Remember this name: Vishal Garg.
“My name is Vishal Garg and I fired 900 employees on a single Zoom call. Yes, I am that moron.”
Vishal is/was the Chief Executive Officer of a digital mortgage company called Better.com.
Better.com — who are they?
Better.com, founded in 2016, operates in the United States and India with its headquarters in New York. It is currently pursuing a SPAC merger (resulting in a public company) with Aurora Acquisition Corporation in a deal valued at $7.7B — $7,700,000,000.
Better.com (backed by SoftBank) decided to layoff 900 employees.
CEO Vishal Garg decided he would fire the 900 employees via a single enmasse Zoom call. Stop right there. Would you ever fire 900 employees in a single 3 minute Zoom call?
I know some of y’all will doubt the intimacy of such an arrangement, but Vishal didn’t. He had a Zoom call and told his 900 employees, “You’re fired!”
Vishal has subsequently offered up that he “blundered the execution” of the termination of the 900 employees.
Haha, Vishal, babe, you blundered? You blundered?
Vishal Garg holds the Guinness Book of Records for the most persons fired in a 3-minute Zoom call. But, he realizes he blundered.
So what happened, Big Red Car?
Recent developments:
1. Former CEO Vishal Garg is taking some time off to get his head right. I am smelling a board mandate here.
2. Chief Financial Officer Kevin Ryan will step in to manage day-to-day operations and will report solely to the board (not to his former boss Vishal).
3. Three top executives at Better.com have resigned — head of marketing, head of public relations,, and VP of communications. All three noted the reason they resigned is the Vishal Garg mass firing via Zoom.
Another insider offered this bit of wisdom:
“Anyone who is leaving right now, these are folks that have tried to make it work, and given their all to a company they believe in, but who ultimately get undermined by a CEO that doesn’t take advice from anyone and believes he’s always right.”
4. In an effort to buy some peace, the company will now pay fired workers 8 weeks of severance pay as opposed to the original 4 weeks.
5. Do not think that Better.com suddenly found a heart. No.
What happened is there is a law called the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act that requires 60 days notice when making a layoff.
The new 60 day severance payment arrangement means the company skates under the WARN Act.
How stupid are you?
This is a test to determine how stupid we all are. Are you this stupid? I doubt it, but old Vishal built a multi-billion dollar company, so he’s not that stupid, but he sure gave us food for thought, no?
Are you this stupid (and heartless) that you would fire 900 employees in a single 3-minute Zoom call?
Vishal Garg is a dick. Do not be like Vishal Garg even if you have to layoff a lot of folks. Do not be a dick.
We now return to our holiday spirit.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Holiday Greetings!
Safe bet? Vishal Garg is getting coal for Christmas. Naughty. Naughty. Naughty.