In the face of a storm of reactions for laying off 900 employees via the Zoom video conferencing platform, the head of a US mortgage site today apologized, acknowledging the brutality of his methods.
"I did not show enough respect and recognition for the people who were fired and for their contribution," Visal Garg, CEO of Better.com, admitted in an e-mail to his staff yesterday. "I take responsibility for the dismissals, but in terms of how they communicated, I made a mistake and in doing so, I offended you," Garg continued.
On December 1, the video, in which Garg announced the workers' dismissal, was widely circulated in the US media and on social media, angering many users.
"The last time I did that, I cried," he said, in a distant tone. "I hope to be stronger this time," he added, citing market developments to justify his decision. He then explained without any trace of emotion: "if you participate in this meeting, you belong to the group of unlucky people who are fired". With immediate effect.
A few days after the Zoom call, Visal Garg accused some of the fired employees of "stealing" the company "by working an average of two hours a day, despite declaring eight hours in the staff register", in an unsigned article on a blog, which, however, was identified by Forbes magazine.
