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“If you are participating in this video meeting, then you are part of a fired, hapless group. Your employment will end with immediate effect.“. The announcement was made by Vishal Garg, CEO of real estate company Better, during a Zoom meeting held last Wednesday. days later it was made public… More than 900 employees were dismissed, about 9% of the company’s employees.
“This is the second time in my career that I have done this. and I don’t want to do that. The last time I did it I cried“, – admitted Garg in a conversation that lasted about three minutes. V market efficiency, productivity and productivity there were reasons, according to the CEO, that justified the layoffs. However, Fortune, who had access to messages posted on the anonymous platform, showed that Vishal Garg he accused the employees of “stealing” from their colleagues and clients, since they do not work and only work two hours a day.
“The need to be fired is inconvenient, especially at this time of year,” said the head of the finance department. in a statement to CNN Business. “However, a strong balance sheet and a reduced and focused workforce have forced us to attack the radically evolving real estate market,” he said.
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The HR department will now begin the layoff process, the CEO added, explaining in detail to former employees what compensation they would be entitled to.
Anne Frank, Executive President of the UK Chartered Management Institute, highlighted: on BBC that this process could have negative consequences for the future business of Better.
This is a customer oriented business where they try to provide mortgages to people. I’m sure a lot of clients or potential clients think, “Fire, if they treat employees this way, I wonder how they treat clients?” – he explained.
Better hired a lot of staff during the pandemic, and according to the BBC, Garg will tell the team that he admitted he hired “Too many” and “the wrong people” that “crashed” the company, he said.
This isn’t the first time a real estate CEO has been involved in disputes over how he treats workers. In November, Forbes disclosed an email that he himself sent to employees, where he called employees “slow”, accusing them of “shame”…
Last week, Better received a $ 750 million (about € 664 million) infusion from SoftBank, a Japanese company and major investor.
