of our coaches have resigned, and another five are clearly indicating that they hope for a raise."

"In other words, 13 in total? That is almost half of my manpower. The Ironman Training Center is able to absorb so many new employees?" Dai Li didn’t seem like he was nervous.

Hiring people was always expensive in America, not to mention in professions like coaching where professional knowledge and experience was required. Hiring 13 people at once, and paying their salaries, their social security, and their health insurance was a large financial commitment. A typical fitness center would not be able to afford it.

"Not only the Ironman Training Center. As far as I know, other training centers are also starting to approach our coaches. They also want to poach our people," Blake said.

"Our coaches are really popular commodities!" Dai Li laughed instead of worrying.

"Our center’s training results are good, and word of mouth has spread. More people will remember our coaches. They are all thinking about trying to snatch up our people." Blake’s tone was tinged with resignation.

Dai Li, still not panicking, said, "Those five that asked for a raise, how do you plan on handling it?"

"I will delay, for now. I wanted to discuss it with you first before making a decision," Blake glanced in the car’s rearview mirror, even though he knew that the only people in the car were him and Dai Li. After checking the back, he said, "I don’t agree with giving them a raise. Once you raise one person’s salary, the others will also want a raise. If we agree that easily, then next time, they might get carried away and keep asking for raises."

Blake slowed down the car and continued. "But if we don’t give them the raise, they may resign. Right now, we already don’t have enough people. If another five leave right away, our daily operation will be affected. These coaches have a lot of experience, and new employees would surely be unable to completely take over their responsibilities. Besides, working here was also a process of cultivation. The resources we spent on grooming them are also a cost, and if we get new people, we would need to spend more money grooming them."

Dai Li massaged his temples. This was a problem that many entrepreneurs faced.

An employee grew from an inexperienced rookie to a "business elite," and then the employee mentioned that he wanted to job hop. Of course, the boss would feel that he had lost a lot of money. The boss would feel like the employee was only using his company as a rookie training ground, going elsewhere to show off his ability after slowly growing. Not only did they not get much for themselves, but they also had to waste a lot of their time and resources.

It was because of these issues that more and more employers were not willing to spend too many resources on training new employees. They worried that after they trained the new employees to become "business elites," they wouldn’t be able to retain them. Instead of wasting time and resources on training employees, why not just poach the talent from elsewhere.

In the sixties and seventies in America for example, most companies were really focused on employee training, and during that time, most companies also encouraged their employees to take part in on-the-job and off-the-job training. Employees would continue to learn. As they improved themselves, they would naturally also better themselves in their job performance, and it would generate more returns for the company. The employees that improved themselves would also have a higher income, and it helped to create a society with many middle-income families, and it started the flame for the so-called American dream.

However, most companies nowadays had already given up the culture that focused on employee training. And it slowly affected the entire world. It was more cost-effective to simply poach talents rather than to train their own. Thus, headhunting companies had started to flourish all over the world. Except for Japan. Japanese companies practiced a system of lifetime employment. Once a person was employed there, they were employed for life. They had no need for job hopping, which meant that there was no need for headhunters.

Any boss would want to choose employees who were already trained, but some professions still required training for employees. In the medical industry, for example, being a doctor was something that needed to be learned on-the-job. Learning while working, learning throughout their entire career, and learning how to take hardship. Domestic second-rate hospitals had departments that were responsible for training new employees. If they didn’t have them, they would not be able to pass an inspection from the health department.

This was one of the reasons why there was no way to implement government policies encouraging doctors who had seven to eight years of experience to work more as general practitioners.

The small hospitals with low standards and poor techniques would naturally welcome their doctors to have more specialization. Their abilities to treat patients were horrible. If a doctor could become a deputy chief physician, they could rule the entire place. Of course, these kinds of places would want to have more practicing physicians who were good at exaggerating their skills. It will bring the hospital more income.

Looking at it from the position of bigger hospitals, a newly graduated medical student would require hospitals to spend resources training them during their residency. After being assigned to a department, they would need to appoint a chief physician to guide them, give them thousands of patients’ information to let them gain experience, and at the same time, bear the consequences of their mistakes. Research also would also cost a lot of money, spending several decades of time and countless resources and a lot of manpower to turn a rookie into a specialist. And now, if the hospital asked them to go out to practice more, work in their hospital once a week, and the other six days to go and help other hospitals make money, if the hospital chief agreed, they would really need to go visit the psychiatric ward.

From some perspective, coaches and doctors were very similar. They were both professions that required technical knowledge, and they both relied on the accumulation of experience to bring more accurate judgment. At the same time, they also needed to constantly learn new theories relating to their professions.

Coaches needed to train athletes, and doctors were necessary to cure patients. The differences in the human body could be reflected in sports training and medical treatment. For a coach, an error in training might cause the opposite of the intended effect and cause the athlete to get injured. And for a doctor, if the wrong treatment was given, there might be no way to cure the sickness, or it might even cause a medical incident. In the medical field, new drugs and new medical equipment constantly appeared, the number of diseases that could be cured grew larger and larger. And in the sports training field, new training methods and new training equipment were always appearing. Humans were always reaching new limits.

"My brain hurts!" When Dai Li thought about the similarities between coaches and doctors, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh. If it were in his country, it wouldn’t matter whether it was coaches or doctors, they were always bound by an establishment. Just like the issue with asking doctors to practice more. As long as the doctor was still bound to the hospital, the hospital could just require the doctor to stay in the hospital; there would be no need to go out to work as a general practitioner.

In America, however, there was no such thing as being bound by an establishment. If a coach in a training center wanted to change his company, as long the everything was done according to the signed contract, Dai Li couldn’t do anything.

"Go back and find a lawyer. I want to see if we can add a new clause that mentions paying a penalty in the contract for new employees. If the contract period hasn’t ended, they would need to pay the penalty!" Dai Li said as he huffed and puffed.

"I also planned to do this. I will go contact the lawyer’s office in the afternoon," Blake said. "But the five who are asking for a raise, what should I do?"

"Of course we should reject them!" Dai Li shook his head in dissatisfaction. He showed the face of a capitalist. "We won’t give even one cent more. We can’t open this can of worms, and we cannot let them become accustomed to this! If people asked for a raise every few days, we’d be running a loss-making business!"