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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

#41

Post by cprayingmantis »

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 just experienced the same thing! It was so frustrating to see that no one was looking over the documents. Finally I took a day off and sat on the phone with them all day to figure it out. It was a worse process that dealing with an actual mortgage broker.

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

#43

Post by hemant19 »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #9
outside1234 wrote: post #2

Feeling gratitude for not having one of the many many shitty jobs out there.

There's up to 900 people who might want to have their shitty job back

Shitty job for temporary. Nobody wants to stay forever. Rest of the employees know now what to do

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

#44

Post by dilap »

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…

I was wondering that too. I think ideally you would have a 1-1 video chat with someone. But at such a big, 900 employee, layoff, maybe that wasn't easy to do.

I think the CEOs affect on the call made it worse. It was very strange to hear him say stuff like "last time I had to do this, I cried. I hope to be stronger this time." It felt like his focus when laying off 900 people was too much on how it made him personally feel uncomfortable.

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

#45

Post by mytailorisrich »

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…

In addition to that, I find it respectable that the CEO made the announcement himself directly to those concerned, although the way he communicated it might not have been that great.

He could have delegated to the direct managers of those concerned and HR.

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

#46

Post by omnicognate »

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…

Call them individually. It's not the fact it was done by zoom that's surprising/unusual, it's the fact it was done en masse.

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

#47

Post by mmastrac »

bko wrote: post #38
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.

But think of all the money saved by the company! /s

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

#49

Post by aero-glide2 »

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.

I don't really get the outrage here. It's absolutely terrible for the employees, as all layoffs are. Maybe they could've just sent an email.

Even SpaceX did a mass layoff couple of years ago.

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

#50

Post by judge2020 »

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…

IMO the issue is that this is right after a funding round.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/30/better-com-gets-750m-cash-...

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