Vishal Garg, the chief executive who became internationally known after firing roughly 900 employees on a three-minute Zoom call in 2021, has now been removed from his leadership position at Better Home & Finance.

The move marks a dramatic new chapter in the long-running saga surrounding the fintech mortgage company and its controversial founder. Garg's 2021 layoff became one of the most widely circulated examples of corporate leadership gone wrong, with the video sparking intense criticism over the timing and manner of the dismissals. A recent report from The Economic Times says Garg has been removed as CEO five years later.

His departure comes after years of financial pressure, organizational turmoil and attempts to rebuild the company following the reputational damage created by the viral firing.

In December 2021, Garg summoned employees to a Zoom meeting and told those participating that they were part of the group being terminated effective immediately.

About 900 employees were affected, representing roughly 9% of Better.com's workforce at the time. The dismissals came shortly before Christmas and quickly became a global news story after a recording of the call circulated online.

The controversy grew because of the call's unusually blunt presentation.

Garg told employees that the decision was his and cited market conditions, performance and productivity. The meeting lasted only a few minutes, leaving many employees stunned.

The episode became so prominent that Garg later apologized, saying he had “blundered” the execution of the layoffs and acknowledged that his communication had made an already difficult situation worse.

The Zoom firing triggered an intense response from employees, investors and the public.

Several executives reportedly departed, while Better's board launched a leadership and cultural review. Garg temporarily stepped away from the company as scrutiny increased.

But Garg eventually returned to the CEO role.

He later said he had undertaken leadership training and worked to become more empathetic and more respectful toward employees. In a 2023 interview, he described changing the way he interacted with staff and said he understood that employee satisfaction was connected to the company's ability to deliver a good customer experience.

Despite those efforts, the Zoom episode remained permanently associated with his public image.

The controversy also unfolded during a major transition in the housing and mortgage markets.

Better had benefited from the extraordinary growth of digital financial services during the low-interest-rate era, but the economics of mortgage lending became much tougher as borrowing costs rose.

The company had also pursued a public listing through a SPAC transaction, initially attracting a valuation of billions of dollars. The strategy placed additional pressure on the company to demonstrate growth and financial strength.

That broader financial challenge helps explain why the leadership dispute was never simply about one controversial Zoom meeting.

The company was also trying to navigate an increasingly difficult mortgage market while restructuring its operations.

After returning to leadership, Garg argued that Better could recover.

He emphasized technology, productivity and a more efficient digital mortgage process.

The company eventually went public through its SPAC combination, although the market's reaction was highly negative. Better's shares fell dramatically when trading began, adding another layer of difficulty to its post-layoff recovery.

The experience demonstrated the gap that can exist between the valuation assigned to a fast-growing technology company during a favorable market and the value investors assign once economic conditions become more challenging.

Garg's reported removal from the CEO position is therefore significant beyond the symbolism of his famous Zoom call.

It closes a turbulent chapter for a company that once represented the promise of digital disruption in the mortgage industry.

The founder's persistence was itself unusual.

Many executives who become the subject of a major corporate scandal would be permanently pushed aside. Garg instead returned, attempted to rehabilitate his leadership style and continued running the company through a difficult restructuring period.

His eventual removal suggests that the question of whether Better needed a new direction ultimately outweighed the company's earlier commitment to its founder.

The Better story has become a case study in how management decisions can be amplified by social media.

Mass layoffs have occurred throughout the technology industry, but few have become cultural moments.

The viral nature of Garg's call transformed an internal personnel decision into a global debate over leadership, empathy and corporate culture.

The technology that made the layoffs possible — a simple video-conferencing service — also made the backlash possible.

Within hours, employees and viewers around the world were discussing the CEO's behavior.

That dynamic has changed the risk calculations for corporate executives.

A decision that once might have remained inside a company can now become public almost instantly.

The company still faces the broader issues that contributed to its difficulties.

Mortgage demand remains highly sensitive to interest rates, and online lenders compete against banks, brokers and a range of digital platforms.

Better must therefore demonstrate that it can build a sustainable business regardless of who occupies the CEO's office.

The leadership change may give the company an opportunity to reset its public image and focus investors' attention on operations rather than the founder's reputation.

But changing the CEO cannot automatically solve the underlying economics of the mortgage business.

Garg's story is unusual because the event that made him famous was not a product launch, a financing round or a business breakthrough.

It was a three-minute layoff meeting.

Five years later, the consequences of that episode have followed him through an attempted cultural reset, a temporary departure, a return to the CEO role and ultimately his removal from the position.

The broader lesson for business leaders is straightforward.

How a company makes difficult decisions can become just as important as the decisions themselves.

Layoffs are often unavoidable in cyclical industries, particularly when economic conditions deteriorate. But the manner in which leadership communicates those decisions can affect morale, recruiting, investor confidence and the company's reputation for years.

Better's experience shows just how difficult that reputational damage can be to reverse.

Garg may no longer lead the company, but the Zoom call that made him famous remains an enduring example of how quickly a corporate decision can become a public event — and how long its consequences can last.