Corporate Communications Failure

A breakdown of how Better.com's CEO Vishal Garg conducted one of the most criticized corporate layoff announcements in recent history.

The CEO held a Zoom call where he laid off 900 employees in an incredibly poor manner. He started with vague statements about "the market changing" and spent several minutes building up to the news, even talking about himself saying "last time I did this I cried."

After a long, awkward buildup, he finally announced "if you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group" and informed them their employment was terminated effective immediately. He offered 4 weeks severance and some benefits, then ended with generic statements about wishing them well in their next endeavors.

The commentator Shaan Puri points out the CEO was wearing what he calls "the douchebag uniform" - blue collared shirt with dark blue vest and khakis. He notes the CEO was worth hundreds of millions from the company's SPAC deal and funding from SoftBank, yet handled this sensitive situation terribly, focusing on himself rather than the employees losing their jobs.

This became a viral example of how not to handle corporate communications and layoffs, with the CEO being widely criticized across social media for his approach.