The CEO who sacked 900 people over a Zoom call has taken time off 'effective immediately'.
Vishal Garg is the CEO of New York based online mortgage firm Better.com and accused staff of being lazy and said they were so unproductive they were basically 'stealing' from the company and its customers.
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And on the call, which lasted all of three minutes, the 43-year-old fired nine percent of the firm's staff.
However, following the meeting, an internal memo obtained by Vice has revealed that Garg has now taken time off.
It also informed staff that an outside firm had been hired to 'do a leadership and cultural assessment'.
It read: "Vishal and the Board wanted to provide Better employees an update given the very regrettable events over the last week.
"Vishal will be taking time off effective immediately... The Board has engaged an independent 3rd party firm to do a leadership and cultural assessment.
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"The recommendations of this assessment will be taken into account to build a long-term sustainable and positive culture at Better."
The announcement comes after Garg sparkled outrage when he got rid of the entire diversity, equity and inclusion team, which dealt with complaints of racism and sexism at the company.
The Zoom call was filmed by one of the workers, who later shared the moment that they were fired on social media.
Writing in a blog post about the decision, Garg said: "You guys know that at least 250 of the people terminated were working an average of 2 hours a day while clocking 8 hours+ a day in the payroll system?
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"They were stealing from you and stealing from our customers who pay the bills that pay our bills. Get educated."
Following the controversial meeting, the head of public relations, Tanya Gillogley; head of marketing, Melanie Hahn; and vice president of communications, Patrick Lenihan, all handed in their notices.
In a statement later about the decision, Garg said: "Having to conduct layoffs is gut-wrenching, especially this time of year.
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"However, a fortress balance sheet and a reduced and focused workforce together set us up to play offense going into a radically evolving homeownership market.
"I think they could have been phrased differently, but honestly, the sentiment is there."
Garg later offered his apologies for the way in which he handled the situation, telling staff that he didn't show them enough 'respect'.
He wrote in an email: "I own the decision to do the layoffs, but in communicating I blundered the execution. In doing so, I embarrassed you.
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"I realize that the way I communicated this news made a difficult situation worse.
"I am deeply sorry and am committed to learning from the situation and doing more to be the leader that you expect me to be."
LADbible has contacted Better.com for a comment.
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