Garg got rid of the company’s entire diversity, equity and inclusion team, which deals with complaints about racism and sexism in the workplace.
Last December, Vishal Garg, CEO of Better.com, which laid off 900 workers in a Zoom call, has been reinstated as the mortgage lender’s top boss after taking “time off to reflect on his leadership.”
“If you are on this call, you are part of the unfortunate group that is being fired,” Vishal Garg, CEO of mortgage firm Better.com, told about 900 employees at the virtual meeting.
In a letter sent to employees on Tuesday, the CEO announced that he would be returning after time spent considering “the leader he wanted to be.”
‘I understand how difficult these last few weeks have been. I am deeply sorry for the distress, distraction and embarrassment my actions have caused,” he wrote in the email. “I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about where we are as a company and what kind of leadership Better needs…and the leader I want to be.” It is unclear when he will resume his ‘full-time duties’ and what he has done during his time away to change his leadership style. But the company plans to hire new executives.
Following the firings over a Zoom call, Garg struck an aggressive tone as he accused employees of stealing time and told the rest of the staff that they would not be allowed to fail twice. ‘You will be encouraged to fail once. But failing twice is not allowed. Missing deadlines will not be acceptable,” he said in a digital meeting in December.
Then, in a blog post, he attacked fired employees for being so ‘lazy’ that they effectively ‘stole’ customers. The father of three children wrote in an apology on the professional network Blind: “Do you know that at least 250 of the people laid off were working an average of 2 hours a day while recording more than 8 hours a day in the payroll system?” ‘They were stealing from you and stealing from our customers who pay the bills who pay our bills. Educate yourselves,’ he had written.
He later apologized for his actions, issuing a humiliating apology for his actions as CEO and taking a leave of absence to “reflect on his leadership.” “I want to apologize for the way I handled the layoffs last week,” Garg wrote in a letter addressed to employees and later posted on the company’s website in December. ‘I failed to show the proper amount of respect and appreciation for the people affected and for their contributions to Better. ‘I am the owner of the decision to make the dismissals, but by communicating it I screwed up the execution. By doing so, I embarrassed you,” he added. His letter continued: ‘I realize that the manner in which I communicated this news made a difficult situation worse. I am deeply sorry and I am committed to learning from this situation and doing more to be the leader you expect me to be.
Garg ditched the company’s entire diversity, equity and inclusion team, which deals with complaints about racism and sexism in the workplace, and three top executives have since voluntarily resigned. Better.com uses technology to make the home buying process faster and more efficient. (I)
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