Better.com, a digital mortgage lender, has laid off a large number of employees twice in the last four months. Not once, but twice, the corporation mishandled a major layoff. First, on December 1, Better.com announced the layoffs of around 900 employees via a Zoom video chat that went viral. It wasn’t the first corporation to fire employees because to a global epidemic caused by Zoom. But it was the way it was handled that enraged so many people.
Vishal Garg, the company’s CEO, and co-founder was widely chastised for his cold and callous attitude. He then added insult to injury by publicly accusing the impacted employees of “stealing” from their coworkers and customers by being unproductive a few days later. Furthermore, CFO Kevin Ryan had just written an email to staff the day before, stating that the business will have $1 billion on its financial sheet by the end of the week. Garg “apologized” and took a month-long “break” in the weeks after the layoffs, employees recounted how he “led by fear,” and a number of top executives and two board members quit.
The firm then cut off an estimated 3,000 of its remaining 8,000 employees in the United States and India on March 8 and “inadvertently pushed out the severance pay slips too early,” according to the company. Many employees said they first learned when they saw a severance cheque in their Workday accounts, the company’s payroll software. When executives recognized their error, the checks were removed from certain people’s Workday accounts, according to those employees. The severance cheques arrived without any extra contact from the organization, according to one impacted employee who requested anonymity.
Looking back on these two layoffs, it’s evident that one thing is certain: Better.com should have managed both occurrences more effectively. Obviously, layoffs are difficult in any situation, but they are occasionally essential, especially in times like these, when businesses are once again considering layoffs as a method to reduce cash usage and attract fresh funding. We chatted with three human resources specialists who shared tips on how to make a layoff less unpleasant for everyone concerned. Better.com’s handling of the problem, according to Lisa Calick, head of HR Advisory Services at Wiss & Company, “is an example to all firms of what not to do.” “Involuntary terminations should always be communicated with sensitivity,” says the author.
