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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

#451

Post by dmode »

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…

Airbnb laid off 25% of the workforce, that has widely been regarded as a model for layoffs 1. Every employee had a zoom 1:1 2. Employees were given several months of pay, benefits, and allowed to keep their laptops 3. Employees were allowed to vest their stocks for the next window 4. Airbnb created an alumni, portal, slack channel, and a resume book to help them find next jobs 5. Founders hosted several zoom calls for impacted and non impacted employees. The last one was a 10 min standing ovation to departed employees 6. Airbnb also created a policy with a right to first job to former employees

This was the right way to do layoffs

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

#453

Post by miiiiiike »

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…

Better killed our deal this Summer.

TL;DR: ALWAYS USE A LOCAL LENDER.

For some reason they cancelled our inspection without telling us or the sellers. Worse, they told the inspector that the inspection was cancelled because we were changing lenders.

The listing agent eventually called the inspectors to find out what was up and the sellers were furious when they heard we were changing lenders. We were accused of all sorts of bad faith tricks to keep the home under contract.

Better’s lie set the tone for the rest of the transaction. We missed all of our deadlines, the sellers walked away, and we were stuck. It got so bad that our agent refused to try to resurrect the deal with a new offer.

I eventually convinced a local lender to guarantee that she could put a loan together in less than 26 days and made our agent bring a new offer to the listing agent. If he hadn’t, I would have done it myself.

The sellers were suspicious so they set a new closing date that was months later than the original. We’d already packed so we had to live in a completely NYC apartment with boxes stacked floor to ceiling for months (I had to pack my desk just to make room for our boxes. Instead of a week or two, I had to work on the floor all summer. My back and neck still hurt), AND my gf missed her first Summer in the Midwest (where Winter is the best 8 months of the year.)

Better was awful. This is just one story, there are a few others from the months we had to deal with them. If a mistake is made Better is not structured to recover from it. They just blame their byzantine process and babble about how x, y, and x departments are on it, but, no, you cannot contact anyone in those departments.

Always use a local lender.

I’m so glad that we’re not going to be sending money to Better for the next 30 years.

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

#454

Post by fguerson »

Such lack of empathy is heart-breaking and disrespectful, but don't give up there are many companies who require talented employees like you.

To everyone affected by this layoff, my company DailyRemote.com offers remote jobs in various fields to help people find amazing remote jobs without paying a penny.

[0] https://dailyremote.com

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

#455

Post by watwut »

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…

That is very American company thing. Non American companies dont do "escort you away the very same day" thing.

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

#456

Post by golergka »

acdha wrote: post #372
golergka wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Almost nobody can handle being that much of a lazy, sleazy piece of crap. What are you talking about? Entire countries have been doing it for decades before ending up bankrupt.

Do you have examples? This sounds rather a lot like a racist stereotype unless you’re using “entire countries” to mean something more like corrupt elites misdirecting people who don’t have alternatives.

USSR, for one. Are you accusing me of being racist against myself?

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

#457

Post by rvba »

2fast4you wrote: post #360
tucnak wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You found me.

You are 100% productive for 8 hours a day?

"The consulting way" is to spend 12-14 hours at work to be productive for 9-10.

Similar to crunch, but crunch can be more brutal.

Also probably you arent as effective if you just worked for 8 hours, you are still productive though.

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

#458

Post by acdha »

golergka wrote: post #456
acdha wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have examples? This sounds rather a lot like a racist stereotype unless you’re using “entire countries” to mean something more like corrupt elites misdirecting people who don’t have alternatives.

USSR, for one. Are you accusing me of being racist against myself?

That was actually the country I had in mind with the second part of my comment because the emigrants I’ve known always made it sound like the problem was squandering productivity rather than innate laziness — if your boss is corrupt and incompetent, and you don’t work harder because you know there will be no benefit from doing so, “lazy” doesn’t seem accurate.

A similar story revolves around the American South. Southerners used to be stereotyped as lazy until indoor plumbing & antiparasitic drugs eradicated hookworm and air conditioning mitigated the climate’s impact on office productivity. “Lazy” was, well, a lazy way to characterize a more complicated situation.

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

#459

Post by jiriknesl »

thraway_bparrot wrote: post #138
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…

There is no right way to layoff 900 people simultaneously, in the same way there is no right way to break up with someone who doesn't want to break up with you. There are just bad ways and worse ways. If you try to give everyone a 1:1 zoom call with their manager, the inevitable outcome is that the rumor mill starts turning and everyone spends the day terrified for their job, because the layoffs happen in a drip feed…

Yes but what if the CEO is right and people were really tracking 8 hours of work a day and working 2? Isn't this a reason to be upset?

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

#460

Post by bartread »

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…

As others have pointed out, the Zoom part isn't the big problem here. The delivery is.

Just for starters, within under a minute he's made the whole thing about him. Comments like, "Last time I cried," and, "I hope I'll be stronger this time," are grossly inappropriate. Nobody gives a shit how he feels, nor should they. This isn't hard for him, it's hard for the people he's firing. He shows a complete lack of respect for his now former employees by making it all about him. He should have made it about them. He should have showed them some compassion and respect.

Then there's the framing, the room, and his body language. He's miles away, barely looking at the camera, and constantly referring to notes printed out on paper. Not to mention he looks casual to the point of shabbiness, both in his dress and his demeanour, and there's distracting clutter around him. This is not hard to get right: sit directly in front of your laptop, and close enough to show head and shoulders only; look directly into the camera; have your notes on the screen and aligned with the camera so you don't have to keep looking away to refer to them; above all, STOP TALKING ABOUT YOURSELF.

I could go on but the short version is that the way he handled the situation - a situation which for many of those losing their jobs would probably put them in dire financial straits - was extremely unprofessional and disrespectful.

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