Rules are important, but understanding why those rules exist is just as important.

This gym member found himself dealing with an instructor who seemed more interested in enforcing a policy than using a little common sense.

It all happened while he was working out with his son, teaching him proper lifting form. An instructor rudely stepped in and told him that giving instruction to other members wasn’t allowed.

The problem was that the rule wasn’t meant to stop parents from helping their own children.

So, when the instructor refused to listen and threatened to kick him out of the gym, he decided it was time to get a manager involved.

Read on to see who the manager sided with.

AITA for asking for the manager?

This just happened this morning. I recently rejoined a local gym after being away for a while. There were a lot of new rules since the last time due to the current situation, but no problem.

One rule that was still there from before was one that might sound strange at first: No giving instruction to other members. This may sound strange but the rule is actually a good one, and I remember when it was first implemented.

The manager at the time told me it was to discourage members from bothering other members in two main scenarios: guys hitting on girls during their workout, and meatheads trying to show off or intimidate others by showing them “the right way to do it.”

Makes sense to me, as they have instructors walking around who can help if someone is really doing something unsafe.

On this day, he was teaching his son deadlifts.

Fast forward to today, and I’m working out with my son, who is new to weight training. I’m teaching him the proper form for deadlifts and one of the instructors walks over to us.

We then have the following conversation:

Inst: I’m sorry, but giving instruction is not allowed. Please just do your own workout.

Me: Huh? Oh sorry. This my son. Don’t worry, we know each other! Haha (with a smile).

He thought she must be new.

Inst: Sorry but no exceptions. Please don’t give instruction to other members. Starts to walk away.

Me: Excuse me. Sorry, but that doesn’t make any sense. Can you tell me the purpose of the rule?

Inst: It doesn’t matter. That’s the rule.

At this stage, it finally dawns on me that she likely must be new, was simply told to enforce the rules, and doesn’t know much beyond that.

Frustrated, he asked for the manager.

I then tried to explain that I was a member previously and that the purpose of the rule was… She cut me off and said, “Sir, if you can not follow the rules, then I will have to ask you to leave.”

Now I’m getting upset so it escalates. I say, “Ok, that’s it. Get your manager over here. Let’s get this settled.”

She stands there and we have a short stare down, and she goes to get the manager.

The manager answered as expected.

He comes over, we both give our summaries of the event and long story short, he confirms to the instructor, that yes, my understanding of the rule is correct, and that there is no problem to give instruction to my son.

All seems fine, until he tells the instructor that this was made clear to her during training, and that she had no right to ask me to leave. He then told her she owed me an apology.

I agreed and waited. She did, grudgingly, and then I also apologized for escalating things. The manager then told the instructor they will “discuss this further later” and they left.

I don’t know what happened to her after but If she gets in trouble then it would be technically my fault.

AITA?

Yikes! Don’t give that woman any more power!

If you enjoyed this post, check out this post about a hardworking employee whose management refuses to give them one single break.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit think about how she handled this.

This reader works at a gym.

Here’s someone who would’ve canceled over that.

According to this person, they’ve had the same problem.

For this reader, he did nothing wrong.

This woman needs to learn that enforcing a rule and understanding a rule are two different things.

The manager had apparently already explained when this policy applied, but she seemed determined to enforce it anyway. That’s not a great approach when you’re working with the public.

Most people won’t react well when they’re not breaking rules and still getting threatened with removal.

If she keeps handling situations this way, she’s probably going to find herself having a lot more conversations with her manager.