Vishal Garg, CEO of Better.com, took just three minutes to fire more than 900 employees of this American mortgage loan company through a Zoom video call, held on 1 day. you are in the group of unfortunates who are going to be fired. Your work ends here, immediately, ”he told the workers who were online. Now, seven days later, Garg has released on the firm’s website a statement of just one page in which he apologizes for how he executed the dismissals, admits that he was wrong in the way he did it and acknowledges that he did not show “the appropriate amount of respect and appreciation ”to the workers he was putting out on the street, which made them feel ashamed and made the situation worse for some employees who were left without work on Christmas Eve. But, despite everything, the layoffs continue.
The massive dismissal by video call meant leaving about 9% of the workforce on the street. The chosen ones were summoned to meet virtually with the CEO and founder of the company in a videoconference by Zoom. According to the CNN chain, Garg, who appeared seated and dressed informally, barely showed empathy with those fired, before whom he only mentioned the productivity and results of the company as a reason for the dismissal. “This is the second time in my career that I have done this and I don’t want to do it. The last time I cried ”, assured the executive about himself. The company, after disclosing the ways in which 900 people were deprived of their jobs, justified the measure on the need to improve their financial position “in a home ownership market that is rapidly and radically evolving.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpjqbvLkPUw
The scandal unleashed on social networks by the dismissals has forced Garg, 43, to issue a statement apologizing for having “made a mistake” in the ways in which he carried out and communicated the measure; He assures that he has learned that things cannot be done that way and without empathy and, yes, he admits the contribution of his workers to the growth of the company. The note is addressed to the employees who are still in the company (to whom it summons to a next meeting), not to the dismissed ones.
“I want to apologize for the way I handled the layoffs last week,” the note starts. “I did not show an adequate amount of respect and appreciation for the people who were affected (…) I am responsible for the dismissals, but in communicating them I made a mistake and by doing so I embarrassed you. I am aware that the way I broke the news made an already difficult situation worse. I am deeply sorry. I am determined to learn from this situation, ”the statement concludes.
Garg was the protagonist of a report in the magazine Forbes last year, in which he was portrayed as a volatile person immersed in several legal battles over his management of other companies, at a time when the financial technology company was preparing for an IPO. Among other things, the article picked up an email that he had sent to his workers in which he told them, in capital letters, that they were “too damn slow”, called them “stupid dolphins” and claimed that they were “embarrassing” him. Better.com is valued at around € 7 billion.
