A CEO who made headlines when he sacked 900 employees via a Zoom call has himself lost his job, in a move some are calling 'karma'.
Vishal Garg, CEO of Better.com, an online mortgage company, had made the decision to sack the hundreds of employees as part of a restructuring program which he believed would make the company more dynamic, streamlined, versatile and efficient. Garg had also accused many of the employees he sacked of stealing from the company due to some of them only working 2 hours a day, due to the pandemic.
On the now infamous call, Garg said:
"Hi everyone, thank you for joining. 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 so that hopefully we can continue to thrive and deliver on our mission. This isn't news that you're going to want to hear but ultimately it was my decision and I wanted you to hear it from me. It's been a really, really challenging decision to make. This is the second time in my career that I'm doing this and I do not want to do this. The last time I did it I cried. This time I hope to be stronger. But we are laying off about 15% of the company for [a number of] reasons: the market, efficiency and performances and productivity."
"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."
As the bad publicity from the mass-sacking began to emerge, Garg then decided to launch an apology, stating on a blog post that he was sorry for the manner in which the sacking took place.
Despite the apology, many senior executives began to resign from the company in protest against Garg's behaviour. It was this internal pressure and pressure from the media that has now resulted in Garg being removed from the company himself.
This isn't the first time that Garg had generated bad publicity for the firms he worked with. In a previous email to staff, Garg had compared them to dumb dolphins who should be eaten by sharks and had previously threatened to set a former business partner on fire.
Better.com is now under new management.
[Based on reporting by: Truth Theory]
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