The CEO who fired 900 people in a Zoom call was fired himself: "Karma is a bitch"
Vishal Garg became famous as a cruel CEO when he fired about 900 employees in a 4-minute Zoom call, but 5 years later the circle closed - he was fired himself from the company he founded and managed, and now the employees are celebrating: "There is no greater satisfaction than seeing a toxic manager swallowed by the corporate monster he fed himself."
Five years later, revenge was served: the man who fired 900 employees in a Zoom call was fired himself from the company, and now he is embarking on a media and legal campaign to return to his position.
"If you are on this call, you are fired": this is how a CEO fired 900 employees on Zoom. Vishal Garg, founder and former CEO of the mortgage company Better Home & Finance, feels he was cheated. According to him, Daniel Lewis, the man who replaced him as CEO last week, was not fair to him. Garg claims that Lewis expressed support for the company's strategy, praised it on the X network, and thus earned a seat on the board of directors and the company's trust, before actually ousting him.
For many, Garg's firing is sweet revenge. Garg became famous around the world mainly following a cruel and infamous Zoom call in December 2021, in which he fired about 900 employees at once from the digital mortgage company he founded. The call, which lasted less than four minutes, sparked public outrage and harsh criticism for a lack of managerial sensitivity.
In that famous call, Garg summoned about 900 employees (about 9% of the company's workforce at the time) to a short group Zoom call. At the beginning of the call, he told the employees: "If you are on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being fired... Your employment here ends immediately." The layoffs were carried out just days before Christmas, which worsened the public anger. Immediately upon the conclusion of the short Zoom call, the employees discovered that their access to the company's computers, corporate email, and Slack software was completely blocked. During the brutal process, entire departments in the company were dismantled and closed.
Following the harsh criticism and reputational damage, Garg was forced to take a temporary leave from his position, and many senior officials in the company resigned in protest. Despite the massive public outrage, he did not leave his position permanently. He only took a short leave in December 2021, and already in January 2022, the board of directors returned him to the CEO's chair, while declaring that he had undergone managerial training and coaching and would work with other managers who would supervise him. Garg continued to manage the company and even led its IPO on the stock exchange, and he was, as mentioned, ousted only last week after it accumulated losses of over 1.5 billion dollars, and the stock lost 90% of its value.
Does not want to leave, agrees to work for one dollar
Now that he is fired himself, Garg does not intend to give up. He is in the midst of an aggressive legal and corporate struggle with the goal of canceling his firing and returning to the CEO's chair. He refuses to accept the board of directors' decision and is waging an open war against it on several fronts. Among other things, he is using his power as a large shareholder and demanding to immediately oust five of the current board members (including the interim CEO who replaced him, Daniel Lewis) and replace them with people of his choosing.
Garg claims that he has obtained the support of 52% of the voting shareholders in the company, which gives him, according to him, the legal power to overturn the board's decisions and change its composition. As part of the attempt to convince investors, Garg declared that he is willing to return to manage the company for a symbolic salary of only one dollar a year to prove that he is committed to saving the business. He also hired the services of the famous lawyer Alex Spiro, known as someone who represents leading figures like Elon Musk, to lead the legal campaign against the company.
Many employees fired from the company and other surfers expressed joy at the closing of the circle. Former employees noted that this is perfect poetic justice: the person who threw hundreds of people onto the street a few days before the holidays without giving them an opportunity to respond or say goodbye, is now experiencing a forced and immediate firing himself from the company he founded himself, and many wrote that "Karma is a bitch".
"There is no greater satisfaction than seeing a toxic manager swallowed by the corporate monster he fed himself," one of the surfers summarized the affair.
