Better.com is reportedly set to lay off 4,000 more workers this week
- Better.com is slated to lay off about 4,000 workers this week, TechCrunch reported.
- TechCrunch cited "sources familiar with internal happenings at the company."
Three months after firing 900 workers via a Zoom call, mortgage company Better.com is slated to lay off roughly 4,000 people — about half of its employees, TechCrunch reported, citing "sources familiar with internal happenings at the company."
During the pandemic, the company saw enormous increases in customers looking for online options, especially low interest rates made that process more appealing. The company raised $500 million from SoftBank in April 2021, pushing its valuation to $6 billion.
But as interest rates have gone up, the environment has become more challenging for the company. Like Peloton, Better.com grew massively amid a set of pandemic-era conditions that changed abruptly, leading both to lay off workers.
Employees have been buzzing for weeks about the potential for a new round of layoffs, Insider first reported last month.
"The mood is grim," one person told Insider. "Everyone is nervous."
According to a memo Insider reviewed, Better.com CEO Vishal Garg took time off after the December layoffs. The company planned to bring in a third party for "a leadership and cultural assessment" to "build a long-term sustainable and positive culture at Better."
Garg also said in a meeting after the layoffs that the company had overhired people, lost $100 million the prior quarter, and that cutting down staff would, lead to "Better 2.0" with " a "leaner, meaner, hungrier workforce" per a video snippet of the meeting given to Insider.
High-level executives also resigned after the first round of layoffs, Insider reported.
After the December layoffs, an employee described to Insider the environment for those who remained.
"There was absolutely no warning, and in the aftermath, Garg belittled the laid-off workers to the rest of us and told us there would be no second chances from now on. The whole thing was demoralizing," they said.
"Since the layoffs, everyone has been on edge. We're all looking behind our backs, expecting to get fired next. It's not a healthy environment."
Better.com didn't respond to a request by Insider for comment.