Vishal Garg: Better CEO reportedly ‘taking time off effective immediately’ after firing 900 employees over Zoom

The company’s board is calling in an outside firm to perform leadership assessments

Better.com CEO Vishal Garg announced that he is "taking time off effective immediately", following backlash after he fired 900 employees over a Zoom call last week.

Mr Garg fired 900 employees last Wednesday, blindsiding them during a Zoom call in which he terminated their jobs "effective immediately”.

Despite claiming that he desperately did not want to fire the employees and that he was going to do his best not to cry, Mr Garg later went on the disparage the terminated workers in an anonymous blog post, calling them "lazy and unproductive" and accusing them of stealing from the company.

After a recording of the Zoom call leaked, Mr Garg faced waves of backlash online and in the press. VICE obtained an email from the digital mortgage company's board of directors which indicated Mr Garg would be taking time off and that an outside company would be brought in to do a "leadership and cultural assessment”.

"Vishal and the Board wanted to provide Better employees an update given the very regrettable events over the last week," the memo reads. "Vishal will be taking time off effective immediately... The Board has engaged an independent 3rd party firm to do a leadership and cultural assessment. The recommendations of this assessment will be taken into account to build a long-term sustainable and positive culture at Better."

Prior to the announcement that Mr Garg would be taking time off, three top employees at the digital mortgage firm resigned from their positions. Mr Garg also issued a statement to his remaining employees in which he apologised for "embarrassing" them, saying he "failed to show the appropriate amount of respect and appreciation for individuals who are affected and for their contributions to Better."

As the critical response to Mr Garg’s firings grew, past allegations of toxic behavior towards partners and employees began to resurface. In an email first uncovered by Forbes, Mr Garg allegedly called his employees “dumb dolphins” who were “slow” and who were going to be eaten by “sharks.” He demanded they stop “embarrassing” him.

Despite the deluge of bad press and social media mockery, Better is still considered one of the most promising up-and-coming fintech companies. Ahead of its public debut on the market sometime around the turn of the year, the company received a $750m infusion of cash from investors. The company claims its implied valuation is $6.9bn.