Recently better.com fired about 900 people over zoom. Not only has this been viewed as terribly unprofessional on many LinkedIn forums and news sites, but it has led to a widespread PR nightmare for the company.
Is The Better.com Firing A Marketing Stunt?
Some people have suggested it is a marketing stunt but that is very unlikely. With employment status being a buzzing topic ever since the mass layoff/work from home exodus during covid, bad public relations in the area of employer and employee relations is vital at the moment.
Better.com exposes itself to being associated with the large corporate machine. As billionaires have been blacklisted and canceled for their trips to space or their brash tweets, a business runs a massive risk in trying to produce a marketing stunt around firing employees. This is why I highly doubt this being a marketing stunt.
What Is Better.com?
Better.com is a mortgage lending company located in New York City near the world trade center. Better Mortgage: Simple Online Mortgage. Through their company you can, “Buy or refinance your home with Better Mortgage for a seamless online mortgage experience backed by superior customer support.” Let’s hope they support their customers more than they support their employees.
Better Mortgage’s Public Relations Over The Past Two Years
Better.com has had a few public appearances over the past two years. Some good and some downright cringy! From a bad email referencing dumb dolphins to being recognized as one of the best places to work in the United States.
Better Mortgage Is “Apparently” One Of The Best Places To Work
Just this year Better.com won multiple recognitions as one of the best places to work due to work-life balance as well as employee treatment. I guess the experience working there is excellent until you are fired with 900 of your coworkers in a Zoom meeting. Of the organizations that recognized them as the best place to work LinkedIn listed them in the top 50 places to work. Great places to work also listed them and Forbes actually listed them as one of the top 15 places to promote a positive workplace.
Better Mortgage Recognized By Forbes Multiple Times
It is quite ironic that Vishal Garg the CEO of Better Mortgage who fired the employees via Zoom was recognized twice in the past two years by Forbes Magazine. This year their company was. recognized for being one of the top 15 companies to promote a positive workplace. Only a little over a year ago Vishal Garg was recognized in Forbes magazine for being an archetypal tech CEO. Vishal Garg was under scrutiny for mortgage fraud claims as well as treating his employees horribly with a “dumb dolphin” email:
“HELLO — WAKE UP BETTER TEAM, you are TOO DAMN SLOW. You are a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS and…DUMB DOLPHINS get caught in nets and eaten by sharks. SO STOP IT. STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME.”
This was his first bout of bad PR, is this trend likely to continue? With this most recent firing I can’t help but wonder if there is a board trying to push Vishal Garg out of the company. Due to his past poor PR stunts and then this new and additional firing video, he has placed the public’s poor view of of Better Mortgage squarely on his own shoulders. If Better.com were to remove Vishal Garg the company would largely save face and pass the blame with him.
I’m not sure what their next steps will be moving forwards, but this is an example of what you should not do within your business’s hiring and firing process.
Why Better Mortgage Fired 900 Employees Over Zoom
A majority of large business decisions come down to cut-and-dry numbers. It was more cost-effective to fire the mass of employees over a zoom call rather than paying for meeting after meeting of HR managers letting go of employees. The one problem with math is it neglects to take in emotional factors. The emotional fallout of their calculated actions are what we call a PR nightmare.
Why Didn’t Better Mortgage Think This Would Be A Bad Idea?
Time is money in business. Because speed and execution take priority it is likely not a lot of people know about this massive firing. It is also likely they fired their PR team after getting such great articles in Forbes Magazine and LinkedIn.
How To Avoid PR Problems
Your business can avoid PR problems by consulting a marketing or PR firm that specializes in managing business actions. Phoning a friend can save you from getting the answer wrong. Due to Better Mortgage prioritizing their bottom line they may completely undermine their business which has led to a massively costly mistake.
Get a second opinion on your business’s actions to prevent problems in the future.