The CEO of New York-based online mortgage lender Better.com has sacked a total of 900 employees with immediate effect during a now-viral Zoom call. Better.com’s chief executive Vishal Garg has slammed the ex-workers for allegedly stealing from customers by not being productive.
During the announcement of the mass firings in a Zoom call, Vishal Garg struck an unapologetic tone to the shock of the affected workers, a recording of which was later posted on various social media platforms, including TikTok, YouTube.
“This isn’t news that you’re going to want to hear … If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off. Your employment here is terminated effective immediately,” he said, adding that he does “not want to do this.” This is the second time in my career I’m doing this and I do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried,” Garg said on the call.
The 43-year-old CEO said that the “market has changed” and that the company had to lose weight in order to remain agile enough to adapt to the evolving housing market, which appears to be cooling after a pandemic-boosted boom. However, during the call, Garg didn’t mention the company’s $750 million cash infusion it got from investors last week.
“You guys know that at least 250 of the people terminated were working an average of 2 hours a day while clocking 8 hours+ a day in the payroll system? They were stealing from you and stealing from our customers who pay the bills that pay our bills. Get educated,” Garg told Fortune.
On the Zoom call, Garg informed the affected employees that the organization would provide four weeks of severance and one month of full benefits, as well as other coverage as part of a package.
Garg told Fortune that a month earlier, the company began to review employee productivity data, including missed telephone call rates, number of inbound and outbound calls, employees showing up late to meetings with a customer, and other metrics.
“As we started to slow down our pace of hiring, we saw some alarming statistics and a number of our customers were not getting the service that they deserved from our teammates,” he said.
According to Forbes, Garg once criticized office managers for failing to keep the mini-fridge stocked with Fiji and Perrier water.
In another email obtained by Forbes last year, Garg wrote:
‘You are TOO DAMN SLOW. You are a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS and…DUMB DOLPHINS get caught in nets and eaten by sharks. SO STOP IT. STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME.”