The impacts of the reopening of gyms in Porto Alegre from the manager's perspective

Abstract

The article brought up reflections on some managerial aspects about the process of reopening the academies after the interruption of activities due to the sanitary measures of social distance due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The production aimed to understand the impact of reopening, after the need to close to meet the demands of health bodies due to the pandemic, on the management of gyms in Porto Alegre/RS. The data analysis method was based on a descriptive qualitative approach, through content analysis and relied on a collection of empirical data through interviews, news and official documents. The interviews were carried out with four managers, in person format and on online platforms and were transcribed to organize the analysis categories. The analysis explored three categories: operational, financial and relational. The empirical data surveys pointed to the difficulties related to the process of reopening the academies, in which at first arose from the need to maintain commercial activity and, for that, emergency actions such as teacher dismissals, reduction of collective classes and accumulation of functions of the manager were mentioned and a series of changes in the processes such as the availability of alcohol gel hygiene materials, newsletters, campaigns on social networks and compliance with health standards such as the use of masks, distancing, restriction on the number of students per schedule, in addition to the importance of establishing clear communication with those involved.