Especially at a company like Google, which tracks vacation days as compensation.

When you tell a Googler they can't take a day off, you are basically telling them the company will not honor a piece of the compensation package they signed up for. You'd better come to that table with a damn good alternative offer.

Days off are certainly fine, as long you give enough notice for your coworkers to plan around your absence. Not counting emergencies of course.

After reading the article I think his only problem was that the 11am yoga employee was taking care of their health in a way that he didn’t understand, so it was bad.