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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

#211

Post by ragnot »

Panther34543 wrote: post #206

Many folks here are talking about the CEO and how the termination process was carried out, but I'd like to know if this is any sort of indicator for where the housing market is going. Zillow was just in the news for suddenly laying off about %25 of its employees and taking a ~$500m loss. Do any of you believe these companies have insight into the near feature that indicates a notable downturn in the market?

They probably just see that the Fed going to raise rates and realize that there are going to be less mortgages handed out which means less customers.

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

#212

Post by trulyme »

dionidium wrote: post #15
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've always thought that the worst thing about a plane crash would be the 30 seconds before you hit the ground when you know what's coming, but it hasn't happened yet. In other words: if you ever have to do this, get on with it . He wastes like 9 weasily hedge sentences before dropping the news everyone on the call could already have guessed was coming. Just get on with it. None of that preamble was necessary.

I didn't watch the video myself, but as a general advice this is a very bad idea. People you give the bad news to shouldn't be caught unaware by it, they should at least suspect it and have some time to get used to the idea. There is nothing worse than expecting a good news (raise?) and then learning the possibly devastating one instead. My experience at least.

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

#213

Post by stormcode »

djrogers wrote: post #165
chrisseaton wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you can warn people about their performance without using abuse.

Abuse? Really? Is a single email where someone vents frustration for 2 lines actually abuse ?

Yes, in my opinion it is. Think about abuse in other contexts to put it in perspective. If a teacher in the middle of giving a homework assignment had said the same thing, would that be okay? What about a police officer who pulled someone over during a traffic stop? What about a customer at a drive thru saying this into the speaker?

This is not a random person on the street corner shouting at other random passers by. This guy is in a position of power over the people he is communicating with.

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

#214

Post by leetcrew »

beckingz wrote: post #92
dilap wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 personall…

Last time I got laid off the CEO said that he knew it was hard for me, but also wasn't easy for him. Which is true: firing people is one of the hardest managerial tasks, but it's tone deaf and disrespectful to make it about the manager's feelings. Shows a lack of maturity.

idk, some people might take small comfort in the fact that an actual human feels bad about it. who knows?

imo all this "right/wrong way to fire people" is mostly bikeshedding. by far the worst part of being fired is the part where you don't have a job anymore. letting affected employees know as early as possible and paying severance are the only material ways to alleviate that.

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

#215

Post by newaccount74 »

fatbird wrote: post #63
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…

Do it the way AirBnB (or most other companies) did it: announce that large scale layoffs will be happening due to X and Y reasons, and that the individuals losing their jobs will be contacted over the next week. Then someone phones/zooms them individually and answers questions and lets them know right away what'll happen. This isn't about Covid, this is about the CEO making this easier on himself. I'm guessing he exp…

Spend a week waiting if you get a call or not? I'd prefer the mass zoom call to that shit.

The nice way to do it would be to send an email to everyone immediately telling them whether they are layed off or not, and schedule a personal one-on-one call with a manager or an HR person to answer any questions.

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

#216

Post by micah94 »

nradov wrote: post #148
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.”

The funny thing is that sharks are more likely to be eaten by dolphins (especially orcas) than vice versa. And sharks also get caught in nets. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/killer-wh... I guess Garg is just as weak on marine biology as he is on leadership and business ethics.

to be fair, he was talking about DUMB dolphins.

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

#217

Post by froggertoaster »

diego wrote: post #23

If you are a CEO, you have to rehearse the delivery for something like this. Even more now that these videos are certain to become public. To me, this video says that he's a mediocre leader. If I were on the board I would seek to replace him.

I'm really glad that there are people in this world who are able to watch a 3-4 minute video and make a judgment call about the person in the video from that. I appreciate all the value that smart people like yourself add to the world.

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

#218

Post by merubin75 »

In my opinion, everyone is focused on the wrong thing. HOW these layoffs occurred is not as important as WHY.

According to various sources, the company is about to go public at a $6.9 billion valuation. On top of that, it just got a $1.5 billion cash infusion.

Can someone tell me why the CEO and the executive team aren’t getting laid off, too?

“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.“

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

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

#220

Post by renewiltord »

wedowhatwedo wrote: post #65
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…

Each person being laid off deserves a private meeting with their manager where they are told this. The fact that they hired 900 people they now no longer need is a failing of the CEO by itself. If they work remotely, it can be a zoom meeting. Being told in a meeting with 900 people by someone you don't know is rude and tells me that anyone in leadership in this company are people I would not like to work for. The fac…

No. At mass layoffs it's better to do it instantly and en masse because otherwise you cause massive anxiety in everyone, including those who will stay. It's also why multiple rounds of layoffs are a bad idea. Just do everything at once and move on.
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