Better.com Fails to be Better - A My State MLS Reaction
Digital mortgage lender Better.com laid off over 3,000 employees in March 2022, just months after firing 900 employees on a Zoom call in December that made their founder and CEO Vishal Garg Internet famous.
In a leaked video which underscores the initial botched layoff, Garg said, "I was not disciplined over the past 18 months. We made $250 million last year, and you know what? We probably pissed away $200 million. We probably could have made more money last year."
Garg's treatment of employees has attracted a lot of negative publicity. In November 2020, Forbes quoted an e-mail in which he chided them as "a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS."
Garg ended the initial Zoom layoff meeting with a threat to the remaining employees. "If you felt in the past that people weren't looking, well, everyone is looking now," he warned. He added, "One hundred and ten percent of my time is going to be spent in the office making sure we're being as productive as possible." His final warning was, "You will not be allowed to fail twice."
Watch Dawn Pfaff, president of My State MLS, and Nicole Wilbur react to Better.com's policies in the market and their employees.
In the News
4-19-2022Better.com Cuts More Jobs in New Round of Layoffs
Better.com is cutting more jobs on Tuesday, the online mortgage lender's third round of layoffs since December and its first cuts since offering voluntary buyouts to some employees nearly two weeks ago.
A specific layoff number was not announced.
New York-based Better.com, which is backed by SoftBank Group Corp., laid off 900 people in December during a Zoom call led by Chief Executive Vishal Garg. Video of the call was posted on TikTok, drawing criticism that prompted Mr. Garg to apologize for blundering the way he communicated the layoffs. He took time away from the company in December and returned in mid-January. The company's board of directors said Mr. Garg worked with an executive coach during his break.In March, about 3,000 Better.com employees were laid off. And earlier this month, Better.com offered some workers a voluntary buyout.Tuesday's memo said newly laid-off workers will get between 60 and 80 days of severance pay and health insurance coverage until the end of July.
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