Online mortgage lender Better.com — which laid off 900 people during a Zoom call in December — laid off a "small number" of employees Tuesday morning by accidentally depositing severance checks into their payroll accounts before notifying them.
TechCrunch reports that the layoffs were planned for March 9, but one employee told the news outlet that "they accidentally rolled out the severance payslips too early."
Company executives reportedly intended to announce the layoffs on March 8 but pushed the date back to March 9 when the news was leaked.
The misstep occurred after the company forgot to change the date in its payroll app — Workday — which caused employees to receive the checks at 12 a.m. on March 8 before they had been told of the reduction, The Hill reports.
"Despite careful planning, a small number of employees were unintentionally notified of their separation from the company ahead of schedule when severance payment information was made available through either our internal payroll system or their financial institutions," the company said in a statement to The Hill.
"This was certainly not the form of notification that we intended and stemmed from an effort to ensure that impacted employees received severance payments as quickly as possible," the statement said.
When the mistake was realized, the checks were deleted from some employees' Workday accounts, TechCrunch reports.
One company employee told TechCrunch, "No email, no call, nothing. This was handled disgustingly."
"Leadership remained absolutely silent, never acknowledged anything in regards to layoffs. They still haven't," the person added.
According to a company spokesperson, an estimated 3,000 of the company’s 8,000 employees in the U.S. and India are being let go.
The severance package reportedly consists of 60 to 80 days' pay, according to TechCrunch.
Better.com Chief Financial Officer Kevin Ryan said that the company "had to adjust to volatility in the interest rate environment and refinancing market," in an email to employees.
"Anyone most directly affected by this announcement should receive a call over the coming days from a member of the Better leadership team," Ryan added.
The mistake follows a three-minute December Zoom call, during which CEO Vishal Garg, who founded the company in 2014, laid off 900 staff members.
"If you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off," Garg said on the call. "Your employment here is terminated, effective immediately."
Garg initially claimed the layoffs were due to market inefficiency and performances, and productivity. The number amounted to 15% of the company's employees.
Later, on the anonymous tech company-focused social media forum Blind, Garg said the blame lay with the laid-off employees, Vice reported. The CEO alleged, without proof, that "at least 250 of the people terminated were working an average of two hours a day while clocking in eight hours-plus a day in the payroll system," essentially "stealing" from the company.
Garg later took time off from the company and resumed work in January. He told The Hill he used a leave of absence to "reflect on his leadership, reconnect with the values that make Better great, and work closely with an executive coach."
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.