Pros
Nice people, retail discount, decent workout.
Cons
My experience of barre3 has honestly been that it’s something of a cult lifestyle. If you do not buy into the lifestyle 100% as a barre3 instructor, you will not fit in with everyone else. I’d been teaching for years, and eventually I started to recognize that the barre3 “mantra”—or living in one’s truth—is disingenuous and untrue. Barre3 expects you to give everything you have to the brand, yet the base pay is incredibly low for the amount of training required (starting class rate is $20/class...training was $500 when I started, I’m sure it’s more now.) The company expects you to not think of the job as “just a job” but as a “passion project” or “life’s work,” despite it being just a job to help pay the bills! For such a small compensation, this company expects too much. Also, be prepared to not be paid for cleaning up after class, or for checking in clients before classes if the front desk person is out. I have been consistently surprised at how barre3 seems to think it’s fine to not pay their instructors for their time. If I’m expected to get to class 15 minutes early, and stay afterwards as well to clean, or take on the duties of a front desk person, is there any logical explanation for why I am not paid for that work? One of the main reasons I chose to leave was that the classes we were expected to teach gradually became easier and easier, in an effort to appeal to a larger client base, I would imagine. Instructors were no longer encouraged to really challenge clients, but to teach less of a barre class and more of an aerobics class. They’re trying to be more yoga-like by incorporating meditation into class, which is fine except for the fact that people go to yoga to mediate, not to a barre class!