Some facilities offer programs where gymgoers can swap time spend doing cleaning and other tasks in exchange for free classes.SolStock/Getty Images
When Anne-Marie Tremblay moved from Ottawa to Toronto for a new job in 2022, she wanted to boost her fitness levels and build her social life. She joined a barre gym near her new apartment where she could do both and enjoyed the classes enough to justify the $220 monthly membership.
A few months into her new routine, she learned from one of the staff members that the gym was starting an energy exchange program: a barter system in which clients receive free classes for doing cleaning and administrative tasks. Looking to save money, Tremblay quickly signed up.
At first, the program was easy to balance with her day job in public relations. She worked a two-hour shift on Sunday mornings and another once a week after work. She checked people in before classes, did laundry and occasionally closed the studio at night.
But the following spring, the gym hired a manager tasked with improving margins. Tremblay was asked to meet sales targets and take on more administrative responsibilities, including occasionally turning clients away when they were late for classes.
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Perks and flexibility began to dwindle, too. Volunteers could only book classes a few hours in advance and needed to find their own replacement if they had to miss a shift.
Tremblay once flagged a conflict weeks in advance. Nobody covered for her, and when she didn’t show up, she received a flurry of angry texts from management. She ended her involvement shortly after that.
“What started off feeling like a chance at building community turned into unpaid work,” she said.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, energy exchange programs appeared to make sense – at least, on paper. Gyms struggled with their bottom lines, and people craved community. Volunteering one’s time for free classes could fulfil both needs.
But when left unchecked, regardless of intention, these arrangements can become a breeding ground for responsibility creep and leave people feeling as though they’re being taken advantage of.
David Doorey, professor of work law at York University, thinks these arrangements aren’t legal because labour standards legislation did away with this sort of exchange decades ago.
“Just like Loblaws couldn’t pay workers in milk and bread, a gym can’t compensate workers in free classes. That’s not how the law works,” he said. “If you perform work for a business, such as cleaning and serving customers, then you’re entitled to be paid at least the minimum wage.”
Yet, he said, these arrangements persist presumably because the workers don’t file labour standards complaints. In theory, however, someone who has done work in exchange for a free yoga class could claim their unpaid wages later, he added.
While gyms with energy exchange programs typically require participants to commit to a certain number of hours per week, the actual dynamics vary. Some offer unlimited classes or monthly memberships in return. Others give what they describe as “limited” access to their studios. In some cases, the programs require a months-long commitment.
For some studios, energy exchange programs work. Dana Samuel joined one in 2017 while pursuing her PhD in Montreal, trading 3.5 hours of cleaning a week for a monthly yoga membership. The studio, later rebranded as Morpho Bleu, became her community. Today, she’s its head of people, culture and strategy.
About 40 people now take part in the program, which still has the same terms – most as cleaners, though some offer skills such as photography. Samuel, who comes from the non-profit world where many organizations have volunteer programs, sees the program as similar to that. It also isn’t about profit: She thinks the studio might even stand to save money by hiring professional cleaners, as opposed to giving dozens of energy exchange participants memberships in return.
She said Morpho Bleu keeps the program for the community it creates. People come in for different reasons: to get free memberships, to meet new people, to expand their practice. Some have even become employees.
“Obviously you can be a bit cynical that it’s free work, and you never want to get to icky territory where you’re exploiting people,” she said. “But the key word is exchange: Set up the right parameters. Be realistic about how much you can ask from someone.”
Daniela Pimentel, a digital marketing agency founder, has found check-in meetings to be the key to success with energy exchange programs. In 2021, she formed a partnership with a salsa studio in downtown Toronto. After paying for the classes for a few weeks and meeting the staff, Pimentel was approached by the owner for help with SEO and digital strategy. The owner paid what she could in exchange for website updates, online bookings, SEO and newsletters.
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That initial project turned into a continuing exchange: a set number of marketing hours per month in return for free classes for Pimentel and her team. Every six months, they renegotiate; every three, they meet to assess how it’s going. At one point, Pimentel realized that her colleagues were not taking advantage of the classes, so she renegotiated the agreement to instead include guest passes for her friends.
Still, she acknowledges how tricky these setups can be: At what point do you start charging? How do you price services? The key, she said, is honest dialogue. “You need to put your egos aside and not punk people. Respect each other’s time.”
As for Tremblay, these days, she is a member at a gym near Toronto’s Little Italy neighbourhood and uses her workplace’s wellness benefit to cover the monthly membership of $150.
“I’d do it again if it was low commitment,” she said, “but not as involved as what I did, for sure.”
