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Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call

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Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call

#31

Post by SkittyDog »

bronco21016 wrote: post #7

I know it’s just an anecdote but as a customer I kind of believe this. I just completed a transaction with them that had to be extended beyond the rate lock window. For about 10 days there was a daily back and forth where they asked me to provide some documentation. I would provide the requested documentation and about 12 hours later I would receive a task of uploading the same required documentation. The document wa…

I concerned that you're jumping to prosecuting employees for the systemic failure of a company to operate well.

Without being privvy to the company's internal state, how could you possibly differentiate between management problems and deliberate staff malfeasance?

I you have ONE incompetent or crooked employee, then sure, the employee is the problem... But if you have 900 incompetent/crooked employees, I think it's much more likely that you have a management problem.

If all those employees were truly so awful, why did Garg wait til the mortgage market started cooling off to fire them? Or could it be that the company has been poorly managed for quite a while, but it's more emotionally convenient to the CEO's ego to blame the workers rather than address his own shortcomings?

Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call

#32

Post by duxup »

DangerousPie wrote: post #20

I know this sounds horrible but in the days of covid and working from home, what are companies supposed to do if they have to lay off large amounts of people? Make them all risk their health to come to an in-person event, only to be fired? Drive to every employee's house to fire them in person? It obviously sucks but I don't see how, in 2021, this is any different from the kind of thing that would happen all the time…

Yeah if they brought them in and someone (depending on how many it could be inevitable) had COVID... just to fire them.

I'm not sure I see that as being better.

Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call

#35

Post by seanlinehan »

To anybody affected by this layoff, my company Placement.com created a Better.com Alumni Job Board [0] to help smooth the transition. We've seen over and over how much easier it is to get a job at a company where:

1. You have a connection (or can build one easily)

2. The company recognizes the companies you previously worked for

Targeting companies that ex-colleagues work at is a powerful strategy! So we made this board for everybody affected. Also, if you are interested in talking to a career coach, I'm happy to give a free intro session to everybody affected here. Just email me sean@.

The lack of empathy shown in this situation is intense and I hope y'all know that there are amazing companies that will value you more waiting with open arms!

[0] https://www.placement.com/boards/bettercom-alumni-companies

Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call

#36

Post by beckman466 »

Kye wrote: post #10
bronco21016 wrote: post #7

I know it’s just an anecdote but as a customer I kind of believe this. I just completed a transaction with them that had to be extended beyond the rate lock window. For about 10 days there was a daily back and forth where they asked me to provide some documentation. I would provide the requested documentation and about 12 hours later I would receive a task of uploading the same required documentation. The document wa…

Assuming it's true... 900 employees: 1: stealing wages 2: being able to do so 3: doing that rather than their jobs Is a systemic issue. It had to start long before almost a thousand people decided to commit a crime. Assuming it's true. I tend to not trust framing that comes from the top end of a power imbalance. edit: This isn't Twitter. Don't stop at 1 and decide you read enough to go off on someone. Read the entire…

> 1: stealing wages

why is Better.com using that language? all that workers can do is sell their labor time, while the property-owners they work for do not (since they earn rents from ownership). in this case, the workers create and develop some intellectual property (software), yet do not own the fruits of their own labor and are instead paid a wage. in other words: workers work on things that are not democratically held in common ownership (even actively made artificially scarce as an intellectual property).

my point is: we could argue the workers are rightfully taking back more than what they are paid under our current economic system, since the property-owners take too much to begin with; they steal — to use your word — by not sharing the (intellectual) property, the source of wealth.

edit: i've edited to clarify that I am responding to the definition of the word stealing used by Better.com. as Kye/OP pointed out below, this is not Kye's personal definition for the word stealing and it was terminology they copied verbatim from this current context (used by one of the parties involved).

Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call

#37

Post by sergiotapia »

0des wrote: post #12

Comment's gone now, but a video was posted: game_the0ry 5 minutes ago | prev | next [–] Video -- https://youtu.be/M8RV8E01HO8 EDIT: After watching the video, somehow the vest makes it even more offensive. I don't know why, maybe someone smarter than me knows.

What was he supposed to do? Have 900 people come in to the office in-person? Send individual emails?

Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call

#38

Post by bko »

DangerousPie wrote: post #20

I know this sounds horrible but in the days of covid and working from home, what are companies supposed to do if they have to lay off large amounts of people? Make them all risk their health to come to an in-person event, only to be fired? Drive to every employee's house to fire them in person? It obviously sucks but I don't see how, in 2021, this is any different from the kind of thing that would happen all the time…

It should probably be handled one by one via Zoom with the persons immediate manager and a representative from HR.

Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call

#39

Post by toomuchtodo »

azinman2 wrote: post #30
edmcnulty101 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good point. At least they got a face to face. I had members of a team just get a slip in the past.

I think one of the bigger issues was that the CEO made it all about him on the call.

Should’ve taken notes from Carta’s CEO when they did a RIF. Took ownership, and expressed both remorse and gratitude for the folks let go, instead of making it about themselves like a narcissist.
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