A video has gone viral in which Vishal Garg, the India-origin CEO of a US-based mortgage provider company Better.com has fired around 900 of his employees over a single Zoom call. According to reports, the employees were given the news of their termination without any forewarning, that too just before the holiday season is about to begin in the USA and other parts of the world.
Vishal Garg: “I wish I didn’t have to lay off 900 of you over a zoom call but I’m gonna lay y’all off right before the holidays lmfaooo”pic.twitter.com/6bxPGTemEG
— litquidity (@litcapital) December 5, 2021
According to reports, the company’s entire diversity, equality, and inclusion team has been laid off, among others.
In the video, that was apparently recorded by an employee and shared online, the CEO Vishal Garg is heard talking to his employees about the layoff.
“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,” Garg was heard saying. He added how this wasn’t the first time he was doing this, and that he had cried last time but “hoped to be stronger this time.”
He then said employees could expect an email from HR detailing benefits and severance.
Garg said staff performance and productivity, and market changes was the reason behind the mass-firing of what he said was 15 per cent of Better.com’s workforce. Meanwhile, Garg’s bio claims that Better.com “grew over 400% in 2020 to over $20 bln in annual origination and are growing 3x again in 2021”.
Interestingly, the layoffs were made after the business received a $750 million capital injection from Softbank, its main investor, ahead of its intentions to go public through a SPAC merger with Aurora Acquisition Corp.
Following the viral video, the CEO has been extensively criticised for his insensitive method of breaking the bad news along with being accused of corporate greed.
