A Northern California yoga instructor was fired for looking at a Facebook employee who texted during one of her classes.
The instructor, Alice Van Ness, taught yoga classes at Facebook Inc.'s Menlo Park campus.
After seeing a Facebook employee with a cellphone out, Van Ness directed the entire class to turn off their phones. Later on during the class, she caught the same person typing on her phone. Van Ness said nothing to the person, but instead directed a stern glare her way. Following the look, the employee walked out of the room before walking back in, said Van Ness.
"The whole point for most people going to yoga is that it's disconnecting from the outside world," stated Van Ness, who has instructed yoga for six years. "If you are bringing your phone into class, why are you even there?"
In the termination letter Van Ness received from Plus One Health Management, Van Ness was notified that she could not stop class participants from using their cellphones.
David Milani, a representative of Plus One Health Management, said that instructors are to allow fitness members to answer their phones during class.
Van Ness did not expect any action to be taken against her until she was fired several weeks after the incident. The termination letter referred to the happening as a "confrontation" and stated that the employee was shocked and shamed by it.
"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," an official stated in the termination letter.
Although Van Ness reports that the loss of her job has left her without a third of her monthly income, she has said that the publicized story has resulted in her getting a new job, where she intends on applying the no cellphone rule.
