Better.com CEO Vishal Garg is "taking time off effective immediately" after firing 900 employees earlier this month.

The digital mortgage company's board of directors announced Garg's leave in an email Friday morning, Vice reported.

Garg on Tuesday issued an apology after abruptly firing the large number of employees during a Zoom conference.

"I want to apologize for the way I handled the layoffs last week," Garg wrote in a statement addressed to Better.com's current employees. "I failed to show the appropriate amount of respect and appreciation for the individuals who were affected and for their contributions to Better."

The board of directors said the company had hired an outside firm to "do a leadership and cultural assessment."

"The recommendations of this assessment will be taken into account to build a long-term sustainable and positive culture at Better," the board said in its email. "We have much work to do, and we hope that everyone can refocus on our customers and support each other to continue to build a great company and a company we can be proud of."

CFO Kevin Ryan will be manage Better.com's day-to-day decisions on an interim basis and report to the board.

Garg received backlash after he laid off 900 Better.com employees during a video chat.

"If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off," he told the employees.

Garg claimed the layoffs were due to market efficiency and performances, and productivity. The number amounted to 15% of the company’s employees.

Later, on the anonymous tech company-focused social media forum Blind, Garg said the blame lay with the laid-off employees, Vice reported. The CEO alleged, without proof, that "at least 250 of the people terminated were working an average of 2 hours a day while clocking in 8 hours-plus a day in the payroll system," essentially "stealing" from the company.

Vice reported that Garg's temperament was an issue repeatedly in the past. The website said the CEO called a top investor "sewage" and told employees that rather than take Indigenous Peoples' Day off, their time was better served earning the company "capital, and therefore our freedom."

Better.com had been preparing to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company after receiving a cash infusion of $750 million from Aurora Acquisition Corp. and SoftBank.

The situation involving Garg has caused Better.com to delay the merger.

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