Vishal Garg, the chief executive officer of Better.com, a mortgage company based in the USA, is being criticized on social media for firing 900 employees through a Zoom call on Wednesday.
“I come to you with not great news,” this is how Vishal began his call with the workers that were shortly fired after this. “If you are on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off. Your employment is terminated effective immediately,” the CEO broke the news to his employees. Garg went on to say that the mass termination was due to market developments, “efficiency,” and “productivity.”
The 43-year-old explained, “The market has evolved… we have to move with it in order to survive. In the end, it was my decision, and I wanted you to know about it.” This isn’t the first time that Vishal had to make such a call, “I do not, do not, want to do this. The last time I did this I cried. This time I hope to be stronger,” he said during the meeting.
What else: One now-former employee described the call as “three minutes tops.” “They dumped us like trash. We were there since the beginning and worked hard for the company and for our roles,” said one of the employees. The mortgage lender firm was recently valued at over $7 billion after receiving a $750 million (£564 million) financial infusion from investors. Softbank, a Japanese giant, is behind the start-up, which claims to employ technology to make homeownership “faster and more efficient.”
