Better CEO Vishal Garg wanted to give laid-off employees only one week of severance pay
- Better CEO Vishal Garg became an internet villain when he laid off 900 people over Zoom.
- Current and former employees said that Garg initially wanted to grant one or two weeks of severance.
It took Better.com CEO Vishal Garg just three minutes to cull 900 people from his company's payroll, but that wasn't the only thing he reportedly wanted done quickly.
In one of dozens of planning meetings leading up to the layoffs, Garg reportedly sought to give laid-off workers just one or two weeks of severance pay — even as the company gave no indication the cuts were coming — according to two people with direct knowledge of the meetings.
The people — current and former employees — also told Insider that other executives pushed for periods of two months or 10 weeks, and that several even walked out of the discussion over the small size of Garg's proposed package.
Garg relented somewhat, offering employees four weeks of severance at the time of the layoffs, but that number was later increased to 60 days after lawyers threatened to sue the company for violating US law concerning advance notice for "mass layoffs."
One of the sources told Insider that Garg was aware that his actions potentially violated the WARN Act, which requires 60 days' notice or pay before conducting large-scale layoffs.
The details around severance were revealed after Insider spoke with 20 current and former employees of the company about Garg's informal and sometimes profane management style.
Garg is currently on a leave of absence as an outside firm conducts an investigation into his conduct, and neither he nor Better have responded to Insider's request for comment.