Around 900 mortgage lender staff have been laid off over a brutal Zoom call, with their chief executive calling some 'lazy'.
The employees of US lender Better.com were given the bad news last Wednesday by chief executive Vishal Garg.
Around 9 percent of Better.com were made redundant on the video call.
On the call, Garg said: "If you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off."
He added: "This isn’t news you are going to want to hear. But ultimately, it was my decision and I wanted you to hear it from me. It’s been a really, really challenging decision to make.
"This is the second time in my career I’m doing this and I do not, do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried."
One of the workers on the call recorded it and posted it online.
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Garg said: "We are laying off about 15 percent of the company for a number of reasons — the market, efficiency and performances and productivity."
The 15 percent figure was then corrected to nine percent by a company spokesperson.
The chief executive then called many of the staff lazy in a separate blog post.
Garg wrote on social media platform Blind: "You guys know that at least 250 of the people terminated were working an average of 2 hours a day while clocking 8 hours+ a day in the payroll system?
"They were stealing from you and stealing from our customers who pay the bills that pay our bills. Get educated."
Garg posted anonymously but was identified anyway, according to Fortune.
The chief executive told Fortune that a month ago Better.com had begun investigating its data on staff productivity.
This included how many phone calls employees missed, how many calls they made and how many meetings they arrived late at.
He said this revealed some "alarming statistics" and that "a number of our customers were not getting the service that they deserved from our teammates".
Better.com has been approached for comment.
Garg was born in India but moved to New York, US, when he was seven years old.
He founded Better in 2014 as a quicker, online way of getting mortgages, with no fees.
