A company CEO has brutally laid off around 900 of its employees over Zoom just weeks before Christmas.
Vishal Garg, who owns digital mortgage company Better.com, only invited those members of staff who were about to lose their job to the call.
The moment the news was delivered was shared by an apparent employee in a now-viral TikTok video.
In it, Mr Garg says: “I come to you with not great news.
“The market has changed, as you know, and we have to move with it in order to survive.
“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 says the last time he laid people off he “cried” but this time he hoped to be “stronger”.
The CEO said he was then laying off about 15% of the workforce – a figure that has been corrected to 9% – for a number of reasons.
“The market, efficiency and performances and productivity,” he added.
The person behind the camera can be heard cursing at his former boss as the bombshell is dropped.
Mr Garg later defended the decision in a blogpost on Blind – claiming some of those who had been let off were “stealing” a living.
“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?” he asked.
“They were stealing from you and stealing from our customers who pay the bills that pay our bills. Get educated,” he added.
Better.com’s CFO Kevin Ryan later told CNN that conducting layoffs is “gut wrenching, especially this time of year”.
“However a fortress balance sheet and a reduced and focused workforce together set us up to play offense going into a radically evolving homeownership market,” he added.
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