Better.com — 900 Fired on a Zoom Call

Better.com CEO Vishal Garg fired 900 employees on a single Zoom call three weeks before Christmas 2021, telling them bluntly, “If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group.” At 30% of the company, it was a larger proportional cut than #2 Google’s 6% reduction. The call lasted under three minutes, making it the fastest mass termination in modern tech history. Garg later blamed the employees for low productivity, but the heartless timing—near holidays—cemented this as the cruelest on the list.