@wanderellaco/TikTok/@NewsWorldPress/Twitter
A CEO who used Zoom to fire 900 of his employees has since spoken out about the treatment of his staff.
Vishal Garg decided to kill 900 birds with one stone and get rid of nearly a tenth of his workforce all at the same time via the video platform.
Upon failing to mention that his mortgage start-up company Better.com had received $750 million in investments just a week earlier, staff were left raging and stormed social media, leading to the Zoom call going viral.
Garg has since spoken out about his handling of the layoffs, admitting he ‘blundered the execution’.
In an email to all those in attendance on the call, Garg reportedly admitted that he ‘failed to show the appropriate amount of respect and appreciation for the individuals who were affected,’ 9News reports.
He said:
I own the decision to do the layoffs, but in communicating it I blundered the execution. In doing so, I embarrassed you.
I realise 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.
900 at https://t.co/Ga67R6QlK9 let go on a webinar.
Devices shut off immediately after.
3 minute call.
No remorse.
What a terrible way to do things.
CEO Vishal Garg’s “dumb dolphins” (as he refers to them) now unemployed for the holiday season.
Disgusting tbh
— AdTechGod (@AdtechGod) December 2, 2021
Following the call going viral, the company’s head of public relations and head of marketing, among a few other more senior employees, resigned.
According to former underwriter at Better.com, Christian Chapman, the call ‘ended abruptly’. He also claimed he immediately lost access to his company messaging platform, email, computer and phone.
‘It was a surreal moment. It was one of those things that you don’t believe it’s going to happen,’ he said.
Here’s an excerpt from https://t.co/l9AdiLbAZn CEO Vishal Garg according to an email to his staff obtained by @Forbes
This was before he laid off 900 staff members accusing them of stealing from the company because they didn’t work hard enough pic.twitter.com/CDNtM1FHL4
— David Armano (@armano) December 6, 2021
Chapman claimed this sort of behaviour from Garg wasn’t irregular, with the CEO accused of previously calling staff a ‘bunch of dumb dolphins’ who were ’embarrassing’.
On LinkedIn’s Top Start-ups of 2020 and 2021, Better.com ranked at number one and is reported to be valued at $6.9 billion.
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