Tell the guest that your spa doesn’t
discriminate against any guest or employee
based on gender identity, gender expression
or sexual identity.
better understand the terminology, it will help you relate
and connect with your staff, which in turn shows them
that they have your support. Let’s start with the differ-
ences in identities by exploring common terms that will
help you better understand yourself and your staff.
1. Cisgender: someone who identifies with the sex they
are assigned at birth. This is someone who is not
transgender or nonbinary.
2. Transgender: encompassing term that covers many
gender identities which are different from the sex as-
signed at birth. For example, a transgender female is
someone who was assigned male at birth, but their
sense of self and identity is female, and a transgender
male is someone who was assigned female at birth,
but their sense of self and identity is male.
3. Nonbinary: someone whose identity is other than
male/female; “nonbinary” may be used as an adjective
to describe their sense of self. While some nonbinary
individuals may identify as transgender, others do not.
Through understanding these differences, it’s common to
experience prejudice, bias and assumption. However, as a
manager, it’s crucial that that you don’t let these affect
your work or the workplace environment, regardless of
how you feel or think about gender identity. Your staff de-
serves to work in a setting that doesn’t discriminate or
make them feel uncomfortable for being themselves.
Focusing on Occupational
Qualifications with Dignity
Whether addressing possible guest complaints or one
team member having an issue with another, it is crucial to
manage from a place of dignity. One of the most critical
points to remember in managing any team is to focus on
each team member’s occupational qualifications: the re-
quired duties to perform the job you hired the staff for.
This is necessary in order to manage the many different
needs of both guests and staff.
For example, United Parcel Service (UPS) has an occu-
pational qualification that one must be able to lift a spe-
cific amount of weight. Your spa may have particular
occupational qualifications that are required for an indi-
vidual to work in certain positions—for a massage thera-
pist, the qualification is the ability and skill to give a
massage. This will be the basis to support any issue that
arises from a guest or employee.
Guest complaints are an issue for some of my clients.
For example, suppose that a guest is assigned to a team
member who the guest assumes is a transgender female.
The guest leaves the treatment room and complains to
the greeting attendant. You step in to speak with the
guest and hear their complaint. The guest says that they
don’t want this particular staff member to work on them.
They also are using derogatory words to describe the staff
member.
In this situation, what would you do? You have a
guest loudly complaining and a staff member who is
upset with how they were treated. It’s important to
remember to focus on occupational qualifications with
dignity and to allow it to lead you to the right course of
action:
1. Listen to the guest’s complaint in a private area,
then ask if they would like another staff member to
provide the treatment. Tell the guest that your spa
doesn’t discriminate against any guest or employee
based on gender identity, gender expression or sexual
identity. Explain that the staff member has the qual-
ifications required to provide the service to the guest,
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