CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The head of a digital mortgage lender is getting heat after firing hundreds of workers on Zoom. Vishal Garg, the CEO of better.com, asked more than 900 employees to join him on a Zoom call. He then told them their jobs were being terminated immediately. The call lasted less than three minutes, and comes less than four weeks before Christmas.
Nine percent of the company’s workforce was laid off, including the company’s entire Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Recruiting Team. According to Fortune magazine, the CEO later accused the employees of “stealing” from their colleagues and customers by only working two hours a day.
That’s a tough way to learn you’re out of work. We asked people at Romare Bearden Park in Charlotte about the worst way to get fired. One man told us, “The worst way to get fired is if I have to come in and do a whole shift, and you tell me, just don’t even come in tomorrow. Fired for that. We’re not doing that.”
Another told us, “Fired is fired to me. If you’re fired, you’re fired, whether you come in and get fired or whether you get fired over Zoom, you’re still fired.”
The laid-off employees will get severance and benefits. Last week, better.com received $750 million in cash as part of a deal with Softbank, a multinational conglomerate.
Our question of the night: how would you like to be fired?
This episode’s panel features:
WCCB TV’s Morgan Fogarty
WCCB News Edge contributor Ashley Anderson
WCCB News Edge contributor QCB