"My heart went out to the 900 employees sacked through Zoom by Vishal Garg," Harsh Goenka tweeted
Industrialist Harsh Goenka has criticised Better.com CEO Vishal Garg for choosing to fire employees virtually. Calling it “totally wrong”, he said that it is actions such as these that has earned corporations the reputation of being called “heartless”.
“My heart went out to the 900 employees sacked through Zoom by Vishal Garg. Totally wrong. Do it on a one on one basis. And in person. And not before Christmas and after a $750 million recent infusion. This is how corporates get a heartless tag,” Mr Goenka wrote on Twitter along with the firing session video.
In a bruising Zoom call on Wednesday, Mr Garg dismissed 900 of his workers. "You're not going to like what you're about to hear...If you're on this line, you're among the unfortunate ones who will be laid off. Your job with us has come to an end, and you will be leaving as soon as possible," the Indian-American CEO said, attributing the layoffs to factors such as the state of the market, performance, and productivity.
A video of the firing session was leaked on social media and has gone viral. Needless to say, Mr Garg received flak for this approach to sacking his employees.
In the video, Mr Garg can be heard saying, “This is the second time in my career I'm doing this and I do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried,” before proceeding to announce that those on the call have been fired.
Adding that the HR would contact the laid-off employees, the CEO said that the employees would be entitled to four weeks of severance, one month of full benefits and two months of cover-up for which the company will pay the premium.