Many of us have become accustomed to working remotely and communicating via Zoom since 2020.
Some may appreciate the freedom of working from home while others would rather have the structure of a brick-and-mortar workplace.
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Regardless of individual circumstances, most people probably aren’t expecting to be fired, en masse, over Zoom. But that’s exactly what happened recently to employees of Better.com.
CEO Vishal Garg dropped the hammer during a Zoom call.
Garg, the boss of the mortgage company valued at $4 billion, was on a big Zoom call with hundreds of employees.
He abruptly told them that, if they were on the call, that means they were getting terminated, effective immediately.
He fired more than 900 employees, or about 9 percent of the company’s entire workforce.
“If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off,” Garg announced. “Your employment here is terminated immediately.”
Getting publicly chastised and fired just before the holidays is a bitter pill to swallow. But Garg was just getting started.
Garg told employees they were “stealing” because they were slacking off too much while working from home.
Putting aside the seriousness of the situation for just a moment, I’m genuinely baffled by the leaked email that made the rounds just before the layoffs.
Garg called employees “dumb dolphins.” I mean, dolphins are notoriously intelligent.
The Zoom call has gone viral.
At least one employee was recording the whole thing, and uploaded a video of Garg’s meltdown to YouTube.
Kevin Ryan, CFO of Better.com, was slightly more diplomatic when he told CNN that, “a fortress balance sheet and a reduced and focused workforce together set us up to play offense going into a radically evolving homeownership market.”
Won’t someone please think of the poor CEO?
Garg briefly showed his softer side, such as it is, on the call, saying, “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.”
Aww. It sounds like he’s the true victim here.
What are the employees accused of?
“You guys know that at least 250 of the people terminated were working an average of 2 hours a day while clocking in 8 hours+ a day in the payroll system? They were stealing from you and stealing from our customers,” Garg reportedly wrote.
Did he have to do them like that?
“I think [the messaging] could have been phrased differently, but honestly the sentiment is there,” Garg told Fortune.
Garg also encouraged employees who felt they’d been fired without cause to reach out to the company, which seems like a big ask.
It’s a brutal way to treat your employees.
Whether you sympathize with the CEO over his time theft claims or not, it’s hard to support his decision to angrily fire hundreds of employees in a public Zoom call, right at the beginning of the holiday season.
Will it hurt the valuation of Better.com?
The company has had a meteoric rise and secured a $4 billion valuation in 2020. But after Garg’s outburst, investors may be a little more cautious about investing in a company run by such a volatile CEO.
What do you think?
We haven’t heard much from the fired employees so far, so it’s tough to assess whether the time theft claims are accurate or not. In any event, Garg has made headlines for his company — for all the wrong reasons.
Check out the video and form your own opinions.
