The CEO Of Better.com Just Laid Off 900 Employees In A Zoom Call & The Video Is The Worst

There's no easy way to announce mass layoffs just before the holidays, but there are better ways to do it than to axe everyone over a single Zoom call.

Better.com CEO Vishal Garg is getting roasted online after laying off more than 900 employees in a single video call last week. Videos of the call have since been posted on YouTube and TikTok, where Garg can be heard delivering the "not-great news" in a three-minute statement.

Garg starts the video by saying that "this isn't news that you're going to want to hear," before saying that it's the second time in his career that he's had to do something like this.

"The last time I did it, I cried. This time I hope to be stronger," he says. He then goes on to say that he's laying off about 15% of the real estate company's staff.

"If you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group being laid off."

Garg cites "the market, efficiency and performances" for the layoffs, and says that people would get severance and benefits.

A few now-ex employees recorded the call off their laptops and posted the videos online.

"F*** you, dude," one person says in a video posted on TikTok.

Christian Chapman, a former employee at the company, said it felt "like being kicked in the gut" in a reaction video he posted on YouTube.

"It completely spun me upside down," he said. “I’ve got five kids, and so that’s just the news you want to hear right before Christmas.”

Better.com hasn't issued a statement about the layoffs, but a spokesperson did tell SFGate that it laid off 9% of its staff, not 15% as Garg said in the video.

Better.com is an online mortgage lender that Forbes recently described as a $7.7 billion “unicorn.” The company reportedly received a US$750 million cash infusion a few days before the layoffs.