Kit Roberts
It was a moment which became infamous back in 2021, when CEO Vishal Garg informed 900 employees of mortgage lender Better.com that they were being laid off, via Zoom call.
The episode resulted in widespread backlash, with many people condemning the insensitivity. One former employee told the Daily Beast: "They dumped us like trash," with another describing the experience as 'excruciating' to the BBC.
Employees were informed of the layoff on the infamous Zoom call just three weeks before Christmas.
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The CEO went on to accuse some employees of clocking in for more hours than they had actually worked, posting on professional networking website Blind: “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 who pay the bills that pay our bills. Get educated."
Garg subsequently admitted that he had 'blundered the execution' when carrying out the layoffs.
Now in a new interview, Garg has claimed that he is working to change the way he works in order to be more 'empathetic' towards employees.
Garg said he had undergone 'a lot of leadership training' since the incident with the Zoom call.
He told TechCrunch: "So I've worked really, really hard to change the way that I show up to the team every day, and to be more empathetic and to treat them with the same level of kindness that I showed our customers.
"I think I was very mission-centric, customer centric, and really, really focused on what it took to drive growth.
"And I think I’ve learned now that in order for our customers to be delighted, our teammates also have to feel delight."
However, Garg refused to be drawn on whether the company was anticipating further lay-offs for the future. He said he could not say, and it would be dependant on the market.
The CEO said: "I think a lot of that depends on the mortgage market. But we think that we’re appropriately staffed and actually we’re adding headcount in a variety of areas to drive growth."
The interview with TechCrunch comes as the company went public for the first time on 24 August. The mortgage lender traded on the Nasdaq stock market yesterday alongside Aurora Acquisition Corp.
UNILAD has reached out to Better.com for a comment.
