Yet Another Layoff Round At Better.com: Company Reportedly Plans To Fire Half Of Its Workforce!
Almost 3 months after laying off 900 employees through a Zoom call, American homeownership company Better.com is reportedly planning to dismiss around 4000 workers more, that is about 50% of its workforce.
Second round of layoffs waiting to happen?
As per the American online newspaper, TechCruch, ‘sources familiar with internal happenings of the company’ have cited that the layoffs by Better.com are poised to happen in early March. This massive lay off round was scheduled to take place in February 2022 but was moved as the earlier proposed dates got leaked.
In December 2021, Indian-American founder and CEO of Better.com, Vishal Garg had come under intense criticism for laying off more than 900 employees through a video call.
"If you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off."https://t.co/bmtdxpWtto CEO Vishal Garg laid off more than 900 employees on a Zoom webinar just before the holidays. https://t.co/XQ5akfy51W pic.twitter.com/A6W527oPyo
— CNN (@CNN) December 8, 2021
Garg had later apologized for his laying off style and said that he "blundered the execution of communicating the layoffs.” Post this debacle, CEO Vishal Garg had taken a month-long time off and meanwhile a leadership and cultural assessment was done to promote a positive culture at Better.com. However, if reports are to be believed, further layoffs can happen sometime in March 2022, leaving thousands of current employees at Better.com jobless.
Reasons for the large scale layoffs
During the pandemic, as people looked for online mortgage options, Better.com saw enormous growth. In April 2021, the company raised USD 500 million from Softbank that valued Better.com at USD 6 billion.
However, things turned topsy-turvy as markets flipped due to macroeconomic factors and interest rates shot up. This negatively impacted the company leading to the first round of layoffs. In December 2021, Vishal Garg had cited that ‘the market, performance and productivity were the reasons behind the decision to lay off employees in the United States and India.’
Now, to deal with the changing market conditions, Better.com intends to be in the purchase business and help people get new loans. But last year’s lay off episode has created a negative image of the company making it more challenging for the firm to attract new customers. All this has apparently prompted the second round of layoffs that will directly impact around 4,000 employees in the sales and operations roles, a lot of them based in the US and India.
No official statement on the second round of layoffs has been made by Better.com as yet.
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