You are currently viewing Better.com offering employees 60-days severance, losing “tens of millions” per month per sources – TechCrunch

Better.com offering employees 60-days severance, losing “tens of millions” per month per sources – TechCrunch


Less than one month after laying off 3,000 employees, digital mortgage lender Better.com is offering its corporate, product, design and engineering employees 60 days paid severance, or voluntary separation plans, and health insurance coverage “to anyone who wants it,” according to several sources familiar with internal happenings at the company. 

Better.com executives cited the current mortgage markets for the move in an e-mail to employees. Eligible employees will get an email later today with the ability to accept the voluntary separation. The last day for employees to accept the offer is April 15, according to an email from the company seen by TC.

In addition, those sources said the company is losing “around $50 million a month,” citing a recent internal meeting in which the figure was disclosed. Better.com has scheduled a town hall meeting for all employees that will be held today.

TC reached out to the company for comment but it had not yet responded at the time of writing.

Since December, the company has conducted two mass layoffs. The manner in which they were conducted is believed to have tarnished its reputation badly, in addition to market conditions such as rising interest rates and a cooler refinancing market that have impacted its business prospects.

First, on December 1, Better.com laid off about 900 employees via a Zoom video call that ended up going viral. CEO and co-founder Vishal Garg was universally criticized for being cold and unfeeling in his approach. He also added insult to injury by days later publicly accusing affected workers of “stealing” from their colleagues and customers by being unproductive.

On top of that, just one day before, CFO Kevin Ryan sent an email to employees saying that the company would have $1 billion on its balance sheet by the end of that week. In the weeks following the layoffs, Garg “apologized” and took a month-long “break,” employees detailed how he “led by fear,” and a number of senior executives and two board members resigned.

Then, on March 8, the company laid off an estimated 3,000 of its remaining 8,000 employees in the U.S. and India and “accidentally rolled out the severance pay slips too early.” Many workers reported that they initially found out by seeing a severance check in their Workday accounts — the payroll software the company uses. When execs realized their mistake, those employees said, they deleted the checks from some people’s Workday accounts. According to one affected employee who wished to remain anonymous, the severance checks arrived without any additional communication from the company.

This is a developing story.



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