SoulCycle reviews

3.6

40% would recommend to a friend

(984 total reviews)

Evelyn Webster

34% approve of CEO

26% positive business outlook

SoulCycle has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 984 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The SoulCycle employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Artes y entretenimiento industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

984 reviews
1.0
Jul 27, 2018

SoulCycle without a Soul

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Summer Fridays -Snacks -Free classes -Occasionally free clothing

Cons

I started a soul when the founders were still involved and as soon as they left, the company became a mess. Nepotism ran a muck - people promoted for being friends with upper management with literally no skills to back it; people fired for having a different point of view from upper management. Lack of transparency, lack of clarity, and a ton of fake promises to "improve corporate culture". All the company cares about now is the bottom line. Talent is disposable - mentality of "if you leave, we'll just find someone else since we are SoulCycle". Decisions are made with no clarity - whether internal or external. No thought put into anything...amateur hour across not only the staff but the executives as well. Many of the people that have stayed are close to Melanie Whelan (CEO) and have only stayed because she favors them - they have formed a clique of her inner circle, and others. If you are of the others, forget about it - you won't last 6 months.

1.0
Aug 7, 2017

Melanie Whelan is ruining SoulCycle

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I love my actual job of teaching classes. The experience in the studio is fantastic.

Cons

The corporate team (especially the exec team) is a MESS. I saw a change when the founders left (when SoulCycle was bought) and when Melanie Whelan took over as CEO. They do not care about their employees and they do not treat their instructors fairly. We recently all got 40-50% pay cuts and were given 20 days notice before it came into effect. Soul-less if you ask me.

1.0
Jun 29, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The only pro here is that you will meet cool people. The company puts on a major act and pretends they are the best company to work for and feeds you TONS of BS to get you to work for them, because of this they attract really cool genuine down to earth people. This is the ONLY PRO, which is actually sad because these cool people start to become bitter angry employees after all the unfair treatment the company puts you through.

Cons

This is a sweatshop disguised as a fitness studio. They prey on young people, reel them in with how cool the culture is, free soul cycle class, fun environment and then they work you to the bone and pay you pennies. This company requires you to work terrible work hours, they expect you to come in during difficult and hazardous weather conditions, they expect you to be on call and work from home, they expect you to put there clients first before YOURSELF. It is a terrible place to work even if your getting free classes. My advice is if you want to ride for free befriend some of the employees or instructors and ride for free as their guest. Or work part time but don't let anyone talk you into full time work because this company will destroy your soul.

avatar
SoulCycle Response
10y
Hi there, Thank you for your feedback. Your opinion as a long-time employee at Soul is very important and we appreciate the time you've taken to let us know how you're doing. I completely agree with your comment that one of the key elements of our success is our amazing team! You're also right that we're a younger culture, which is something we believe adds to the overall vibrant, energetic environment at Soul. That said, our Founders have set a fast pace and the work ethic that we all instill in our teams. We’re all in service of our riders - that’s how we fulfill our mission of “bringing Soul to the People”. Everyone at SoulCycle is having a direct impact on our riders’ lives. Sometimes this involves long hours and hard work but we would never intentionally put our teams in harm’s way. I apologize if you have felt unsafe at any time. Similarly, we’ve recently taken a hard look at work/life balance and compensation for our studio operators. You may know we’ve set up a team of people to create new work/life balance programs for our managers and also recently introduced a new comp structure for our field leaders. It seems like working long hours has become the way of the “always-connected” digital world and we’re trying to make sure that well-being remains a constant dialogue on our teams. To wrap this up, we love hearing from you on both the good and the opportunities we have to improve the working environment here. We apologize that your experience with SoulCycle has not been entirely positive and I encourage you to reach out to me directly on melanie.whelan@soul-cycle.com if you would like to discuss any of this further. With Soul, Melanie
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Glassdoor has 995 SoulCycle reviews submitted anonymously by SoulCycle employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if SoulCycle is right for you.