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Better.com Continues To Innovate Not Better Ways To Fire PeopleWe suppose an unexpected severance check is better than a mass Zoom call, but it’s a close-run thing.

• Author:Jon Shazar
• Publish date:Mar 9, 2022

TheeErin from Chicago, USA [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

We suppose an unexpected severance check is better than a mass Zoom call, but it’s a close-run thing.

Better.com was founded revolutionize the way people bought homes. Whether it has done so, we cannot say. But it has certainly unleashed a slew of innovations in the field of involuntarily separating employees from their jobs with the company.

You’ll know doubt remember the heartwarming story of when Better.com founder and CEO Vishal Garg got 900 of his employees onto a Zoom call and impassively fired them just before Christmas, only to then head over to the seemingly safe space of Blind to whine to his fellow CEOs that a healthy chunk of the laid off were lazy skivers essentially stealing from him. This led to some rather insincere apologies (the only kind we imagine Garg is capable of) and a nice little holiday break for the CEO.

Well, in spite of those cuts, things have not gotten better at Better. And so it’s making some more. A lot more. More than three times as many, in fact, more than one-third of its total workforce. This time, Better has learned its lesson. Those 3,000 folks would not be laid off on a mass Zoom call. And they wouldn’t be canned by Garg, in case he threatened to burn them alive or something, but instead by a kinder, gentler and more lawyerly voice.

“We must take the difficult step of streamlining our operations further and reducing our workforce in both the U.S. and India in a substantial way,” Kevin Ryan, chief financial officer and interim president of Better.com, wrote in a letter sent to employees and posted to its website Tuesday…. “We are doing everything possible to personally reach all employees whose jobs will be eliminated to discuss this with them first,” Mr. Ryan said.

Well, not everything, because once again Better found a way to cut ties with folks without the promised heartfelt call from HR.

Some workers who lost their jobs found out after they received a severance check – with no additional context or notice from Better.com executives…. “This was certainly not the form of notification that we intended and stemmed from an effort to ensure that impacted employees received severance payments as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement.

Better.com to Lay Off More Employees—This Time Not on Zoom [WSJ]
Better.com workers learned of layoffs when severance checks were sent early [N.Y. Post]

Tagsterms:Severance PackageswhoopsiesBetter.comKevin RyanfintechVishal GargLayoffs WatchBy Jon Shazar

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