US firm's boss sacks 900 employees over Zoom

The boss of a US firm has been criticised after he fired around 900 of his staff on a single Zoom call.

"If you're on this call you're part of the unlucky group being laid off," said Vishal Garg, chief executive of mortgage firm Better.com, on the call, later uploaded to social media.

Comments on social media said it was "cold", "harsh" and "a horrible move", especially in the run up to Christmas.

"Last time I did [this] I cried," Mr Garg told the staff on the call.

"I wish the news were different. I wish we were thriving," he said. This time his tone was measured and he referred to notes on the desk in front of him.

Mr Garg said staff performance and productivity, and market changes lay behind the mass-firing of what he said was 15% of Better.com's workforce.

He didn't mention the $750m (£565m) cash infusion Better.com received from investors last week.

The BBC has contacted Better.com for a response.

After the firing Fortune magazine confirmed that Mr Garg was the author of a previously written anonymous blog post in which he accused sacked staff at his firm of "stealing" from their colleagues and customers by being unproductive and only working two hours a day, while claiming for eight or more.

The company, which aims to use technology to make the housebuying process "faster and more efficient", is backed by Japanese conglomerate Softbank and is worth around $6bn (£4.53bn).
Mr Garg's management style has been criticised before, after an email that he sent to staff that was obtained by Forbes last year.

In the email, Mr Garb wrote: "You are TOO DAMN SLOW. You are a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS... SO STOP IT. STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME."

-- Not empathetic --

Gemma Dale, lecturer in employment law and business studies at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK said this was "no way to lead an organisation".

A mass-firing like this would not be legal in the UK, she said.

"Just because you can do this in America, doesn't mean you should," she added.
"There are ways to do these things which, even in difficult conditions, are empathetic and decent."

It could harm the firm as well as its staff she said as "existing employees will look to how the company treats people as a signal to how it will treat them in the future".

"There are proper channels through which to deal with staff who aren't meeting the required standards or amounts of work and while employers are within their right to take the appropriate action, there is a right way to do these things both morally and legally".

SOURCE: BBC NEWS