From The New York Times: “At yoga studios around the country, teacher training is a popular way for instructors to supplement income from one-off classes and for students to advance in skill level — to deepen one’s practice, in yogi parlance. It’s not usually promoted as a career path. Rather, teacher training is offered as a kind of advanced workshop.
But CorePower, the country’s largest yoga studio chain, has a distinctly profitable approach: It enlists teachers as salespeople and incentivizes them with bonuses.
Company performance review documents tell teachers and managers how — and when during class — to push CorePower programming. There are tiered monetary incentives for CorePower teachers and managers based on class type and the number of people they enroll. Video tutorials advise best practices for pitching teacher trainings in particular, without any mention that it could end up costing thousands of dollars. (‘Praise validates and encourages your students,’ read the captions on one such video. ‘Wrap it Up & Keep it Open-Ended.”) […]
‘You’re being taught to be calm and breathe, but at the same time, being taken advantage of,’ said [CorePower teacher trainee Kalli] Ridley, who is not taking legal action.
A registered nurse with an affinity for helping people, Ms. Ridley said she was immediately drawn to yoga’s ethos of unity and human connection. But ‘what they teach you makes me ultimately not fight back,’ she said.”
