I’m a grudging curmudgeon. I wake up in the morning thinking, “I love people!”

Staying positive for a sec, October marks one year since I ditched an awful Portsmouth gym and joined Planet Fitness.  With its low price, hard-working employees and 1,000 TVs, PF delivers. (Hey, Federal Trade Commission: I did not receive any freebies from Planet Fitness. But if they gave me a treadmill for home, I’d accept and write a really nice thank-you note.)

In the 11 years I went to my old gym, it suffered through an ownership change that left it overstaffed (with lazy, vacant employees who played solitaire on their PCs) and ineptly managed. The air conditioning failed for five months in mid-2008. The place doubled as a sweat lodge but lacked drumming and chanting.

I complained (politely but with audible sighs). The gym’s owner couldn’t care less, blaming the landlord while providing a tiny oscillating fan in the corner of a cavernous room.

Planet Fitness employees, by contrast, never stop cleaning. They sweep, they mop, they inspect every inch of the place. They climb up on rickety ladders to dust TVs dangling in midair. The toilets flush with reassuring vigor, leaving you basking in sparkling institutional cleanliness that I normally associate with a hospital.

My one complaint is the locker room. Way too cramped! Like Woody Allen, I prefer not to undress in front of men of my gender. And you never know whom you’ll run into.

Last December, my Rabbi asked me for advice about publishing a book. He was about to leave Portsmouth for a new job in Florida. When a naked Rabbi asks you for a favor in a locker room, you say yes. Then you vow to reassess religion.

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Morey Stettner writes The Young Curmudgeon blog for portsmouthnh.com. He’s the author of five books including SKILLS FOR NEW MANAGERS (McGraw-Hill) and THE ART OF WINNING CONVERSATION (Prentice Hall) and the editor of the popular newsletter Managing People at Work (www.managingpeopleatwork.com).