The hits just keep coming for Better.com CEO Vishal Garg, who earlier this month fired 900 employees during a short Zoom call. Garg is currently taking a leave of absence while an outside investigator looks into the matter.
It now looks like Garg tried to ensure the fired employees only received one week of severance pay following his sudden announcement, Business Insider reported. Two people with direct knowledge of the meetings told the outlet that Garg tried to make sure the fired employees only received one or two weeks of severance pay even though the company gave no indication the firings were coming.
“The people — current and former employees — also told Insider that other executives pushed for periods of two months or 10 weeks, and that several even walked out of the discussion over the small size of Garg’s proposed package,” the outlet reported. “Garg relented somewhat, offering employees four weeks of severance at the time of the layoffs, but that number was later increased to 60 days after lawyers threatened to sue the company for violating US law concerning advance notice for ‘mass layoffs.’”
“One of the sources told Insider that Garg was aware that his actions potentially violated the WARN Act, which requires 60 days’ notice or pay before conducting large-scale layoffs,” the outlet continued.
The Daily Wire reported earlier this month that Garg called a Zoom meeting to fire the employees.
“If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off,” Garg said during the meeting. “Your employment here is terminated effective immediately.”
He also told the employees that they would be receiving an email from the human resources department detailing their benefits and severance.
Garg then told the people on the call that market efficiency, performance, and productivity were the reasons they were being fired. Fortune reported that days after the firing, Garg “posted a series of messages seen by Fortune on an anonymous professional network,” in which he accused the fired employees of “stealing” from coworkers and customers due to their unproductivity. The outlet reported that he claimed at least some of those who were fired had only worked two hours a day.
CNN reported that the call firing the employees was “short and emotionless.”
“This is the second time in my career I’m doing this and I do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried,” Garg said during the call, apparently showing no emotion.
The outlet also reported that the diversity, equity, and inclusion recruiting team was among the fired employees, a rarity for companies these days, who often hire more and more people to improve diversity, with little to no discernible effect.
Garg apologized for the mass firing days later, The Daily Wire reported.
“I want to apologize for the way I handled the layoffs last week,” Garg wrote in a letter. “I failed to show the appropriate amount of respect and appreciation for the individuals who were affected and for their contributions to Better.”
“I own the decision to do the layoffs, but in communicating it I blundered the execution. In doing so, I embarrassed you,” he continued. “I realize that the way I communicated this news made a difficult situation worse. I am deeply sorry and am committed to learning from this situation and doing more to be the leader that you expect me to be.”
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Source: Dailywire
