In viral video, CEO lays off 900 employees during live Zoom meeting

Vishal Garg, CEO at Better.com, has come under fire for a viral video which depicts him firing 900 employees of the company in US and India. The video has elicited much social media attention with many criticising for the shocking nature of the dismissals and the number of employees laid off in one stroke.

"I come to you with not great news. The market has changed and we have to move with it in order to survive, so that hopefully, we can thrive and hopefully, deliver on our mission," he said as he began the grim announcement.

"If you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off…your employment here is terminated effective immediately," he can be seen saying during the meeting. Garg also accused the employees for "stealing" from more productive employees and the company's clients in the company as they only worked two hours a day.

The famous mortgage company has cited that a "smaller workforce" and " radically evolving homeownership market" were some of the reasons that required a 9% layoff according to company CFO Kevin Ryan, in a statement to CNN Business. He said that while it was upsetting to fire employees just before the holidays season, they would be provided with appropriate benefits and a severance package.

Job loss during the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic has been termed "catastrophic" by many business leaders. In the United States, temporary layoffs were cited as the main contributor to the high unemployment rate of 14.7% in April last year.

The Softbank-backed mortgage lender announced in May it was going public through an SPAC and last week received $750 million in cash as part of the deal. The company is prepared to have more than $1 billion on its balance sheet.