TechCrunch reported on Tuesday that some of Better.com’s 3,000 or so employees who were due to be fired this week received payrolls for their severance pay — before they were told they were going to be fired.
The company uses the Workday payroll system, and the paychecks were entered into the database on Tuesday when news of their layoffs just made national headlines. No additional information was provided to employees, an anonymous worker told TechCrunch.
A company spokesperson confirmed to SFGATE that “despite careful planning, a small number of employees were inadvertently notified of their early termination from the company when severance pay information became available either through our internal payroll system or through their financial institutions.”
The spokesperson also said the severance pay was placed into the Workday system well in advance “to ensure that affected employees receive their severance pay as quickly as possible.”
Better.com, which has grown exponentially during the pandemic and received huge cash injections from SoftBank and Aurora Acquisition in 2021, has weathered the turmoil from major real estate market changes, higher interest rates and a year-end PR crisis that led to a massive the resignation of company leaders and close public scrutiny.
CEO Vishal Garg laid off 900 employees in the weeks leading up to Christmas due to a massive Zoom call and temporarily took a leave of absence before returning in mid-January.
A Better.com spokesperson told SFGATE that “one-on-one personal calls” will continue this week for more information about layoffs and severance pay workers will receive. In a statement released Tuesday, Chief Financial Officer Kevin Ryan said laid-off workers would have at least 60 “working days” of severance pay and health insurance through March.