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| THIS!!!
GET a load of yourself Lady! THat's what I wanted to say to this crazy girl when she called and demanded that I return her non compete agreement!!!
ANd the drama continues!!!
I was like what?! SHe called me while I was in the middle of my chiropractic session-
The doc left the room and stupidly I answered the phone.
It was the ghost of bad studio owners past come to haunt me. I think it has something to do with the fact that I just had spent that morning posting flyers all over 3 towns for my new class! SHe must have seen one and freaked,.
Anyhow she was very rude and told me that the contract that she "lent" me was her private propertyand that I was obligated to mail it back to her.
what I should of said was "Oh you mean that 10 lb piece of bull that you and other co owner came up with was recycled last month hopefully into something more enlightening and useful for the world!!!
Chazam!!!!
But you would of been proud, I was very relaxed and said, "HEllo? " amused, "Who is this?"
And then I said "Alexandra, I don't owe you anything. You've wasted enough of my time."
She then said "WOW I am really disappointed in you" (such a power tripping thing to say!)
She ended up hanging up on me then calling back later and that is when I let her have it.
I said,
"I think you are being extremeley childish about all of this. I am amazed that you run a yoga studio."
quoting Zoe I then said
" In all my years I have never met anyone who was so extremely insecure. You have a successful studio and yet you are determined to monopolize the entire metrowest area of Massachusetts. You teach baby and children's yoga for god's sake! I no longer have your contract and even if I did, I would never waste anymore of my time or stamps on you or it. I have nothing left to say to you so you really better stop calling me."
She then shrank- because I finally stood up to her! ANd said that she just wanted to make sure I didn't have "her property"anymore- she kept calling it that like 12 times!) and that I wouldn't be hearing from her anymore. ANd goodbye.
Thank goodness I slayed the beast!
I think that it is important to stand up to people like that because she is in all meanings of the word- a bully. And bullies will never bully anyone who shows strength, because it is they who are insecure.
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| It sounds like taking a close look at that agreement and saying "no way" may have saved you a lot of grief in the long run. I hope she really is letting the matter drop now and that your new classes really take off.
Fee |
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| of course i believe it. LOL
when i had a similar situation, it was very much the same.
i'd worked with this one teacher for many years, and part of my job was backing up his computer on a regular basis on a CD. i didn't know how to do it, so my friend showed me how. We backed up everything onto a CD every three months.
So, right before i was terminated, i was due to back up the file, and so i waited a few days to train the person taking over the job how to do it. i showed her how to do it, and then put the CD in the file with all of the other CDs, with a date on it. Then, i had her back it up, and do the same thing.
when i was terminated, i gathered my things and left--no problem.
a couple of weeks later, i start getting phone calls about how "immoral" i am for "stealing the mailing list." and i told him i hadn't, that i didn't have the mailing list. he said "there are two copies of this one disk, but all of the others have only one copy! therefore, you stole all of the other second copies of the other disks, effectively stealing my mailing list and using it for your purposes!" nevermind that it wasn't true AND that no one had received a mailing from me. . .
so, i calmly explained--and told him to ask my replacement--about why there were two copies of that disk. he said "are you sure?" and of course i was. duh!
after he checked with his current employee, and she confirmed my story. he then kept calling and talking about how i was "poaching" teachers (even though i was still an independent contractor and didn't have a studio, and once i did, i was the only one who taught there) and 'stealing' clients, even though none of the clients that i had at his studio followed me to my new place--only the clients whom i had form the gyms, etc, that had followed me TO his studio and then back to the gyms and to my studio had followed me.
i finally told him to stop calling. it's criminal harassment, and he was also involved in slander. he said i only brought that up because i "felt guilty." and i said 'no, ask your lawyer. if you continnue, i can file criminal charges for harassment and sue you in civil court for the value of your business for slander."
his lawyer agreed with me, and i have never heard from him again. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| I think I would have been just as surprised. What good can a used piece of paper do you? I am sure it has hit the shredder long ago anyway.
The weird thing about all this is the intensity of it all. I mean, I can understand Microsoft and Disney and mega-corps doing this sort of stuff because a) they have the $$ to back it up with lawyers and b) there is serious money to be gained or lost by poaching and spying and stealing data. Nabbing a few students from a yoga studio is not going to make anyone rich or even help much with paying the rent.... |
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| well, i think it's impossible to "poach" students or teachers--because people have free will and they're going to go where they want to go and with whom. how can you "steal" anyone?
it's certainly not rational behavior--it comes from people's personal crazy. everyone has their personal crazy--you all have seen mine clearly enough, it's obvious. last thing i like to hear is that i'm not valued in some way. upsets me like nothing else.
some people just feel insecure. this is hwo their insecurity manifests. if we look at it logically--say we look at my crazy logically, it makes no sense. why should i care if another values me or not? should not my own opinion of myself be what matters? yeah, it's silly. so is this.
but it's human, and we can avoid getting tangled by other's crazy.
with your life experience and self knowledge, tourist, you might be less prone to falling for this kind of crazy. i fell for it at least 6 or more times in various situations (school, social, work, etc).
anyway, crazy leads to illogical. |
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| But alas is it not impossible to have the intent of taking or poaching students.
There are behaviors on the part of both studio owners and teachers that fall under the heading of "questionable".
For example if a teacher opts to be part of a studio. part of that teaching community, in such a way as to support the studio and be supported by it...then decides to start teaching classes at their home 6 blocks away and to do that teaching by overtly taking, luring, cajoling, persuading, or enticing student to come from the studio without the studio's knowledge or consent.
That is, at very least, a questionable behavior for a yoga teacher. Of course there may be mitigating circumstances. But I'm referencing the general intent.
Likewise a studio that cancels a teacher's class without telling the teacher while informing the students. When your class is cancelled and you find out from your students rather than the studio, that is, at very least, questionable behavior in the yogic context.
In the case Lara outlines I'd like to think I'd just reply by saying "I'm sorry, I no longer have that document".
Edited by purnayoga 2008-01-25 1:13 PM
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| it's possible, but it's not something that i am worried about.
first, i take issue with a concept of "client ownership." my clients are free to come and go as they please, and if a sub, studio that i send them to when i'm traveling, or whatever else interests them enough to leave, then they are free to go.
second, each student has agency. this agency is part of how i do not "own" them. they are going to do what they want no matter what. i do not ask for anyhting from them. i earn their business. and if they feel that my business is no longer useful to them, then that's fine.
third, i'm not the right teacher for everyone all the time. i have students who go in waves. most of my students have been with me for years--i have a number of core students who have been with my for 6-8 years, and i'm always collecting beginners too. but i have people who go in two-year cycles. they'll take a beginner class, disappear for two years, show up and practice with me for two years, disappear for two years, and show up again.
i don't know what's going on in their lives, what their needs are, why they are into this or that style of yoga. all i know is, what i have obviously isn't serving them when they're away--and that's cool. i don't take it personally. i just do my thing.
so, ultimately, if a studio or teacher is advertising point blank in my classes, then that's fine. most of my students are going to stick by anyway, and those who don't probably don't need to, and there will be new people coming in every day anyway, so nothing to worry about there.
truly, it's not an issue at all--if you're confident in yourself and what you have to offer. you don't worry about it at all. you don't take credit for their staying, and you don't fear their leaving.
Edited by zoebird 2008-01-25 2:08 PM
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| so, ultimately, if a studio or teacher is advertising point blank in my classes, then that's fine. most of my students are going to stick by anyway, and those who don't probably don't need to, and there will be new people coming in every day anyway, so nothing to worry about there.
Well I'm going to have veer from agreement with you on this one, though we share one mind on the free agency of the students and that we are not the "right" teacher for every student.
The behavior has to be examined and evaluated separate from the outcome. It simply is not a discussion of how many students stay or how many leave. Therefore a conclusion based on "the right students will ultimately stay and the wrong student should go" just furthers a gallop down the wrong path, but it may be as true as sunshine.
If another teacher soliciting students in your classroom is okay with you, you've agreed to it, they know it, and you know it, then it's fine. Otherwise it is both unethical, inconsiderate, and lacking integrity. And that is no way to grow a yogi. |
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| What is great is that last night I recieved an email from my new employer at Metowest- where I'll be teaching my new Mommy and Me class- and she passed along an email to me of a woman in the next town over who is looking for teachers.
It's so great to see such different behavior! Very refreshing. ANd as you said, Zoe ,it shows how secure my new employer is. How confident that she not only is allowing us to teach at other places but in fact is ENCOURAGING the spreading of the teaching of yoga by any means whether it be through her gain or through anothers!
I loved it- I AM so thankful to all of you who supported me because I think that I wouldn't of made the right decision without it!
Really, Thankyou. I am so happy and now do I realize how great my new employer will be to me.
Let's not forget that no one "OWNS" yoga it was given to us by great teachers from long ago, given to us on loan so we could help spread the teaching for the benefit of all sentient beings on this planet. THis rajistic aspect of the total of yoga which is asana practice ,purifies the body and mind and makes the body lighter so that our minds can better focus on our Bhakti- and our Jana yoga. ANd get closer to "god"
So if you think about it that way to squabble over whether a client is yours or mine is really not what yoga is about at all. and not how it works. A student may get pulled in one direction or another but their path takes them to the teachers they need to go to.
Someone who is actively trying to poach students is probably not that great of a teacher, and therefore not a real threat to any good yoga studio. |
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| i think it's one of those two sided thingies: i can agree that the behavior is unethical on the part of the teacher doing it and that the teacher should examine it, but also that it's not problematic for me at the emotional level.
it comes down to the question of what i can do in the face of this.
there have been times where teachers have "poached" specific jobs from me where i do feel particularly aggrieved. in these situations, i have to decide whether or not to confront the teacher, and sometimes i have and sometimes i have not. i usually focus on why i feel aggrieved, and work on my own attachment, and leave the teacher to his/her own karma.
in a situation where it is a sub, i generally do not feel aggrieved, and if i do, i need to look at why. but, if the sub is one of my teachers-in-training, then i bring it up as an ethical question--as part of the training that i feel is important.
finally, the reason that i do not largely bring it up is because i do not want to be caught in the drama. any person doing this lacks a certain maturity and integrity, demonstrated via their actions. thus, they're unlikely to be able to take even the consideration that their actions were wrong without creating a huge drama.
therefore, i simply leave them be. one way or another, they will get their lesson. i don't always have to be the teacher. |
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| lara:
i'm so glad that you're happy with your situation. it's great when you work with someone who is so secure.  |
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| Wow,
This situation is dumb! I'm with Gordon, I would tell her I threw it out and don't have it anymore. If she pushed the issue, I would tell her to go f**k herself. There maybe something ethically or legally wrong with the agreement that she wanted to sign and is afraid someone will find out and sue her.
If she continues to harrass you just threaten to sue her for harrassment and she will never bother you again. Business owners tend to not like to get sued and the threat alone should do the trick.
Good thing you didn't sign it. Imagine what kind of boss she would be.
I can just imagine what would happened if you opened a space in that area!
You are right, yoga belongs to the people that do it, not the people that franchise it or try to use legality to control it. It belong to all. |
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| Of course you'd only tell her you threw it out IF you threw it out, right?
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| Of course I did. I did the minute she told me that "in her heart she felt I wasn't a right fit and maybe this wasn't the right time for me to teach there!"
I ripped it up and recycled it like I said into something that will hopefully be more useful to the world! |
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| Sorry, I was asking that of Brian. |
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| Gordon,
Absolutely! It would have been in the round file 2 seconds after I read it. While I might be rough around the edges, I am not dishonest!  |
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You're NEVER going to Believe
