Yoga Teacher Sacked For Disapproving Of Cellphone Use In Class By Facebook Employee

Alice Van Ness does a vksasana (tree pose)

Alice Van Ness was teaching yoga to Facebook employees at the company’s Menlo Park campus in San Carlos until very recently when she received her marching orders for glaring at a Facebook employee for using her cellphone during the lesson despite the fact that everyone in the class was asked to turn them off at the beginning of each lesson!

Van Ness, 35, had been teaching the class for a few months before the incident occurred and didn’t even say anything to the employee – she merely gave her a disapproving look. Apparently that was enough, because not long afterwards, she was called into a meeting with her supervisor at Plus One Health Management and was told her services would no longer be needed. According to Van Ness, they had her final paycheck ready and didn’t even want to listen to her side of the story.

Her termination letter said that the woman who had used the cellphone in Van Ness’ class claimed that the yoga teacher had “made a spectacle” of her, when she ceased giving instructions and glared at her for using her phone. Van Ness claims that the woman pulled out the cellphone and started using it whilst in the half moon pose; she said that the woman should have been concentrating to avoid injuring herself. She said; “It’s time to pay attention. I’ve even hurt myself in that pose. … I don’t believe there’s anything that could be going on at Facebook that couldn’t wait a half an hour.”

What a supremely precious woman, I reckon someone should show her what it is really like to be made a spectacle of, shooting someone a glaring stare for using their phone in a class when you’ve already asked them to turn it off at the start, does not constitute “making a spectacle” of them by any stretch of the imagination! Throwing a bucket of pig’s blood over someone at the school prom or perhaps sending a person to the naughty corner and making them wear a dunce cap, constitutes making a spectacle of someone, not giving them a god damn stare!

Plus One Health Management, who fired Van Ness is contracted by Facebook to run its onsite gym and fitness programs. They declined to comment about Van Ness’ dismissal, but her termination letter gave away just how far the company would go to appease Facebook, it said: “We are in the business of providing great customer service, unless a client requires us to specifically say no to something, we prefer to say yes whenever possible.”

Facebook spokesman Slater Tow said that because Van Ness was not a Facebook employee, they would not be commenting about the matter.

But it seems that there is at least a little justice in the world, Van Ness’ story got out and made her something of a ‘cause célèbre’ in yoga circles and she has since been employed to work at another yoga studio.

(Via Mercury News)