Better.com
的前承销商 Christian Chapman 认为他正在登录另一个 CEO Vishal Garg 的市政厅。
他不知道这将是他作为在线抵押贷款公司员工的最后一个电话。
“如果你参加了这个电话会议，你就是被解雇的不幸群体的一员，”加格在上周三的一场持续三分钟的单向网络研讨会上说。 Garg 立即开始工作，并没有等工作人员陆续加入会议。 “你在这里的工作立即终止。”
电话突然结束，让承销商目瞪口呆。查普曼是他 7 口之家的唯一供养者，他习惯了老板的暴脾气，但这出乎意料。
查普曼开始在公司的 Slack 频道上发送消息，询问当他的屏幕变黑时发生了什么——他无法访问公司的计算机、电话、电子邮件和消息。他使用 Facebook Messenger 与同事联系。
Garg 曾承诺会收到 HR 的后续电子邮件，但员工的访问权限被终止。几小时后，查普曼最终通过他的个人电子邮件收到了通信。
“这是一个超现实的时刻。这是你不相信它会发生的事情之一，”查普曼说。
一笔巨款
该公司在那几分钟内解雇了 900 名员工，约占员工总数的 9%。 Better.com 的估值为 69 亿美元——赢得了所谓的独角兽地位。该公司在 LinkedIn 的 2021 年和 2020 年顶级初创公司中排名第一。 Better.com 尚未回应置评请求。
这家由软银支持的抵押贷款机构在 5 月宣布将通过一家特殊目的收购公司（SPAC）上市。据 TechCrunch 报道，在裁员的前一天，该公司宣布收到 7.5 亿美元现金，作为与投资者的修订交易的一部分。这意味着 Better 拥有 10 亿美元的现金。
但是一家公司的大量现金并不能抵消更广泛的抵押贷款市场的表现。
据《财富》杂志报道，加格后来指责被解雇的员工效率低下，每天只工作两个小时，“窃取”同事和客户的信息，并在接受首席执行官采访时证实了这些观点。
接受 CNN Business 采访的几位前员工表示，员工对 CEO 的言论和突然解雇感到震惊。但加格之前也曾卷入过争议，正如福布斯在 2020 年获得的一封发给员工的电子邮件所证明的那样：“你们太该死的慢。你们是一群愚蠢的海豚......所以停止它。停止它。”立即停止。你让我难堪，”他写道。
“我升职了，然后他就想把每个人都描绘成懒惰和偷钱的样子，”另一位不愿透露姓名的前员工说，他最近因其在公司的表现而获得了奖项。 “那是一团糟。我宁愿破产也不愿他脑子里发生任何事情。”
在抵押贷款业务工作了近 20 年的查普曼还表示，他最近与经理完成了一次积极的绩效评估电话。
员工们描述了 Better.com 混乱的工作文化，这种文化有很多好处，但也是一位经常在全公司虚拟会议上扔炸弹的 CEO。
查普曼说：“第一次见面后，我意识到我需要保持静音并戴上耳机，因为我有五个孩子，我不想让他们听到那种语言。”
查普曼说，他现在已经在不同的抵押贷款公司经历了四次裁员，但没有一次像这样“迟钝和冷静”。
查普曼说：“我正在寻找光明的一面，但这是现实的情况。” “事情不会像以前那样，我需要采取一些大规模的行动。”
什么地方出了错？
再融资推动了抵押贷款行业的发展，随着抵押贷款利率降至历史低点，再融资在大流行期间飙升。但随着抵押贷款利率上升并有望走高，这种繁荣正在放缓。
在大流行的第一年稳步下降后，抵押贷款利率在 2021 年初创下历史新低，30 年期抵押贷款利率低至 2.65%。但现在利率正在上升。
抵押贷款银行家协会预计，30 年期固定利率抵押贷款将在 2021 年底达到 3.1%，并在 2022 年底攀升至 4.0%。
'A surreal moment': Fired employees share what it was like on that mass-firing Zoom
Christian Chapman, a former underwriter at Better.com, thought he was logging onto another of CEO Vishal Garg's town halls.
He didn't know it would be his last call as an employee of the online mortgage company.
"If you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off," Garg said on a one-way webinar last Wednesday, which lasted three minutes. Garg started immediately and did not wait for workers to trickle into the meeting. "Your employment here is terminated effective immediately."
The call ended abruptly, leaving the underwriter dumbfounded. Chapman, who is the sole provider for his family of 7, was used to outbursts from his boss, but this was unexpected.
Chapman began messaging in company Slack channels asking what was going on when his screens went black — he lost access to his company computer, phone, email and messaging. He resorted to Facebook Messenger to reach out to colleagues.
Garg had promised a follow-up email from HR, but employees' access was terminated. Chapman ultimately received the communication via his personal email hours later.
"It was a surreal moment. It was one of those things that you don't believe it's going to happen," Chapman said.
Big money
The company laid off 900 employees in those few minutes, or about 9% of its staff. Better.com is valued at $6.9 billion — earning it so-called unicorn status. The company ranked #1 on LinkedIn's Top Startups of 2021 and 2020. Better.com hasn't responded to a request for comment.
The Softbank-backed mortgage lender announced in May it was going public through a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The day before the lay offs, the firm announced it received $750 million in cash as part of an amended deal with investors, according to TechCrunch. That would mean Better has $1 billion in cash.
But tons of cash in a company doesn't offset how the wider mortgage market is doing.
Garg later accused the fired employees of "stealing" from their colleagues and customers by being unproductive and only working two hours a day, according to Fortune, which confirmed those sentiments in an interview with the CEO.
Several former employees interviewed by CNN Business said the staff was blown away by the CEO's remarks and sudden firing. But Garg has been involved in controversy before, as evidenced by an email he sent to staff that was obtained by Forbes in 2020: "You are TOO DAMN SLOW. You are a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS... SO STOP IT. STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME," he wrote.
"I got promoted, and then he's out there trying to portray everyone as lazy and stealing money," said another former employee who asked not to be identified, and who recently won an award for his performance at the company. "That is messed up. I'd rather be broke than have whatever is going on in his head."
Chapman, who has worked in the mortgage business for almost 20 years, also said he had recently completed a positive performance review call with his manager.
Employees described a chaotic work culture at Better.com, one with many benefits but also a CEO who regularly dropped F-bombs in company-wide virtual meetings.
"I realized after my first meeting that I needed to keep it on mute and keep my earphones in, because I've got five kids and I didn't want them hearing that kind of language," Chapman said.
Chapman said he has now been through four layoffs at various mortgage companies, but none as "obtuse and dispassionate" as this.
"I am looking for the bright side but there's the reality of the situation," Chapman said. "Things aren't going to be what they were and it's going to require some massive action on my part."
What went wrong?
The mortgage industry has been fueled by refinancings, which skyrocketed during the pandemic as mortgage rates dropped to historic lows. But with mortgage rates rising and expected to go higher, that boom is slowing down.
After falling steadily during the first year of the pandemic, mortgage rates reached a record low at the beginning of 2021, with 30-year mortgages available for as little as at 2.65%. But rates are on the rise now.
The Mortgage Bankers Association expects the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage to end 2021 at 3.1% and climb to 4.0% by the end of 2022.
