Better.com employees found out about the layoffs when they sent severance pay ahead of schedule

Better.com admitted it mishandled another round of mass layoffs on Tuesday after some employees received early severance pay, an accident that comes weeks after its top boss was criticized for laying off 900 employees at the time of the call. in Zoom.

The online mortgage lender is laying off just over 3,000 employees this week, or roughly 35% of its corporate workforce, people familiar with the matter told The Post.

Some workers who lost their jobs found out after they received severance pay, without any further context or notice from Better.com executives. Messages from angry former employees began to circulate on the anonymous career forum Blind.

In a statement to The Post, Better.com acknowledged that “a small number of employees were inadvertently notified of their termination from the company ahead of schedule when severance pay information became available” before they were informed of the layoffs.

“Of course, this was not the form of notice we had envisioned and came about out of a desire to ensure that affected employees receive severance pay as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement.

The company added that on Wednesday it held “personal personal calls” with workers laid off in the US and India. Better.com is also providing “significant financial, medical and transitional support” to affected individuals.

Vishal GargBetter.com CEO Vishal Garg has been criticized for laying off 900 employees via Zoom.Better.com.

TechCrunch was the first to report on early severance pay and the furious backlash it elicited from former employees.

“The best layoffs have begun. Severance pay is displayed in our Workday app (which is payroll) as of 12:00 PM in the respective time zones. No letter, no call, nothing. It was disgusting,” one of the former employees told the publication.

In a letter to employees, Better.com CFO Kevin Ryan said the cuts were necessary due to changes in the real estate market, including the Federal Reserve’s upcoming interest rate hike.

“Unfortunately, this means we must take the difficult step of further streamlining our operations and substantially reducing our workforce in both the US and India,” Ryan said. “We have enormous growth and service opportunities ahead of us, but we must adjust to the volatility of interest rates and the refinancing market in order to succeed.”

Ryan said the laid-off Better.com employees will receive at least 60 days of severance pay, as well as access to expanded medical benefits and employment services.

Notably, the email was written by Ryan and not Better.com CEO Vishal Garg, the executive responsible for the infamous Zoom call last December. In addition to laying off 900 workers, Garg accused at least 250 employees of “stealing” from the firm due to poor performance.

Garg took a leave of absence after his behavior sparked massive social media backlash, but returned as CEO in January.

As The Post previously reported, several Better.com executives left the company within weeks of Garg’s viral collapse.