“Hello everyone, thanks for joining. I will not come to you with good news. As you know, the market has changed and we must move on to survive and continue to thrive and fulfill our mission. This is not news that you want to hear, but in the end it was my decision and I wanted you to hear it from me. It was a very, very difficult decision. This is the second time in my career that I have done this, and I don’t want to do it. ” So on December 1, Vishal Garg, chief executive of the American company Better.com, began laying off 900 employees through Zoom.
Faced with the shocked expressions on the workers’ faces, he added: “The last time I did this, I cried. This time I hope to be stronger. We are going to cut about 15% of the company for several reasons: market, efficiency, productivity and productivity. If you are on this call, you are part of a group of losers that will get fired. His contract was terminated with immediate effect. ” In his short three-minute speech, Garg did not inform employees of the approximately $ 750 million (roughly € 667 million) financial investment that Better.com recently received from the Japanese company Softbank.
“I loved those with whom I worked, they were and remain close friends. I had a boss who questioned my work in front of another employee. I was tense for several weeks, but finally she realized that it was not my fault, that someone had deceived her, we talked, and in the end she apologized to me. This was the only time in 20 years of work that I felt any threat, ”begins with an explanation from Christian Chapman, one of the fired workers, in statements to i.
“We received an invitation 10 minutes early for what looked like a general meeting, similar to the ones we hold regularly. We were not informed of the schedule, and there was a lot of confusion before, during and after, “says a 41-year-old nursing trained man who has always worked in the mortgage sector – through Bank of America and other companies – but was on Better. .com since February last year.
“He immediately got down to business, and I felt that I was kicked in the stomach. Did this really happen? Why was there not enough sympathy? Vishal simply traded sympathy for dollars: is this the worst version of capitalism? “He asks. “I was very confused and wondered if I should participate in this call. And suddenly it was over, and I didn’t have the opportunity to ask any questions, ”says a resident of McKinney, a city in the US state of Texas.
“I was shocked, overwhelmed and immediately thought of my children (as well as the children and families of my colleagues). Almost Christmas. And I wondered how this single act of insensibility would echo in every city in America, given that Vishal affects not only us individually, but also our family, friends, and acquaintances. Human choice is spreading throughout society, “said a former employee who still does not understand how Garg got the courage to close his and his colleagues’ sessions remotely, in addition to ending a video call without prior notice,” so no one could access anything. “.
“As a CEO, he was vulgar and swearing, but mobile and full of energy. Sometimes he acted admirably, ”he recalls. However, Christian continues to think that this sudden layoff of hundreds of people is “amazing,” not least because the only thing they get is the equivalent of their salary. Has Garg thought about the consequences of his actions? “No, it was all calculated, and he was cold and insensitive.”
“I know we are going through a pandemic, but he could work hard to talk to small groups of people, or even, for example, gradually call them into offices. I think he lacked empathy and foresight. The intervention could also start with him, and then we could talk to the HR representatives so that we can better understand everything and get information about the next steps, ”he explains, not believing in the sincerity of the CEO’s apology.
“It’s all about public relations,” he says, referring to a short note posted on Better.com by the founder of the company: “I want to apologize for how I handled the layoffs last week. I have not shown the proper respect and appreciation for the affected people and their contributions to Better. I made a mistake in performance. “
“Leaders eat last, so to speak, and should be offered opportunities for readaptation and additional training,” says Christian, making no secret of the fact that he and his colleagues are split between different divisions of the company – Charlotte, North Carolina; Costa Mesa and Oakland, California; New York and Houston, Texas for which new hires are being sought.
“Join the team that is changing the mindset of home ownership. We are looking for smart, talented people to help achieve this at every stage: from engineers and designers to real estate agents, ”says the Careers tab on the official Better.com website. In fact, there are enough offers, mainly for offices in New York – 25 and Texas – six, as well as for remote work – 22, at the date of the closure of this issue there is only one left for the office in Oakland.
“I would like to get a new position and I am open to opportunities in new areas,” concludes Christian, who has intensively researched job offers on LinkedIn and also published work about colleagues with whom he was directly involved in trying to find a job. only for him, but also for those who have followed him over the past 10 months.
Is the panorama of labor relations changing? “These results are to be expected to relate to leadership, especially in the work world, where stable work relationships are less and less common. However, if we later relate this to the pressures of the economic and social crisis, it is possible that some managers are adopting unethical strategies for dealing with workers, as in this case, ”analyzes Rui Gomez, assistant professor at the School of Psychology at Minho University, who has graduated cycle of study in one educational institution.
“Unstable working relationships, economic and financial pressures and tensions that impede the very survival of organizations can lead to forms of leadership that are ill-adapted to the proper functioning of the workplace. At the end of the day, the result is almost the same: organizational functional chains tend to give way to the most fragile structures, as in the case of workers with unstable work relationships, “- sums up the professor, who is more academically dedicated to studying the human factor in adapting to stress. in leadership and teamwork; and in life skills and human development education.
Gabriela Gonsalves is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of the Algarve. Regarding the possible difference between a personal layoff and Better.com’s type of layoff, the professor clarifies that “feelings and emotions will be different.”
“The way the CEO did it, besides being very impersonal – he didn’t speak to anyone in person, not even through a video call, he doesn’t make eye contact and thus almost zero or zero empathy – puts every person on no – a personal level and yes, of the non-personal, it is one in the middle of 900, “notes a doctorate in psychological sciences from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, in 2004.” So it refutes the staff. On the other hand, this is not a personal conversation, each person gets acquainted with an audience of people – some they know, others do not even know – and, in addition to exposure, they are forced not to “ be able ” to express their thoughts. emotions, because they don’t even have a place for that, ”emphasizes the current director of courses in psychology, master of human resources management and deputy director of the master in occupational safety and health.
“In this context, it is possible that strangeness and surprise will leave people unresponsive, ultimately due to social exchange, with a greater ability to manage the situation – that is, they are not alone. That way, they can more easily explain the firing by external factors, including with a very accessible scapegoat: the CEO, “he adds, noting that this impersonal way of firing” may bring some benefits to the firinger “because” he does not interferes, and therefore does not feel discomfort. “
“You may feel that you are making a speech, you do not need to deal with anyone’s eyes. Of course, here he is more notorious, because there are 900 people, it is obvious that if there were one, the discomfort would be almost the same as in face-to-face mode. But it’s even easier not to look at a person, ”he emphasizes.
“As for the future, at first glance, I would say that yes, new technologies allow this, and it is convenient for those who want to quit,” she answers the question about the possibility of mass layoffs, carried out virtually, becoming a trend. … “However, given the type of leadership that is increasingly being pursued, I believe that companies and leaders – in order to create a credible, attractive and informal public image – will be forced not to.”
As a reminder, Bird, the electric scooter rental company, fired more than 400 people through Zoom last March, and the situation with Better.com is unfortunately not unprecedented. At the time, Travis Vandersanden, a former Uber administrator and founder of Bird, arranged to meet with hundreds of employees, but no one knew who was on the list and, as in the case described by Christian Chapman, there was no way to ask questions. …
On that day, March 27, at about 10:30 am, employees joined the call, but the background image only had the word “Covid-19” written in capital letters and in dark gray. The robotic voice began by saying that “this is not the optimal voice for delivering this message.” The meeting, scheduled for half an hour, lasted only two minutes and consisted only of a monologue. Later, the Bird leader, like Better.com, admitted that he considered disabling the video “the most humane act”, but he should “call each of the victims separately.”
