Better.com CEO Vishal Garg, who laid off 900 employees over a Zoom meeting that lasted less than three minutes, is taking time off from the company, Vice reported."If you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off," Garg said on the Dec. 1 webinar. "Your employment here is terminated, effective immediately," he told them.Garg's leave is also effective immediately, according to a Friday email from the company's board of directors, and day-to-day operations will be taken over by the company's CFO, Kevin Ryan. Better.com added that it is hiring a third-party firm to do a "leadership and cultural assessment," whose recommendations "will be taken into account to build a long-term sustainable and positive culture at Better."CNN Business has viewed the email and has asked Better.com for comment. "The recommendations of this assessment will be taken into account to build a long-term sustainable and positive culture at Better," the email said.The online mortgage company's mass layoff affected about 9% of its staff. Just days later, three of the company's top communications executives resigned, according to multiple media reports.In a later post on the professional network Blind, Garg accused the fired employees of "stealing" from their colleagues and customers by being unproductive and only working two hours a day, according to Fortune, which confirmed those sentiments in a later interview with the CEO.In a Dec. 7 letter addressed to the Better.com team, Garg apologized for the way he handled the layoffs, and for making "a difficult situation worse." He added, "I failed to show the appropriate amount of respect and appreciation for the individuals who were affected and for their contributions to Better," the letter reads. "I own the decision to do the layoffs, but in communicating it I blundered the execution. In doing so, I embarrassed you."

MASON, Ohio —

The community is coming together to try to help a local hero heal.

Veterans Day is Thursday and there is a push to finish a fundraiser for Marine Cpl. Kelsee Lainhart with a big boost.

Lainhart was badly hurt in an attack during the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan in August.

Family members said there is hope as she progresses in her recovery.

Lainhart's uncle, Kevin Ingram, said she is determined to walk again.

Right now, he said she cannot feel below her waist.

In the meantime, the community is rallying around her.

"She's always wanted to be in the Marine Corps. She started basic military training when she was 17 years old, got injured when she was 19. She's now 20," Ingram said.

He reflected on his niece's journey and her resilience.

Ingram also remembered the punch in the gut, when he learned a young woman he considered practically a daughter was hurt in the attack at the Kabul Airport in August.

"It's devastating. I knew where she was. I knew that she had worked the Abbey Gate," Ingram said.

Lainhart, 20, graduated from East Central High School in Dearborn County in 2019.

Her family and fellow Marines have seen her grit and her strength as she recovers in Chicago at the Shirley Ryan facility.

Her uncle said it is not a VA Hospital, so there will be additional costs.

Ingram said she cannot walk, at least now, but that's no deterrent.

"Kelsee is a warrior. She is a Marine. She's got a positive attitude. She is going to walk again. She tells me that every time I talk to her. She's working very hard. They have all kinds of different treatments they're doing," Ingram said.

People have rallied around her.

Basco Shower Enclosures, where Ingram works, launched a fundraiser to help her, too.

It ends on Veterans Day with the company putting a percentage toward each donation.

"We don't look at this, it's not this week, it's the next 40, 50, 60 years that we're looking at. If you think about, if Kelsee doesn't fully recover and walk again, you know, you're going to have to have adaptive housing situations, you're going to have cars that are adaptive," Ingram said.

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Many in Lainhart's family have served in the military, including Ingram.

Now, the community is saying thank you.

"We'd like to just kind of get as much support as we can now and push this thing forward through the finish line," he said.

Ingram said they will still gladly take donations after Veterans Day.

He also wanted to honor the Marine Corps birthday on Wednesday.

Ingram told WLWT Lainhart still wants to chase her dream of going to college and being an FBI agent.

Basco Shower Enclosures has raised more than $20,000 so far.

There are several ways you can make a donation, including by Venmo.

There's more information on the Basco Shower Enclosures website here.

CHICAGO — For many American employees, the pandemic forced them to work from home. For some, it was the first time. That move has raised questions about what the future of the workplace will look like beyond the pandemic.

A year and a half into the outbreak, some businesses were phasing back into in-office work. But the surge of the delta variant has delayed a return to the office for many.

Now, a new survey from the small business review site Digital.com reveals just how much the future of workplaces appears to be changing.

“Seven out of 10 businesses since March of 2020 have closed at least some of their office,” said Dennis Consorte, a small business consultant with Digital.com. “It is an indicator that what's been happening over the last couple of decades is just accelerating, and that is we are moving towards more of a remote workforce.”

What's new now is that much of the change looks like it will be long-lasting.

According to the survey, 69% of businesses say they've permanently closed some or all office spaces. That breaks down to 37% permanent closures of all physical office locations and 32% partial closures.

“This lockdown was a catalyst where businesses said, 'OK, we need to adapt if we want to survive.' And that's what they did,” said Consorte. “Businesses are realizing that they can cut their overhead tremendously by not having all of this office space.”

The closures are differentiated by business size. Those businesses with 10 or fewer employees were more likely to keep all office spaces open, while 45% of businesses with over 500 employees reported closing all of them.

“Cities that historically have had large numbers of inward commuters, often by mass transit those people are, in my view, are not going to return in the numbers that we were accustomed to before the pandemic,” said Steven Davis, a professor of international business and economics at the University of Chicago.

While, reduced overhead, real estate savings and less commuting are wins for companies and their employees, Davis says a permanent transformation will likely be painful for others.

Without the daily foot traffic of in-office employees, shops, cafes and restaurants in city centers will likely take a hit.

“A lot of those businesses will be operating at lower intensity, or not operating at all,” said Davis. “It doesn't mean those spending dollars disappear. They just go to other places in the economy like the suburbs.”

Consorte says it will take innovation to contend with the changes.

“Property owners are going to have to be creative to figure out what to do with this space that is no longer occupied,” he said.

How exactly this balances out, say economists, is still in flux, but one thing is certain: the paradigm shift means office work will look significantly different than it has in the past.

CINCINNATI — Utz Quality Foods will discontinue its Husman's snack line, beloved by Cincinnatians for more than a century, the company confirmed to WCPO Friday night.

"After considering retailer feedback and consumer demand, we recently made the difficult decision to discontinue the Husman’s brand," an Utz spokesperson said.

Harry Husman started the Cincinnati potato chip company in 1919, according to the company's website. Seeing a need from customers and grocery stores alike for a fresh supply of potato chips, the 24-year-old Husman started his first plant on 414 Laurel St.

"Harry used a pulley and rope to haul bags of potatoes up through the window and into his 'Sunlit Kitchen.' As the company grew and expanded into more and larger plants, the technology evolved," read a history of the Husman's company.

In 1937, Husman’s installed an automatic potato chip fryer, which could produce 800 pounds of chips an hour. The company's first semiautomatic packaging machines arrived in 1949, and a second automatic fryer was installed in 1958 to produce a total 1,600 pounds an hour across four packaging lines, according to Utz.

Utz acquired the Snyder of Berlin and Husman’s brands from Conagra in 2019, and for more than 15 years, Husman’s snacks has been produced in Berlin, Pennsylvania and sold in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

In that time, the Husman’s brand has been "steadily declining in what is an extremely competitive snack food category," according to an Utz spokesperson.

The decision will have no impact on the company's workforce, and Utz has added positions as they begin to produce new products and introduce other snack brands to its Berlin factory in February.

"While we understand the disappointment of Husman’s brand fans, we hope that they will enjoy our many other high-quality snack food brands, such as Snyder of Berlin and Zapp’s® snacks," the spokesperson said.

The strong jobs recovery has prompted a lot of workers to part ways with their employers — in many cases, to pursue jobs offering more flexibility or better pay.

In June, nearly 4 million workers quit their jobs, according to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But when it comes to leaving your job, there should be more to it than walking into your boss' office and yelling: 'I quit!' (No matter how tempting that might be.)

How you leave your current job can affect your career down the road and you don't want to burn any bridges. Here's how to do it right:

Tell your boss first

You might be excited to share the news of your new role with your work friends, but your boss should be the first person to hear about your exit.

"It is a courtesy," said Marianne Ruggiero, founder and president of Optima Careers. "They are the people who likely made the decision to hire you and you want them to have a chance to understand and get information and make a plan."

If possible, have this conversation in person or, if you're working remotely, on a video meeting.

When having the conversation, Ruggiero recommends getting straight to the point by saying something like: "I want to let you know that I've decided to take a new position and am resigning from my position effective [provide date]."

If the boss seems surprised by the news, Ruggiero suggested following up by saying something along the lines of: "I'm very grateful for all that you've done for me and I hope you understand that I'm doing this to advance my career. It will be an opportunity to further my skills or leverage my skills or learn more about..."

Alison Sullivan, career trends expert at Glassdoor, suggested discussing with your boss about how best to inform your colleagues.

"Think about how you are going to communicate with your team and boss and what you are going to say about the reasons you're leaving," she said. "Make sure to be clear and be supportive in helping the transition process."

Give some notice (if you can)

Giving at least two weeks' notice of your departure has become a generally accepted norm.

The heads up helps managers figure out things like how to shift your workload, get up-to-date on the status of assignments and inform clients.

While it's not necessarily a requirement to give that much notice, departing abruptly could have negative consequences, including leaving a poor impression and having co-workers wondering what happened.

"If you have some sort of agreement that has a different notice period then you should follow that because you could lose out on other benefits that you might be entitled to," said Davida Perry, managing partner of Schwartz Perry & Heller in New York City.

You should also be prepared to be asked to leave the day you give notice — especially if you are going to a competitor.

"Most people know before they've resigned what the general convention is in that particular environment," said Ruggiero.

The resignation letter

If you're asked for a resignation letter, Perry advised keeping it short: thank your employer for the opportunity and state when your last day of work will be.

However, if you're leaving over a possible legal claim, such as an allegation of workplace safety violations, Perry advised speaking to an attorney before submitting a resignation letter. Anything in writing could be used against you later.

"If there is some illegal activity going on... you're definitely going to want to push back or write a letter identifying the fact that you are not voluntarily resigning."

Help with the transition

When delivering the news of your departure, have a plan to help your boss with the transition after you leave.

Career coach Hallie Crawford suggested being ready with a status update on all your projects and assignments, and offering up suggestions about which colleagues might take them over.

"Be proactive and have a transition plan. It will help smooth things over and make it easier on everybody. But make sure what you are promising you can do is realistic," said Crawford.

Stay positive

Try to remain cordial and productive with your colleagues during your remaining time. You never know when your paths might cross again.

"These are the people who are going to be your next reference," said Ruggiero, adding that you should also identify who you'd like to try to keep in your network as you move forward in your career.

Reach out to any sponsors and colleagues you wish to carry on relationships with and ask them to have coffee or lunch with you before your departure.

"Pick a handful of people you'd like to stay connected with and let them know that," said Crawford. "You want to close your professional relationship out with people properly, just as if you are onboarding, you want to offboard correctly as well."

Don't waver

Even though you might have spent hours deliberating about moving, your boss might still try to make an offer to keep you on board.

If you've already concluded you are leaving and have accepted another offer, Crawford advised being direct.

"You need to stick to your 'no.'" She recommended saying something like: Thank you so much for the offer. I really appreciate it, but I've really made up my mind.

"Keep it short and sweet. If you start to say more, you might be leaving the door open," Crawford said.

CINCINNATI — Kroger confirmed Friday that it was impacted by a data security breach affecting Accellion, Inc., a vendor it used for third-party secure file transfers.

"Kroger believes certain associate HR data, certain pharmacy records, and certain money services records have been affected," the company said on its website.

The company believes that fewer than 1% of its customers were impacted. The breach did not affect IT systems or any grocery store systems or data, Kroger said. No credit, debit card or digital wallet information were affected by the breach, nor were customer account passwords.

While Kroger said there is no indication of "fraud or misuse of personal information" due to the breach, the company is notifying potentially impacted customers and associates by mail. They are also offering free credit monitoring to those individuals "out of an abundance of caution."

The company said Accellion notified Kroger on Jan. 23 that an unauthorized person gained access to certain Kroger files by exploiting a vulnerability in Accellion’s file transfer service.

Kroger has since stopped using Accellion’s services, reported the incident to federal law enforcement and started its own forensic investigation.

If you have questions about the breach, Kroger's dedicated call center at 1 (855) 558-2999 can be reached Monday through Friday between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. PT, and weekends from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT.

For more information, click here.

Would you ever reuse a Q-tip? How about a facial tissue? Most people would say no, and that's understandable. But some designers have come up with a way to use those same products over and over again, without the “ew” factor.

The company LastObject has one goal and it's to cut down on waste from disposable products. Right now, they have reuseable Q-tips, facial tissues and makeup rounds. The Q-tip was their first product.

Creators say there was a big movement on cutting the use of straws, but people didn't think of how other everyday products create so much waste.

“When people throw them out in single-use versions, in your toilet, they're flushed through. Even here in Denmark, we have a really good water system, but they go through the filtration system, so they actually end up directly into the oceans,” said Isabel Aagaard, cofounder of LastObject.

The Q-tips are made out of a sturdy nylon rod and the swabs are made out of a silicone material that can be easily cleaned. They're meant to be used 1,000 times.

The facial tissues are made from cotton and are sewn in a way that makes them hygienic and can withstand being washed repeatedly.

Right now, LastObject focuses on toiletries, but would eventually like to create reusable kitchen products too.

“We're not the only ones that are in this field right now, which is amazing. I think that we're really seeing a paradigm shift right now in the culture and the habits about how people really want to make a difference,” said Aagaard.

There are other products that aim to be environmentally friendly, but they are not necessarily single-use. There are a lot of plastic-free toothbrushes now, usually made with bamboo.