New York: When Indian-American entrepreneur Vishal Garg fired 900 employees at his firm Better.com on Zoom in December, there was an uproar and he had to go on leave. But Garg, who is now back at the helm, has revealed that though he sacked 900 in the US, he has added 1,000 new employees in India.
The online mortgage lender had been aggressively hiring in both India and the U.S. for most of 2021 to try and keep pace with a wave of refinancing. But a recent regulatory filing shows that Garg’s infamous Zoom cuts — which followed the U.S. Federal Reserve’s sudden switch on interest rates — fell much harder stateside than in lower-wage India.
The firings effectively meant that Better.com’s India unit ended up having 1,000 more employees than its US unit.
In January this year, the company’s board announced Garg’s return in an e-mail to employees. Garg, who founded Better.com in 2016, had apologised for his manner of handling the layoffs at the company after a video of him firing 900 people via a Zoom call went viral on social media in December 2021.
Media reports on Tuesday cited the company’s filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which revealed that its workforce had doubled in 2021. And the numbers in India have also risen sharply. On June 30, the company revealed it had 5,000 employees in the US and 3,100 in India; six months later it had 5,200 in America and 4,100 in his country of origin.
The geographic shift could help the company stave off a downturn, which has left it with declining revenues and rising expenses. Better.com’s fourth-quarter net loss could touch $182 million and revenues could plunge by more than a fifth.
The company in its filings said negative media coverage and the reduction in workforce ‘detrimentally affected’ its productivity and financial results. In his Zoom call to employees in December, Garg had cited these two factors for their sacking.
“If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off,” he had said. “Your employment here is terminated effective immediately.” Garg was widely condemned for this act of his and was forced to quit, though temporarily. And he is now back in action, creating jobs in India, while slashing those in the US.
