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Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call

maggrand.com

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

#191

Post by renewiltord »

jcroll wrote: post #91
post-it wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Zoom call part isn't really the issue, although individual Zoom meetings would have been better. > In another email obtained by Forbes last year, Garg wrote: > > ‘You are TOO DAMN SLOW. You are a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS and…DUMB DOLPHINS get caught in nets and eaten by sharks. SO STOP IT. STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME.”

Is there a link to this?

Sadly, no. There is a quote from a section of it in the linked Forbes article, though.

We'll have to wait for it to show up on https://twitter.com/TechEmails

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

#193

Post by treyfitty »

zoe4883 wrote: post #71

》organization would provide four weeks of severance and one month of full benefits, as well as other coverage as part of a package. I find this sort of honest and refreshing. My goverment fired people without any severance or unemployment benefits, with way more BS!

4 weeks severance is a pittance, even by US standards.

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

#194

Post by merubin75 »

Everyone is focusing on HOW the news was delivered. To me, this is not relevant. What people should be focusing on is WHY.

The company is set to go public via SPAC at a $6.9 billion valuation. It just got a $1.5 billion infusion of cash last week.

Tell me again why the CEO and the executive team isn’t among the 900 people getting laid off?

https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/01/better-com-lays-off-9-of-i...

“On Nov. 30, TechCrunch reported that the company was getting a cash infusion from its backers sooner than expected. Blank-check company Aurora Acquisition Corp. and SoftBank decided to amend the terms of their financing agreement to provide Better with half of the $1.5 billion they committed immediately instead of waiting until the deal closes.”

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

#195

Post by sdfghderwg »

treeman79 wrote: post #181
sdfghderwg wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lets think it through. Even if each person is given 5 minutes of personal time with the person doing the firing, at 8 hours per day assuming no breaks, that's 5 * 900 / 60 / 8 = 9 days. Almost two business weeks. That means that 900 people will have a zoom meeting scheduled two weeks ahead of time, and while they wait they see that everyone who goes into that meeting is fired. Does this sounds like a better way of do…

Heard many stories of it being done this way. Extreme anxiety for everyone as people wait to see if they get called in.

My point exactly.

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

#196

Post by s1artibartfast »

SkittyDog wrote: post #76
beerandt wrote: post #16

>>Garg told Fortune that a month earlier, the company began to review employee productivity data, including missed telephone call rates, number of inbound and outbound calls, employees showing up late to meetings with a customer, and other metrics. >>“You guys know that at least 250 of the people terminated were working an average of 2 hours a day while clocking 8 hours+ a day in the payroll system? They were stealin…

Wait, they only started reviewong employee data ONE MONTH ago?? Thats some serious management incompetence. What's with this weaselly language, too... "At least 250 employees" also means "No more than 250 employees". If it was more, they would have just said the bigger number to prove their point. Which means the other 650 employees they fired did not have productivity problems, and they're just trying to blame their…

250 were 2 hours per day. This leaves a lot of room for workers <8 hours.

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

#197

Post by whoknew1122 »

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 mean, I get firing employees on a Zoom call. It may be one of those unfortunate necessities. But the way this person did it is terrible.

> “This is the second time in my career I’m doing this and I do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried; this time I hope to be stronger,” Garg says early in the video, before noting that he is laying off "about" 15 percent of the company’s workforce just before the holidays. More than a minute into the call, Garg says, “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.”

https://www.vice.com/en/article/88ggy3/ceo-feels-terrible-ab...

He's prioritizing his feelings about firing people when talking to people who just lost their job. As a billionaire, he's hoping he doesn't cry while talking to people who hope that they can find a new job before their savings dry up and they can't pay their bills or eat.

What an out-of-touch asshat this CEO is.

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

#198

Post by 6510 »

fourseventy wrote: post #162
post-it wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Zoom call part isn't really the issue, although individual Zoom meetings would have been better. > In another email obtained by Forbes last year, Garg wrote: > > ‘You are TOO DAMN SLOW. You are a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS and…DUMB DOLPHINS get caught in nets and eaten by sharks. SO STOP IT. STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME.”

assuming they did a 20 minute meeting for each employee thats 233 hours or 29 business days to fire all 700 of them...

he would have to fire 1000 people to cover the cost

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

#199

Post by AtNightWeCode »

When you go to management classes you learn to not lay off people this way. That one should talk to each employee individually. At the same time. I have been at workplaces where a message been sent out like that a company must lay off 20% of the staff. I have seen the amount of stress it causes among the staff and especially if it happens several times. Me personally would prefer the axe.

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

#200

Post by cortesoft »

gambiting wrote: post #154
tyingq wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what seems right to me. It's not the virtual nature, it's the lazy mass group layoff that's objectionable and disrespectful. If you're being laid off, you probably have a lot of questions. A 1:1 meeting would allow for that.

The problem is that 900 people is a lot of people. Imagine all managers scheduling meetings with their reports to tell them, then the managers themselves are probably being let go, in the meantime it would create A LOT of stress not knowing whether you will be called in for a meeting or not, just sitting there seeing people being let go around you 1 by 1. The whole process would take a week just to have a proper meet…

Companies do massive layoffs all the time without large meetings to tell everyone at the meeting they are fired. It isn't that hard.
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