900 employees of Better.com were laid off during a webinar. The decision was gut wrenching, the company’s CFO said but was taken to keep a focused workforce into a “radically evolving” homeownership market.
More than 900 employees of mortgage lender Better.com were fired by the chief executive officer (CEO) over a Zoom webinar, according to a report in CNN. The webinar took place on Wednesday where CEO Vishal Garg informed that nine per cent of the company’s workforce is being laid off.
“If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off,” according to CNN, which quoted from a recording of the call.
The company’s chief financial officer (CFO) Kevin Ryan later told CNN in a statement that the “gut wrenching” decision was taken to keep a focused workforce into a “radically evolving” homeownership market.
However, Fortune reported that Garg accused these employees of “stealing” from their colleagues and customers by being unproductive.
In the short and emotional Zoom call, the CEO of the New York-headquartered company said that this is the second time he is taking such a decision.
Job loss during the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic has been termed “catastrophic” by many business leaders. In the United States, temporary layoffs were cited as the main contributor to the high unemployment rate of 14.7 per cent in April last year.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) that Covid-19 has caused “deep and long lasting” damage to the job market. It said that managers are not only dealing with the stress and sadness of having to let go of a large number of their workers, many of them are also feeling underlying anxiety about their own positions.
It quoted experts to report that the manages must show compassion while laying off employees and try to absorb as many emotions as possible.
