Yoga teacher fired for glaring at Facebook worker

Flickr/ZenNomad

(CBS/AP) Perhaps Facebook is an addiction after all. A California yoga instructor learned that hard way that you can't comes between one student and her social network.

Alice Van Ness, who was hired to teach hour-long yoga sessions at Facebook's Menlo Park campus, has been fired for her disapproving stink-eye glare at a Facebook employee using a cellphone in class.

Van Ness says she tells students before class to turn off their cellphones. But a female employee pulled out her cellphone in the middle of a Monday session and began texting.

The San Jose Mercury News says Van Ness didn't say anything, but she gave the student what she calls a look of disapproval.

"We're not talking about the U.S. government here," Van Ness told the San Francisco Chronicle. "We're not talking about Russia is about to bomb us. We're talking about Facebook. Something can't wait half an hour?"

The student later complained and Van Ness was fired by Plus One Health Management. The termination letter says Van Ness "made a spectacle" of the student.

[LCLV]

I was raised in another era, and trained as a ballet dancer. For the past two years, I've been practicing yoga at local studios. Needless to say, my personal perspective of how to handle myself in a class that can sometimes be mat-to-mat is different many of my fellow, yoga practitioners. And at the studio I practice at it is not unusual to hear talking in-between postures, to see people casually strolling through the crowded space during the postures themselves in non-emergency situations, to witness people entering the class late after the "5-minute" rule—also during postures, to hear the ring of an occasional cell phone, or to bear witness to a variety of other actions that are not part of "yoga etiquette" or any etiquette, for that matter. Sometimes the teachers attempt to handle such situations, and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they show signs of irritation, and sometimes they don't. Just this week, one of my teachers had to tell a student—four times--to please wait to enter the class after a particular balancing posture because the student was unable or unwilling to respond the teacher's request after the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd times and kept trying to walk in despite the teacher's repeated requests.

Let's face it. The same people who practice yoga are the people who drive on the roadways and shop at the local markets. They are the same, self-centered people with the strongest sense of entitlement known only to monarchs of a bygone age. To my knowledge, the policy of the company that was subcontracting with Facebook was to allow FB employees to do "whatever they wanted" during yoga classes. Basically, everyone who works for the company subcontracting with Facebook is Facebook's *****. And that is the socioeconomic climate we live in today. Those working under such circumstances are at the mercy of egocentric individuals who consistently consider themselves to be the center of the universe. The idea that anyone can be fired for giving a "look of disapproval" goes beyond any selfish prerogative masquerading with a PC facade.

I wish Ms. Van Ness all the best. Maybe being fired from such a situation is a blessing in disguise. When teachers are either expected or (even worse) agree to give up such basic boundaries in order to keep their jobs, teachers can get very resentful, angry, burned out, and disillusioned. Before any of that happens, it might be better to find something more suited to one's ideals that supports the well-being of all, and values everyone vs. a select few.

[LCLV]

I was raised in another era, and trained as a ballet dancer. For the past two years, I've been practicing yoga at local studios. Needless to say, my personal perspective of how to handle myself in a class that can sometimes be mat-to-mat is different than many of my fellow yoga practitioners. And at the studio I practice at it is not unusual to hear talking in-between postures, to see people casually strolling through the crowded space during the postures themselves in non-emergency situations, to witness people entering the class late after the "5-minute" rule—also during postures, to hear the ring of an occasional cell phone, or to bear witness to a variety of other actions that are not part of "yoga etiquette" or any etiquette, for that matter. Sometimes the teachers attempt to handle such situations, and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they show signs of irritation, and sometimes they don't. Just this week, one of my teachers had to tell a student—four times--to please wait to enter the class after a particular balancing posture because the student was unable or unwilling to respond the teacher's request after the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd times and kept trying to walk in despite the teacher's repeated requests.

Let's face it. The same people who practice yoga are the people who drive on the roadways and shop at the local markets. They are the same, self-centered people with the strongest sense of entitlement known only to monarchs of a bygone age. To my knowledge, the policy of the company that was subcontracting with Facebook had a policy of allowing FB employees to do "whatever they wanted" during yoga classes. Basically, everyone who works for the company subcontracting with Facebook is Facebook's *****. And that is the socioeconomic climate we live in today. Those working under such circumstances are at the mercy of egocentric individuals who consistently consider themselves to be the center of the universe.

I wish Ms. Van Ness all the best. Maybe being fired from such a situation is a blessing in disguise. When teachers are either expected or (even worse) agree to give up such basic boundaries in order to keep their jobs, teachers can get very resentful, angry, burned out, and disillusioned. Before any of that happens, it might be better to find something better suited to one's ideals that supports the well-being of all, and values its teachers as well as its tech employees.

[LCLV]

I edited this and wanted to delete the 7/21 comment, but can't seem to figure out how to do so.

[Bojax39]

"The termination letter says Van Ness "made a spectacle" of the student."

Sounds like that self involved tech addict of a student made a spectacle of herself without help from anybody. What a crybaby.

[Redhotyogi]

I personally would be firing the employee who was being utterly disrespectful for using her phone in a class. Are you kidding me? Yoga is about switching off and I'm sure your Facebook account can survive for an hour without you!! I would be seriously unimpressed if I was at that class and someone was texting particularly after being respectfully asked to turn off phones at the beginning. She should be reinstated!

[audemus]

Put another one in the 21st century goofy column....

[rwsmith29456]

As is with a lot of things in this bas-ackwards country, it's just plain stupid. How about the rest of the people in the class who were (trying) to concentrate and disturbed by the texter.

[centralcacoast]

I am sick to death of people who can't leave their damn phone alone for 5 minutes. Can't get through any kind of event, movie, meal, class, speech, etc. She was rude and the instructor should have been able to ask her to leave. That she was FIRED for just LOOKING at her is inexcusable.

[judysworld]

Ditto! I'm sick of having to dodge them on the roadways because they can't leave their damned phones alone while they're driving.....

[life2art]

This rude employee was being disrespectful to the instructor and others in the class ~ she made a spectacle of herself.