better.com
not doing so good it's a digital
mortgage lender with offices in oakland
and it just laid off 900
employees all at once
all during a zoom meeting i'm not even
kidding
so here's ceo vishal garg carrying out
the mass firing
the market has changed as you know
and
we have to move
with it in order to survive so that
hopefully we can continue to thrive and
deliver on a mission
this isn't news that you're going to
want to hear
but ultimately it was
my decision
and
i wanted you to hear from me
it's been a really really challenging
decision to make
i've this is the second time in my
career i'm doing this and i do not do
not want to do this the last time i did
it i cried
um this time i hope to be stronger
but we are laying off about 15
of the company if you're on this call
you are
part of the unlucky group being laid off
your employment here is terminated
effective immediately
what
i mean look
don't feel bad for the employees 900 of
them who were part of that call
feel bad for the poor poor ceo who raked
in a 25 million dollar bonus last year
because the last time he had to do it he
cried
and so this is a very very traumatic
experience for him okay
let's let's show some compassion let's
show some sympathy what a garbage human
being
really
the the the foe oh i'm just really
heartbroken over this
um i don't really care too much to meet
with you individually
i'm just doing this all
suddenly
without any warning through a zoom call
but i i want you guys to understand of
course he's not
like experiencing grief because he's
doing this
it's a super easy process for him he
doesn't have to see anyone face to face
he doesn't have to deal with uh anyone's
tears anyone freaking out in his office
over the fact that they have families to
feed he has to do it through a zoom call
900 people
and he just pretends like it's it's
really tearing him apart it's a really
difficult thing to do
now uh
he got backlash for this because some of
the employees who had been terminated
filmed the whole thing and put out the
video which is why we have it so thank
you to those employees and i feel awful
for them
uh but since he got some backlash he
decided
the best way to handle this
is to trash the employees who i fired
yeah it's a good it's a good good play
so he wrote this
you guys know that at least
250 of the people terminated were
working an average of two hours a day
while clocking in eight plus hours a day
in the payroll system
they were stealing from you
and stealing from our customers who paid
the bills that pay our bills
get educated garg wrote according to a
blind post viewed by fortune
now fortune hit him up and was like yo
did you
are you the one who wrote this
and he confirmed yes he is in fact the
person who wrote that callous and
disgusting post
i don't believe him
besides which uh isn't that a failure
for the executive team
if they hired a bunch of people and had
them working only two hours a day
it seems like there was some
incompetence at the very top
but anyway let me give you more
he said this after confirming that he
had written that callous post
i i think that could have been phrased
differently but honestly the sentiment
is there
uh now the dude is super wealthy okay so
uh
he might be really
holding back tears
but in reality uh the daily beast
reports that he obtained a 25 million
bonus 25 million dollar bonus in 2020
that's one year that's just his bonus
that's just his bonus
and the company's value uh valuation
indicates that it's uh worth
a lot of money seven billion dollars to
be exact okay
and why did this happen i just want to
be clear
this didn't happen because oh
the company is really struggling we're
failing we don't know what to do we
don't we're not making enough revenue in
order to carry all these employees we
just no this is part of a deal
that the executives that better made
with the investors
because they just got a pretty pretty
nice chunk of change okay
so let me give you those details because
this is this is what really goes on this
is how business really works blank check
company aurora acquisition corp and
softbank have decided to amend the terms
of their financing agreement to provide
better with half of the 1.5 billion
dollars they committed immediately
instead of waiting till the deal closes
under the new arrangement capital hits
the company's balance sheet now faster
than originally planned and puts more
money on the balance sheet overall to
further
to fuel
further growth now when they talk about
growth they're talking about
an increase in profits and how does a
corporation increase their profits by
cutting costs that's one of the ways
that they do it and what is the most
costly element of a business
it's the labor
so
during these negotiations i have no
doubt i have no doubt
that the argument was listen we can cut
a significant percentage of our
workforce which will then increase
profits and will provide you a better
return on your investment
capiche does that sound good to you so
this was something predetermined in the
negotiating process that's how it works
and by the way ceos
usually have their compensation
tied to
let's say uh if it's a publicly traded
company to uh the value of the shares
and the stock market
you know they're again their
pay is tied to the equity that they have
in the company
and so it's really killing two birds
with one stone it's it's providing a
higher uh you know return on investment
for the investors which is what they
want
and uh based on how the compensation
package is set up for the executives
they get an increase in pay as well so
they get rewarded for doing what the ceo
did here
and by the way the backlash wasn't just
from ordinary americans like you and me
apparently uh three different executives
decided to resign after this whole
debacle all of them working in the pr
area of the of the company
and i can kind of understand why who the
hell wants to do positive pr or do spin
after the story has exposed the callous
nature of how this business really works
but it's not just this business this is
how the model works in most companies in
most corporations
um the cfo for instance his name is
kevin ryan said this
we pulled forward the funding of our
s-pac deal
with this new structure the company will
fortify our balance sheet and position
us as extremely well capitalized in a
tough mortgage market surviving is
winning and capital ensures survival
but the end of this by the end of this
week we
expect to have one billion dollars of
cash on the company's balance sheet
and then later while uh
talking with techcrunch he said this
having to conduct layoffs is gut
wrenching really they're really torn up
about it especially this time of the
year remember christmas is coming up
however a fortress balance sheet and a
reduced and focused workforce together
set us up to play offense going into a
radically evolving home ownership market
so guys
just
again
every time
you hear about
the great resignation
every time you hear about workers
refusing to go back to the companies
that they used to work for or were
working for during the pandemic or
before the pandemic this is the reason
this is the messaging that workers get
across the country in various companies
various businesses
they're told over and over again that
they're disposable that they're not
valued that the companies that they
devote their time and energy for not
only refuse to share the wealth
generated by their labor
but that they can be fired at any moment
through a zoom call with hundreds of
other colleagues
and it doesn't matter they'll pay lip
service about how torn up they are about
oh we're so torn up i cried last time i
cried last time but at the end of the
day they don't give a crap about you
because they want to provide the return
on investment for the investors
and ensure that the executives get a
nice little compensation package
they're not crying about it this is how
it really works this was predetermined
through the negotiations
and i love seeing
the ceo get dragged the way he deserves
to i hope more of these uh
executives take a stand and step down
who the hell wants to be associated with
a company like this but again it's not
just about this company
this is what goes on in most major
corporations most multinational
corporations
uh you know throughout this country
workers are considered disposable even
though they're the ones who generate the
revenue that allows for the corporation
to exist and thrive in the first place
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