OFFICE | CULTURE | DEFINITELY NOT SATIRE

When Your Boss Fires You Over Zoom

900 employees fired by Better.com CEO on pre-holiday Zoom call

“I come to you with not great news. If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group being laid off. Your employment here is terminated, effective immediately.”

So began the call that ended the career of 900 staff at Better.com. The founder and chief executive of better.com, Vishal Garg, callously fired them all in one swoop two weeks before Christmas. Avoiding any awkward meetings or courageous conversations, Garg acted swiftly to release his employees from the firm hand of Better.com.

It’s never nice to be fired. Usually, you have warnings. Red flags dot the route to unemployment. Warning signs that you aren’t meeting the invisible criteria set out by the new management. Exclusions to meetings. Responsibilities curtailed. Written warnings about your performance. All these add up before that reluctant meeting with your manager in the presence of the ‘woman from HR’. The three of you sat in a calm space, frigid air between you as HR woman takes notes, recording your actions and your clear lack of respect for the process.

It’s hard going through this process. Nobody wants to be there. Laws are in place to make sure everyone is fairly treated, at least most of the time. But Garg decided this was all too much like hard work. His company needed to cut corners. Blood needed to be shed. It didn’t matter that Better.com, a mortgage lender startup, was recently valued at about $7bn. This was a well-oiled machine that had grown too fat, too fast. The only option was to trim the fat and cut loose the broken backs of employees who had made Better.com so such a success.

“A now former employee on the call described the meeting as “three minutes tops”, in an interview with the Daily Beast. “They dumped us like trash. We were there since the beginning and worked hard for the company and for our roles,” another said.” Source The Guardian

Spare a thought for the poor CEO. Imagine the mental torment he had to face that morning. CEOs often pride themselves on knowing every employee within the business. Poor Varg had stopped remembering faces after the second hundred. It was impossible to empathize with the numbers. The employees had all become binary figures on a ledger. Numbers floating by with impersonal names like Employee 437 or Employee 941. Varg struggled to recall meeting Employee 399 who HR stated would be ‘devastated by the news as they were struggling to cope with the burden of home care for their elderly parent, a recent cancer survivor.’ Varg shrugged. It’s not personal, just business.

Varg knew best. He didn’t become the CEO of a successful startup without knowing the best way to handle business. He knew efficiency. He knew lean. He knew the quickest route to restructuring could be done within three minutes. That’s all the time he needed to offload hundreds. Sure, HR complained that this wouldn’t be a great look. They would moan about how impersonal it would all feel but Varg knew best.

“Give me three minutes. That is all. You’ll see. It is better to know than not know when knowledge is the only way to not know what one knows to know.”

Varg was well-practiced in the art of corporate inspiration.

Here’s the video:

Poor Varg cried the last time he laid people off. Reading from a pre-prepared script in casual attire, the laid-back Varg delivered his pre-Christmas greeting. At least he refrained from wishing the chosen 900 a merry Christmas. Luck is what they need, so Varg wished as much luck as he could offer. This was truly the worse day of Varg’s life. Take a look at how he is ‘struggling’ with the decision. How it ‘made him cry’. Poor Varg.

It’s not about the employees, it’s all about Varg.

As one commentator noted:

“His lack of empathy and martyred complex, trying to get the people whose lives he just destroyed to feel sorry for him makes me sick. I hope all of you find meaningful work in “Better” companies.” Source Youtube

A week later, Varg was at it again. As the video leaked and news flooded Linkedin with 900 former employees searching for work, Varg released a pdf statement.

“I want to apologize for the way I handled the layoffs last week.

I failed to show the appropriate amount of respect and appreciation for the individuals who were affected and for their contributions to Better.

I own the decision to do the layoffs, but in communicating it I blundered the execution. In doing so, I embarrassed you.

I realize that the way I communicated this news made a difficult situation worse. I am deeply sorry and am committed to learning from this situation and doing more to be the leader that you expect me to be.” Source

It’s unclear who he’s trying to reach with this message. The 900 employees firing was immediate. Their company email would have been shut down. Once again Varg is attempting to save face. Once again he has made the issue, the emotional turmoil, the hardship, all about himself.

Varg is no leader. This isn’t a man to aspire to. Varg is the epitome of corporate greed and capitalism. But don’t worry about your future those that are left. Varg believes in you. He believes in the company. Together, you can help Varg get even richer.

Good luck with that.

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