From David Baye, former editor at Muscular Development
"Well, it is with regret but also a sigh of relief that I can officially say that as of this morning, I am no longer with Muscular Development. While I don't want to sound like bitter grapes, I can say with conviction that in my 27 years of employment, I have never worked for a more unethical boss than Steve Blechman. After my promotion in 2016, it became harder and harder to do my job on a daily basis seeing the manner in which hard working employees and professional athletes were disregarded by not being paid and blatantly lied to. Had I known the truth about how business was handled and not been repeatedly lied to before taking the promotion, I would've thrown in the towel before day 1.
That said, I will forever be thankful for the job and the opportunities it afforded me, most notably the friendships I have made. I'm not sure what the future holds for me in regards to employment in the fitness industry, but I'd like to still make it to a few shows a year to see all the friends I've made over the past 4 years.
In regards to MD, the cold hard truth is that the owner just doesn't want to pay anyone for their work. I don't say this out of spite, but rather to inform people who may consider working for them sometime down the road. They owe photographers, videographers, writers, graphic artists, athletes, columnists, sales reps and more as much as $10,000, $50,000 and even over $100,000.....EACH.
Meanwhile, the owner Steve Blechman continues to take ridiculously lavish vacations while telling people he can't pay them because there are "cash flow issues". When you are the owner you can't say your business has "cash flow issues" while you're posting pictures of vacations on private yachts to the tune of $50,000. How about taking that money and paying the honest, hardworking employees that bust their asses for you week in and week out.
While the opportunity to travel to these shows and be in the atmosphere of it all is certainly fun, unless you are willing to work for free I strongly recommend that you get paid AHEAD OF TIME for your work if you do decide to work with MD, if not, you'll literally have to beg for every dime for months on end."
