New York: The CEO of a company has recently fired 900 employees over a Zoom call. The matter came to light when one of the fired employees, filmed the call and leaked it to the social media.
As per ‘CNN.com’ Better.com CEO Vishal Garg has fired 900 of his employees during a Zoom call Wednesday. The Indian-American CEO said market efficiency, performance and productivity were the reasons behind the mass lay-off.
“This isn’t news that you’re going to want to hear… 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,” Vishal Garg, 43, was quoted as saying to the employees of the mortgage company, according to ‘CNN’.
The employees who have been fired comprise about nine per cent of Better.com’s staff. Among those fired were the company’s entire diversity, equity and inclusion team.
Once the clipping started trending on social media, Garg received huge flak. Many criticised him for firing employees just before the holiday season in the US.
The ‘Daily Mail’, said Garg, during the three-minute call that the decision to fire 900 employees, stated that the decision was a ‘challenging’ one.
“This is the second time in my career I’m doing this and I do not do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried. This time, I hope to be stronger. We are laying off about 15 per cent of the company for a number of reasons – the market, efficiency and performances and productivity,” Garg was quoted as saying by the ‘Daily Mail’.
A Better.com spokesman later corrected the 15 per cent figure, stating the actual number was closer to nine per cent.
Garg reportedly lashed out at his staff later for being ‘lazy and unproductive’.
“You guys know that at least 250 of the people terminated were working an average of two hours a day while clocking eight hours+ a day in the payroll system?” Garg wrote in a blog post on the network ‘Blind’. “They were stealing from you and stealing from our customers who pay the bills that pay our bills,” Garg added.
The CEO later confirmed to ‘Fortune’ that he had made the comments under the anonymous username ‘uneducated’.
