Mere weeks after laying off another 3,000 of its staff members, the digital mortgage company Better.com is set to shrink even further as the company initiates a voluntary separation program for employees still with the company.
In an email sent to remaining employees on Wednesday, newly-named head of people Richard Benson-Armer said it would give U.S.-based corporate and product employees 60 days severance and health insurance if they voluntarily resign (Benson-Armer is a partner at Activant Capital, one of Better’s venture capital investors). A company representative didn’t respond to a request for comment on how many employees are eligible for the severance package.
Better said that “uncertain mortgage market conditions” from the last few weeks had spawned the move, according to the letter, which was seen by Coins2Day. The letter didn’t acknowledge the chaos that has ensued the startup since December, when founder and CEO Vishal Garg laid off approximately 9% of the company’s employees on a Zoom call, then made allegedly disparaging comments about impacted employees on a subsequent companywide call, as well as on an anonymous professional social network.
Since then, executives have resigned from the company in protest, Better has laid off thousands more staffers, and the status of the company’s SPAC deal, originally expected to close at the end of last year, has been in limbo.
CEO Garg temporarily stepped away from the company in mid-December, but has since returned. Investors have stayed silent on all the events—at least publicly.
In the email to Better employees today, Benson-Armer said that “eligible employees” will have seven working days to accept the offer—or longer, depending on their age. At the end of the letter, Benson-Armer said that the company is looking forward “to returning to in-office mode in the coming weeks.”
That is, for those who are still left.