On March 7, the #balancetastartup Instagram page published excerpts of testimonials denouncing the toxic management within the company co-founded by one of France’s most prominent fitness influencers, Sissi Moua.
What is going on with Sisi Mouay, one of the most popular French fitness influencers and content producers? Within a week, users on TikTok created a “controversy” in videos, some of which have garnered several tens of thousands of views, with the most popular reaching up to 1.1 million. “The bottom of your favorite stalker influencer”, “Is this the end of Sissy Muay?”, “No, it’s not Sissy anyway…” we can hear or read in the subtitle of some videos.
Accusations of toxic management
The latter follows a March 7 post by Instagram user #balancetastartup that drew on excerpts from anonymous testimonials from employees or former employees of the coaching platform and sports and nutrition coaching platform and app Trainsweateat (TSE). Sisi Mua and her companion Tiny in 2019. A second salvo was released on March 14. In total, 9 testimonials were collected from 9 different people, “all of whom provided proof of work prior to publication,” the #balancetastartup account noted in response to a comment under their post.
In these testimonies, TSE management is accused of toxic management. “My experience at Trainsweateat is the worst experience of my career” “Working at TSE means completely losing confidence in yourself, your skills and thinking you really are rubbish, as they say. It’s crying or seeing your colleagues cry every week from humiliation, exhaustion,” we can read the excerpts. It describes an atmosphere of “tension and pressure”. “We were only there to satisfy the whims of the stars.” “Each new launch or project had employees on edge.” The extract also mentions “moral harassment”, and the former employee claims that he witnessed an average of one departure per month during his contract. . In 1 year, almost all teams were updated,” he assures.
Sending these anonymous words to the #balancetastartup account, which aims to denounce workplace violence in the start-up ecosystem, appears to have sparked Sisi Moua’s post on her Linkedin profile a month ago. The influencer announced the opening of the TSE to businesses: “VSEs, SMEs and Large Groups, in all sectors, everywhere in France”. He elaborated. “In this Olympic year and with the aim of doing 30 minutes of sport a day, we believe that companies have a huge role to play. For their performance goals, but also for the well-being of their employees.” The offer includes, among other things, unlimited access to the content of the platform (sports, recipes for healthy eating), the “Well-being at work” program. Goals that caused some to stumble. “When I see TSE’s new campaign to sell companies their services for the well-being of their employees, I have only one thing to say: DYING LAUGHING,” read the first published testimony.
“Oh no no Sissy”
In response, some followers expressed their support for Sisi Moua, recalling the presumption of innocence, others expressed their disappointment. “A question for frustrated athletes like me, which service did you apply for?” “I’m shocked” “Shame I liked their application so much” “No not Sissy” “Damn it time to say it” . detention, I trained on his videos…” we can read in the comments of the Instagram post.
With 1.4 million followers on Instagram, 1.97 million on YouTube and over 638,000 on TikTok, Sisi Mua enjoys a strong community. His followers call him Tata Sisi, they themselves received the nickname “fitgens” from the influencer. This community has been loyal since 2009, the year of her inception on YouTube with fashion and makeup content while still a student and sports fan. During a year spent in Brazil, she discovered the world of fitness, “which was very much done by women who weren’t afraid to build muscle and go to very masculine places. I really liked the approach and it made me want to apply it even more when I came back,” she stated to the magazine’s website. Forbes:, who presented him with a portrait on March 6. In 2013, she offered her free programs on YouTube, the popular “Bikini with Sissy”. With its short formats (10, 15, 25 minutes), its precise goals that attract (“Lose the lower abdomen”, “flat stomach + defined abs”…), sometimes without equipment and to be carried out at home, its popularity is exploding. . Detention is the ultimate springboard during the Covid-19 pandemic. Sisi Mua suggests to live per day. Today, some of his videos have several million views.
This dynamism could sometimes cause flaws
Sisi Mua and her companion Tiny, in a TSE press release
Since the first allegations were published on March 7, many netizens have called on Sisi Moua and Trainsweateat to respond. Silence. Some netizens were even upset when they saw new videos posted by TSE on Instagram in recent days without even mentioning the incident. Our requests also remained unanswered. Sisi Mua and her companion Tiny spoke in a press release on the Trainsweateat Instagram page this Friday, March 22.
The pair insist they have listened to and taken into account some of the comments made by former employees, while refusing to commit to “personal and defamatory attacks”. “Our company has experienced exceptional growth over the past five years thanks to the collective work and dedication of everyone. This dynamism could sometimes cause shortcomings, we read in the press release. This leads to a paradoxical situation. while we work for people’s well-being every day, some Trainsweateat employees may find it difficult in their daily lives. We regret it.”
The pair announced that they had commissioned Pisan, an independent firm specializing in labor law and internal auditing, to “listen to employees, examine our procedures and make recommendations that are likely to improve the organization of Trainsweateat.” The results will be returned to employees “in a few weeks.”
Source: Le Figaro
