Pros
I absolutely loved getting to coach and build bonds with students and their families. For the most part I always had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed coaching group classes. I was a coach at this rink for about 4 years and for the majority of the time that I taught here the environment was very relaxed and a positive fun place to work up until recently. As a experienced skating instructor the curriculum was free to me and fellow coaches to decide and plan which was a nice freedom to have especially as we genuinely loved to see the joy and growth in the skaters as we provided challenging yet achievable lesson plans that would set them on path to surpass their goals. Got to meet kind people and families, also got exposure for private lessons along with the gain of coaching experience.
Cons
No matter how hard or how long you work here your efforts wont always be appreciated by managers/directors. From my experience there was a lack of care and respect for employees. There were many times where I was told to come into work while sick; even with pneumonia. Although the job often requires close proximity and contact with children I guess that fact didn't matter. The environment became unstable and incredibly toxic/negative over the years. Good luck getting pay raises. over the years that I worked here I never got a increase and if you wanted one you had to frequently nag about it. RecPlex makes it difficult to receive any form of employee benefits such as gym memberships or access to facility/equipment. Very stubborn and poor at doing the things needed to make changes that would easily help support employees do their jobs more efficiently. Rely heavily on volunteers and underage student workers. due to the fact that they cant keep long term employees.