“Is it fair, or not, to allow a second chance?” – Anand Mahindra on Vishal Garg’s action

Should Vishal Garg be forgiven?

One tweet started it all.

Over a zoom call, Vishal Garg, CEO of Better.com, recently issued a decree to terminate 900 employees within minutes. He said employees were being laid off for reasons including the market, performance, and productivity. “If you’re on this call you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off,” he said. “Your employment here is terminated effective immediately.”

The news of this massive layoff has been the talk of the town on social media since then. Garg eventually apologized to his staff for the embarrassing incident, which made international news and spawned hundreds of jokes on social media sites.

Meanwhile, industrialist Anand Mahindra chimed in on the entrepreneur’s decision on Twitter, questioning if it would be fair to offer him a second chance.

With almost 8.5 million followers on Twitter, Anand Mahindra is a very active user. Following Mahindra’s post about CEO Vishal Garg, his followers responded with their thoughts. One follower has replied on this, “It’s not like someone gives them a second chance! It’s about whether they have the sympathy needed to become a leader!”

 

Another follower has responded to Anand Mahindra’s tweet: “Your question is whether a CEO can avoid it. Certainly not. Lack of empathy for a CEO and low EQ is obvious. I don’t know whom he was trying to please. No wonder nowadays people are at least proud of the companies they are working for.”

After the footage of the meeting went viral on social media, Better.com CEO Vishal Garg apologized for his behavior. Vishal Garg admitted that the layoffs were a terrible mistake. Garg expressed sorrow after the action, saying he “blundered the execution” of communicating the layoffs.

“I realize that the way I put this information forward worsened a difficult situation,” the CEO said in a letter.