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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

#381

Post by Ensorceled »

irrational wrote: post #129

Could be worse. There were mass layoffs in one part of my company many years ago. About half the people were fired and the other half retained. HR mixed up the packets for each group. The not fired got the packets destined for the people being fired and vice versa. It was a disaster.

One company I had just left laid off half the staff. HR said there was an offsite meeting and divided everybody into two buses. One bus went to a offsite location to get laid off, the other went to a different offsite location where the layoffs were socialized. The buses went in different directions.

I got a bunch of messages from my former team during the bus ride; half were on one bus and the rest on the other bus. They were texting each other (and me) and quickly figured out what was going on, and which bus was the layoff bus.

Then they all had another half hour on the buses ...

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

#382

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

ralph84 wrote: post #33
WORMS_EAT_WORMS wrote: post #18

> "the market has changed, as you know" For someone who is out of the loop, what does this mean?

Rising interest rates + rising house prices = fewer mortgage applications

wait, didn't we have that subprime crisis, because rising interest rates caused people to default on their mortgages? Will we have a rerun of this?

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

#383

Post by Sebb767 »

jerf wrote: post #329
tshaddox wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> After the first 10 minutes everyone will know what their meeting is about and it makes the problem worse. Huh? It’s not a surprise birthday party. I’m not sure why a key goal would be that each fired person is taken completely by surprise.

The reasons why may not be obvious if you're not a manager or haven't run a large organization before, but the simple truth is, "employees" are not a magically ethical bunch of people simply by virtue of being the underdog and poor and downtrodden and being all fired and stuff. You do not want a significant number of employees running around who are either uncertain they are going to be fired for a significant period…

> If a company told me they were going to fire me in two weeks, the worst risk the company would be taking is that I might just decide that they can't fire me in two weeks because I quit.

Maybe that's just a German thing, but here you'd (usually) be loosing the severance pay and some social benefits if you quit instead of being fired w/o direct cause.

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

#384

Post by vanusa »

Laremere wrote: post #284

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29437642 Copying my comment from there: C suites tend to want to personalize messages by adding context to how they feel, but in cases of such severely negative news it's always going to come off badly. "Firing people hurts my feelings" is a moot point unless you've slashed your and the rest of leadership's paychecks. I'm mixed on the method of putting a bunch…

In those cases, word about the layoffs travel much quicker than the layoffs, and people will spend all day with dread about whether they are laid off or not.

Yes, it's a trade-off.

But the upshot of the depersonalized mass firing rituals is that they feel like an extra slap in the face to those affected (in addition to the very existential issues they're suddenly forced to deal with). And plus, to the outside world, it just looks bad.

So the balance of considerations would seem to favor 1:1 or small group settings, if at all possible.

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

#385

Post by rkk3 »

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 ?

Agreed, to characterize it as such is a dis-service to people who have suffered abuse in the workplace.

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

#386

Post by sporkland »

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 my mind it wasn't as much the large group vs individual. It's how he did it. He made it about himself, which is rule #1 no no about firing or laying people off. No one cares about how you feel and if you cried last time. You're not the one losing your job. Put on your manager pants and be there for the employees.

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

#387

Post by bumby »

throwanem wrote: post #321
bumby wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it boils down to leadership is really about managing relationships. This method is just too impersonal for most people, just like breaking off a romantic relationship via text is generally considered weak and frowned upon.

I suspect it is rare, though I suppose not impossible, that anyone needs to break off 900 romantic relationships at once.

I understand your point, but if there aren’t subordinate leaders below the CEO who can perform this function, I suspect they have organizational structure problems.

I believe a good approach would be to have those first line leaders (who actually have that relationship built with their subordinates) break the bad news and then the CEO speak to everybody and own the decision.

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

#388

Post by [deleted] »

johndubchak wrote: post #275
bumby wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it boils down to leadership is really about managing relationships. This method is just too impersonal for most people, just like breaking off a romantic relationship via text is generally considered weak and frowned upon.

Wait, you're not supposed to break up over text? Since when?!?!?!

[deleted]

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

#389

Post by [deleted] »

wave_function wrote: post #285
nradov wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I bet this dude talks a lot about alpha wolves too

[deleted]

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

#390

Post by otto2 »

Sebb767 wrote: post #383
jerf wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reasons why may not be obvious if you're not a manager or haven't run a large organization before, but the simple truth is, "employees" are not a magically ethical bunch of people simply by virtue of being the underdog and poor and downtrodden and being all fired and stuff. You do not want a significant number of employees running around who are either uncertain they are going to be fired for a significant period…

> If a company told me they were going to fire me in two weeks, the worst risk the company would be taking is that I might just decide that they can't fire me in two weeks because I quit. Maybe that's just a German thing, but here you'd (usually) be loosing the severance pay and some social benefits if you quit instead of being fired w/o direct cause.

In Canada/Quebec too.
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