Sanskrit yoga collapsed overnight, and the loss and anger of the innocent had nowhere to rest

Image source: @VisualChina

Text|Hedgehog Commune, author|弋曈, editor|Shi Can

The students and teachers who once believed that Sanskrit Yoga would not fall have just ended a very painful week. This pain comes from physical and mental exhaustion, they endure the great pressure of being truly disappointed, and they have struggled to embark on the road of rights defense, only to be able to get a hopeless refund.

Established for 20 years, Sanskrit Yoga, was once regarded as a benchmark in the industry, whether it is the professionalism of teachers, the full class rate of members and the venue environment are first-class, and the membership fees are also first-class, and it is even known as the yoga "Hermes".

On February 25, the news of the "closure and rectification" within the Sanskrit yoga community came out, and from now on, 82 stores across the country were closed overnight. The next day, Rao Qiuyu (Rao Qiuyu), the founder of Van Yin Yoga, posted on his public account in response to the debt storm, counting that he was not easy to operate during the epidemic period, but there was no explanation for the livelihood of more than 2,000 employees of Van Yin and the subsequent course arrangements of tens of thousands of members.

In 2020, the yoga chain brand Changsha Yin Yoga thunderstorm, in 2022 Shanghai Yoga fell, industry leaders thundered one after another, not only did not learn from the past, on the contrary, the collapse of Sanskrit can be said to be the same, from arrears of wages, debts to acquisition failures, and then to the founder running away, every step is so similar.

Three years ago, Fanyin expanded its stores from 60 to 80, and expanded vegetarian restaurants in the core business districts of Beijing and Shanghai, laying hidden dangers for Fanyin's dilemma due to the misjudgment of the epidemic.

In July 2022, there was news of poor management within Sanskrit Yoga, and two months later, the salaries of yoga teachers across the country have been suspended. At this time, the teachers of Sanskrit Yoga did not know that they had not signed a labor contract with the company, and once the company had problems, the salary was very likely not to be recovered.

First, the ideal city collapsed overnight

Gu Li, a yoga teacher at a Sangyin store in Hangzhou, was contacted by the Hedgehog Commune when she had just left the Labor Arbitration Bureau and was on her way to the legal aid center.

Gu Li told us: "Since Sanskrit Yin signed a 'coach cooperation agreement' with the yoga teacher instead of a labor contract, and did not pay social insurance to the teachers, it is almost impossible to get back their salaries. If it weren't for the fact that we still kept screenshots of DingTalk, we would almost not be able to prove that we are employees of Van Yin. ”

Later, she said helplessly: "The old employees who are owed hundreds of thousands of wages are still defending their rights, but there is little hope." At this point, I am ready to give up defending my rights, and I don't plan to ask for half a year's salary, and the loopholes in the law have been clearly exploited by them, and I have nothing to do. ”

However, in Gu Li's impression, Principal Rao is not such a person, "at least she is not bad, she has always conveyed positive, warm, and altruistic positive thoughts to us, and she is not the kind of person with a 'black heart'." Gu Li replied firmly.

In 2021, Gu Li studied yoga teaching and training in Fanyin, and after passing the assessment, he first became a teaching assistant at the Fanyin Hubei Retreat Center, and only became a coach in the store after completing the assistant assessment. She believes that Sanskrit has higher requirements for yoga instructors than peers, and there are monthly assessments. At that time, Gu Li also came in with serious and hard practice, and never thought that it would be like today.

It was also during the time when she was a teaching assistant in the deep mountains of Hubei Province that Gu Li could often see Rao Qiuyu, who had been a model and teaching assistant when Principal Rao was lecturing, demonstrating movements and cooperating with teaching. Gu Li said: "Rao Qiuyu's class is very interesting, and her own speech is also very humorous. Very warm to people, no boss's shelf at all. ”

Gu Li described his experience of taking yoga classes in the mountains last summer: "There are fifty or sixty people in each class of teaching and training, and I bring morning and evening classes and receive classes every day, which is a feeling that is difficult to buy with money. When you've taken a big class outdoors in nature, and then come back to this small class, it feels different. ”

She concluded: "No matter what Fan Yin is doing now, I don't want to criticize him, because it has given me a lot of growth, and the loss now is that I pay for my liking."

Not only attracted by the personal charm of the principal, but also by the working atmosphere and working environment of Van Yin. In the eyes of yoga instructors, Sanskrit can be described as the "ideal city" that every "yogi" wants to reach.

First of all, the lesson fee of Van Yin is high in the industry, and the monthly salary of mature yoga instructors can reach 2~30,000 yuan; Secondly, Sanskrit yoga teachers do not need to sit in the gym, and the time is relatively free; The most important thing is that the coach does not need to bear the pressure of sales, only needs to focus on teaching, ensure the quality of the course, and has little to do with the market and sales performance.

Gu Li also mentioned: "Whether it is a teacher, teaching assistant, front desk, or staff, Fanyin gives others a very warm and careful feeling, the details are also done relatively well, we do not have those intrigues in the workplace, and the working atmosphere is still very good." ”

Li Feifei, a member of Fanyin, also met Rao Qiuyu at the Hubei Retreat Center, and about four years ago, Feifei's first impression of President Rao was that he was very amiable and good at maintenance. She called the Hubei Retreat Center "a holy place for Sanskrit, isolated from the world, and the best way to cultivate the mind."

What impressed her the most was the cleaning aunt there, who was very smiling, enthusiastic and cheerful, and liked to sing two sentences from time to time, showing the pride and joy of serving everyone here. Feifei was quite moved at the time, and she marveled at this cohesion, which should not be achieved by simple management means.

On February 24, the last day before the museum was closed, Feifei came to class as usual. Because she was already late, she was a little anxious, and when she saw that there was no hand sanitizer in the bathroom, she immediately shouted to the cleaning aunt, who apologetically brought the hand sanitizer. When Feifei later learned that the cleaning aunt had not paid her salary for half a year, she suddenly regretted it, she felt very sorry for her aunt, and wanted to say thank you to her.

Second, stop blaming us for being "stupid"

"Many people don't understand and ask why we can continue to insist here without receiving a salary for more than half a year?"

"In the past, when people mentioned Sanskrit yoga instructors, everyone's impression of us was 'professional', and after that, there may be an additional label of 'deceived'."

"In the past week, I have not dared to go online, I am afraid to see people who have fallen into the well, and laugh at our peers. I've heard that there is even talk that yoga makes us lose our ability to think. ”

The above three sentences represent the voice of most Sanskrit teachers, and more than one yoga teacher has explained to the Hedgehog Commune his current predicament.

Sanskrit thunderstorm, Rao Qiuyu ran away, the yoga teachers left behind are more or less suffering from the accusations of their families, members and even public opinion, although most of the students understand that the teacher is a victim like them and wants to help them, but there are still some students who cannot accept why they still help Rao Qiuyu finish this scene when the salary is fruitless.

Gu Li replied: "Because I really like it." ”

"On the one hand, I love yoga and enjoy the class. We are all old members, often show up in your class, and we talk about yoga every day, which is pure and happy.

On the other hand, I like Sanskrit very much, and I came to Hangzhou for Sanskrit in the first place. Just thinking about waiting and seeing, whether it will be bought or completely improved, or completely defeated as it is now, we think about waiting until the end to see what the result will be. ”

"In fact, even if the company pays a month's salary, everyone will still be willing to work here." She added.

When asked how to live without wages, her voice trembled a little: "How many people live on credit cards, online loans, family and friends' funding, otherwise if we don't pay wages for half a year, how can we live outside?" Like parents with small children, they are really stressed, many people can't afford to pay their mortgages, and their houses are repossessed. ”

She then recalled: "At first, someone around me advised me, many yoga studios and gyms are the same as this routine, first arrears of wages, and then run away, I don't believe that Sanskrit is also like this, I always feel that it is really just the cause of the epidemic, and I am unwilling to admit that there are human factors in this." ”

Gu Li's last class in Sanskrit stayed on February 15th, the second day of Valentine's Day. According to her recollection, those days were very hard, five or six classes a day, very tired, very busy, very difficult. She originally thought that this was an opportunity to grow, the original teacher was gone, she survived, and she could be promoted.

Unexpectedly, the museum was closed.

For members, Sanskrit yoga disappeared overnight, but for employees like Gu Li, the loss of trust and the collapse of faith are far from a day's work.

In November ~ December 2022, several senior Atang yoga instructors who followed Rao Qiuyu in the founding period left one after another, and were only called "transfer teaching" to the outside world.

But at that time, due to the severity of the epidemic, there were few classes, so the vast majority of employees did not realize that there was something wrong. Until a few days before the Lunar New Year, there was a small outbreak.

There was no salary, no explanation, not a single email or approval within the company, and employees began to sit still. Some people began to hold strong accountability in the group, and some people began to stop teaching, when the general manager of Van Yin responded, and the February salary was paid in mid-March 2023, and it was made up month by month until September.

Gu Li is one of the employees who choose to stand with Fanyin after hearing the response, and she believes that the difficulty is only temporary.

Not long after, the company quickly issued another approval, requiring teachers to help recruit students and deduct 20%~30% of tuition fees. As soon as this announcement came out, most teachers really realized that something was wrong, and the new painting of the pie began again.

Immediately afterwards, an investor named Wang Kai entered the internal group of Fanyin, claiming to be the boss of Wuhan Hopewell Yoga. It is reported that the investor was scared away because of her excessive debt, and it is also reported that Rao Qiuyu hoped that the investor would help her pay off her arrears, resulting in the collapse of the negotiations.

Gu Li said suspiciously: "We can't judge whether Wang Kai really plans to take over or the company hired to act." For nearly a month, Wang Kai appeared in the group as an 'investor', but there were no official documents, official seals, and no specific plans. Some people questioned in the middle, and Wang Kai responded in a rude way, and the teachers gradually began to doubt the authenticity of 'investment'. ”

Real or false investment, it does not matter, the result is already predetermined.

In early February, many teachers protested, every day the chain stores began to "make trouble", the internal news was already very chaotic, within two days, they waited for the news of the departure of the top management, and the general manager and financial director left one after another.

In this series of turmoil, Rao Qiuyu did not come forward to say a word from beginning to end. Gu Li said: "The reason why she posted that article on the public account was because our internal employees condemned her and forced her, so she came out to deal with it, otherwise, she would not have said a word." ”

On February 27, Rao Qiuyu himself finally responded, and the article on the public account also exceeded 100,000+ views on the same day, but Rao Qiuyu still did not give any substantive solutions, and even did not have the courage to bear it, and disappeared.

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Until this day, people like Gu Li who had expectations for Principal Rao were disillusioned and finally began to accept reality.

At the end of the conversation, she said, "I still hope that the principal will do well, earn money well, and one day when his conscience finds out, he will return the salary he once owed us." ”

Third, it should be nailed to the "pillar of shame"

As the incident fermented, the source of the contradiction pointed to Rao Qiuyu herself, and the members were angry about why she couldn't "clean up the old mountains and rivers" like Lao Luo and Yu Minhong, and would only blindly dodge. In the eyes of the members, they believe that Rao Qiuyu himself is not worthy of forgiveness.

Taking the Fanyin store in Beijing as an example, the advance payment of each store membership ranges from 10,000~50,000, and most of the members have just renewed in mid-February. Since the target customer group of Fanyin is the female middle class, most Fanyin members have considerable income, and loyalty and member stickiness are very high, a store manager in Beijing revealed that about 70% of members are willing to renew every year.

Despite the news of poor management, they chose to renew the fee completely out of trust in Van Yin and wanted to help them get through the current difficulties.

Among them, Chen Yi is a regular member of Sangyin for six or seven years, and has been engaged in legal work for more than 20 years. On January 13, she renewed her card for more than 40,000 in Sanskrit, and when she learned the news of the closure of the museum, Chen Yi's first reaction was strange, she told the Hedgehog Commune: "I don't think things will develop to this situation." ”

She explains: "Since everyone thinks that there may be problems with Sanskrit, as long as there is no run, there will not be many problems. Just like depositing money in the bank, as long as everyone does not withdraw money at the same time, stable withdrawal of money can return to normal after a period of time. So I think, we don't run on the crowd, you just run well, at least keep a few profitable stores, suddenly all closed, which is too unexpected, and this approach is too extreme, too much. ”

On February 26, Chen Yi began to advocate for everyone to defend their rights on social media: "I suggest everyone to go to litigation to protect their rights, and I have prepared a template for everyone to litigate, instructions on how to use it, including how the litigation process is, and all kinds of documents that need to be used in litigation." To this end, I also set up a new email address, if you want to send us a message, our assistant will send them these materials, you can take it to sue her. ”

Du Jing, who has experienced the whole process of rights protection, said: "The lawsuit is time-consuming and laborious, even if the lawsuit is won, if there is no money in the yoga studio's account, there is no hope of refund, and then you need to ask for enforcement, in fact, winning is equivalent to getting a piece of waste paper." ”

In this regard, Chen Yi has different opinions, she believes that no matter how Rao Qiuyu must be on the list of dishonest. If you don't pay back, you have to use a lawsuit to control her and nail her to the pillar of shame, this matter must not end so easily, and let those who want to do similar things in the future learn a lesson.

Chen Yi continued: "I can not worry about money with her (Rao Qiuyu), but she has to pay the price. The law is the most basic criterion for judgment, so that she cannot take the plane, high-speed rail, limit high consumption, and if she does not solve this matter well, she will always be nailed to the pillar of shame, I think it must be achieved this effect. Everyone has to be a moral policeman in order to increase those who have moral feelings. ”

Although Chen Yi was shocked and angry at this time, she also trusted Fanyin very much, agreed with their teaching system for yoga, and even recommended Fanyin to friends around her: "Their use of muscles is viewed from a professional way, and Van Yin can also ensure that all the instructors are of the same level, which may not be particularly amazing, but it will certainly not make mistakes, and will not train the body badly." ”

Despite her confusion and anger at Rao Qiuyu's own behavior, Chen Yi still recalled her "merit": "Fanyin has indeed systematized and standardized yoga training, trained many good instructors, and sent a lot of talents to this industry." ”

Chen Yi also pointed out that although the professional level of the coaches is impeccable, their free will and rebellious spirit seem to be very inadequate. According to her own observations, most of the coaches are young girls with gentle and submissive personalities, and some people with jumpy personalities may not be suitable to stay here under the entire screening mechanism.

Pepe, a coach in the Beijing area, told the Hedgehog Commune that teachers under the entire Sanskrit system practice unified teaching. The framework of all teachers' lessons, including the expression of some passwords, needs to be 80% consistent with Principal Rao, allowing 20% of personal self-style, but the overall must be closer to her direction.

In this way, Pepe believes, teaching is simple and clear. It is also good for members, because they practice those more traditional asanas every day, and once they are familiar with the movements, they can better focus on breathing, which can bring better results to the practice. "I don't have to think about what movements the teacher will teach me in this class, and what movements the teacher will teach me in the next class."

A question worth exploring: Is prepayment an original sin?

In the big market of yoga and even fitness, stable, continuous and loyal users are particularly important for brands, which are the foundation of the brand and the most important intangible assets. For Van Yin, the foundation has always been there, but without enough cash flow, any assets seem to fail.

The sudden collapse of Sanskrit Yoga, more people are targeting the "prepaid model" that is common in the fitness industry, that is, users must pay a fee in advance before using the business, and this fee is actually deducted after successfully using the business.

Fiona, founder of Yuanshi Pilates, said: "Prepaid is a time bomb for the entire industry. It does not have windfall profits, but rather the consumption of future money in the present. ”

Chen Yi explained: "Prepayment abroad is not to hand over money to the operator, but a financial service, and the funds are supervised by banks or other financial institutions, and are not in the hands of the operator. On the other hand, this form of prepayment in China is actually a simplification of the foreign way, so much money in the hands of the operator may stimulate his greed, so the operator is very impulsive to run away with the money. As a result, there is a particularly high financial risk. ”

Fiona believes: "The fall of Van Yin is the misfortune of the industry, but also the alarm bell of the industry, fitness service itself as a fast-moving consumer goods, can have many business models to explore, not only to be true, but also to know how to stop loss in time, not to over-consume trust, in order to settle down in this industry." ”

In March, more and more people are starting to exercise, and the fitness industry is gradually recovering, but the spring of yoga seems to be difficult to come.

(At the request of interviewees, Gu Li, Li Feifei, Chen Yi, and Pei Pei are pseudonyms in the article)