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MENLO PARK, Calif., July 11 (UPI) -- A California yoga teacher said she was fired from teaching employees at Facebook's headquarters for trying to restrict cellphone use during class.
Alice Van Ness, 35, of San Carlos said she was hired a few months ago to teach yoga to workers at Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters and she was fired in June after giving a female worker a "look of disapproval" for typing on her phone during class, the Palo Alto Daily News reported Wednesday.
"I understand it's a busy world we live in and you've got to pack it in, but it's beneficial to your whole system to let it go for an hour," Van Ness said. "An hour isn't too much to ask."
Van Ness said she was called into a meeting with her supervisor at Plus One Health Management, the contractor Facebook uses for its onsite gym and fitness programs, two weeks after the cellphone incident.
"They sent me packing, they didn't even want to hear my side of the story," Van Ness said. "They already had my paycheck ready."
The termination letter said the employee complained Van Ness has "made a spectacle of her" during the class.
A Facebook spokesman said the company has nothing to say on the matter since Van Ness was not a Facebook employee.
A Plus One Health Management representative declined to comment.
Cellphones on Facebook property and cellphones in a classroom are two different things.
ReplyDeleteI personally am a state employee. I consider myself akin to a state cop. I am paid by the state not to protect the community but to educate it. Students do not pay me. The state does. In a private school situation, one is paid by the institution, not the students. We are not private tutors.
However if a private company, or group within that private company, hires an employee to teach them, that's different. In that sense that employee very much does serve as a private tutor, and the private company can very much determine cell phone policy and fire those that don't conform.
It's the difference between me telling the cleaning lady at work how to do her job, and expecting her to do it my way or get fired, or me telling my own personal cleaning lady how to do her job. In the first case, I have little right to any control over her. In the second case, I have every right.
Agreed! I wonder, though, whether Admin would see it that way. The "student is your customer" model seems to override all logic and sense.
DeleteIt's yoga! The whole point of doing yoga is to connect the mind with the body, whether for relaxation or spiritual purposes. Why would someone even be taking a yoga class if she didn't want to unplug from the world for an hour?
DeleteAre we really surprised that people at Facebook can't keep from checking their phones? Or that the makers of a narcissistic application like Facebook would be so thin-skinned?
ReplyDeleteEarlier this week I "locked on" a students for using his cell phone during a recitation. Was I a little rude to the student? Yes. Did I make my point? Yes. Was the student off his phone during the next recitation? Yes. Was the class a little put off? Maybe. We are preparing our students for later life, among other things and failing to teach them about basic proper politle conduct wrt to cell phone use when the "teachable moment" presents itself would be our failure. Stand the line: The students are on MY time when I'm teaching and I don't need the distraction!
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ReplyDeleteThere is a thin, watery beam of hope to this story. Background: I work up the street from Facebook, and share a commute ride with many of their employees. This story has been in the air on the train platform, and to a person, the employees think the company was wrong to fire the teacher. Not that I expect anything will be *done*, of course, but people are speaking of it as a wake-up call. I understand the teacher isn't interested in doing corporate work any longer anyway.
ReplyDeleteI have tenure, a dedication to quality education, a strong faculty union, and my department needs me since I bring in lots of tuition dollars and external funding, SO, any students in my classroom who think they can do the same thing to me have got another thing coming.
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