I'm one of 900 employees Better.com fired in a surprise 3-minute Zoom. Telling my kids was the hardest part.

• Christian Chapman is one of 900 employees recently laid off by online mortgage startup Better.com.
• Better's mass layoff — which happened in a surprise three-minute Zoom call — went viral. The method was highly criticized.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Christian Chapman, a former Better employee included in the company's recent 900-person mass layoff. It has been edited for length and clarity.

On December 1, I was in a festive mood. With only a few weeks until Christmas, I was discussing a White Elephant gift exchange with my fellow trainers at mortgage startup Better.com when an invitation popped up on my calendar. I was to join an unexpected meeting, as were many of my colleagues and friends.

Better's CEO, Vishal Garg, started the meeting by saying, "I come to you with not great news." For a moment, I wondered if I'd been invited to the meeting accidentally. After all, I'd been promoted in April and given a raise in October for the work I was doing. It felt like a punch in the gut.

Garg continued by saying this wasn't the first time he had to do something like this in his career, but he hoped not to cry this time. Then, Garg said the thing that sucked the air out of the room: "If you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off. Your employment here is terminated effective immediately."

I immediately started messaging my colleagues who had turned into genuine friends during my time at Better. Sometimes, I talked to them more than I talked to my own family. We sent each other frantic questions: "Is this really happening?" "Are we being laid off?" "Is the company going under?"

Then, toward the end of the approximately three-minute Zoom meeting, my computer suddenly turned off and I was cut off from the people I had just been unceremoniously laid off with. Already working from home by myself, the isolation was numbing.

Being suddenly cut off from my friends was the strangest feeling — because we talked throughout the workday on our internal messaging platform, Slack, I didn't have many of their phone numbers. I've reconnected with many of them through other platforms, but it really is a grieving process to realize that I'll never have the same relationship with them as I did before.

I was trying to make sense of the situation. Better had just received $750 million in cash as part of a deal with Aurora Acquisition Corp. and SoftBank. When I found out that 900 people had been laid off, it struck me: Even if the numbers weren't directly related, that cash influx equaled nearly $1 million for each of us.

I understand that Better is a business and capitalism has its own rules, meaning tough decisions have to be made. But the way Better did it — through a surprise mass Zoom call — was cold and callous.

I had to tell my wife I'd been laid off just weeks before Christmas. We had agreed not to tell our five children yet, but when news of the mass-layoff went viral, we were left with no choice. My employment status changes things for the holidays. Christmas vacation? Probably not anymore. Stocking stuffers this year? Likewise.

Days after firing 900 people, Garg posted on Blind, a website billed as "an anonymous community app for the workplace." He claimed that 250 of the terminated employees were "stealing" from the company by only working two hours a day. My former colleagues tell me that accusation has followed them into interviews, where prospective employers ask if they were part of the 250 people who were stealing from Better.

I'm really proud of the work I did at Better and the people I did it with. That's why I've started spotlighting former colleagues on my YouTube channel. I want possible employers to know that we have something to bring to their company.

Two days ago, just to pour a little more salt in the wound, a package came in the mail: a Better.com branded T-shirt and a certificate of recognition for being an excellent enablement trainer. My wife suggested a burning party, and although we didn't do it, I could see her point.

Initially, we were given four weeks of severance. But after the layoffs went viral and Better was lampooned for its cold-hearted approach to the firing, we finally got some good news yesterday. Our severance had been extended from four weeks to 60 days.

Even if the increase in severance is a public-relations move to smooth over the disastrous layoffs — and potential lawsuits — it's a blessing to my family that I'm grateful for.