In the future we can deep fake this. "Hello $employee_name, you have been working for us since $hired_at, regrettably we chose to terminate your contract $immediately. We will pay you $this_much_money and $these_benefits."
Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call
221–230 of 480 posts
Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call
#222So, not to give away too much information about myself (sorry), but this seems somewhat reminiscent of what happened to me in 2019. The problem is, they didn't set up their Zoom server very well and I had the worst time logging in, as it was having trouble handling the load, so I logged in, in the middle of the call only to be laid off, lol =)
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2020/09/02/big-fish...
Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call
#223I believe Better.com also offers 'unlimited' vacation.
Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call
#224Earlier 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.”
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.
> It's not the virtual nature, it's the lazy mass group layoff that's objectionable and disrespectful.
Is it? I can plausibly make the other argument that not having to do it yourself and offloading it to middle managers/HR is also "objectionable and disrespectful".
Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call
#225Oh I can top that. I worked for a startup that was acquired by a mega-conglomerate a few years back. They told us that there was an important meeting Monday at 8 AM and to make sure to be there on time. So we all showed up, dialed into the remote meeting (phone call, not even zoom) and it was a recorded message informing us that we were all terminated effective immediately and we would receive details of severance via personal email. Oh yeah and it was the week before Thanksgiving.
Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call
#226If 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.
Are you the person in the video?
Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call
#227Earlier 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 ?
I didn't know verbal/emotional abuse requires a minimum word count! Please tell, what is the magic number that serves as the threshold?
Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
Back office (paperwork reviews and processing) was/is done in India, hence the time zone latency. They tried to make up for it with the web app, but mortgage banking relies on too many people processes (title, survey, appraisal, underwriting [even with automated underwriting and “Day One Certainty”] etc) to wring enough efficiencies to scale in a SaaSy sort of way. I was in the middle of a refi with them during this…
where did you go instead? i was halfway through uploading all my stuff to Better
https://www.aimloan.com/
(no affiliation)
Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call
#229If 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 thought the same. So say you are in a situation where you can't offer people 1:1s to understand what happened - which sounds to me like the people laid off were more or less chosen at random - but let's say you literally have to do it like this. At least don't do it so disrespectful. He talks about his feelings but he seems mildly awkward and a bit bored at best, seems like all the preparation he put into this is t…
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Re: Better.com CEO fires 900 employees on Zoom call
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
How would you prefer it was done?
There's a template. You invite the company into an all-hands. You tell the entire company. During that, account lockouts are happening. Then, you have individual appointments between the individual manager and HR (sometimes, HR+). The meeting itself is short and gives the details of the separation. Yes, it will have to be a zoom call, but the CEO does not make it about themselves, and sticks to a script that's been r…
thanks, yeah I was watching the video and noticed the recipient of the call frantically typing, likely knowing that account lockouts are coming.