Matt Ishbia, president and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage, slaps its competitor, Rocket Mortage/Quicken Loans, led by Dan Gilbert.

“Disappointed is the best way to describe my thoughts on Rocket Mortgage/Quicken Loans laying off over 2,000 of their employees because it shouldn’t be necessary for a company that made over $5 billion in profits last year “Ishbia wrote on LinkedIn on Wednesday. “Even though United Wholesale Mortgage is in direct competition with Rocket, I hate to see this type of negative impact on families in the Metro Detroit area. Those 2,000+ people will have a hard time finding new jobs, and I think how disgusting that they think in the short term and are only focused on cutting a few million a month in costs…. That’s the wrong thing to do to people.

Ishbia goes on to say that he is “proud that we haven’t had a single layoff in 35 years at UWM, and we will never have a layoff because we are a family business focused on what we do. the best for our employees”.

After a boom in the mortgage industry during the pandemic, things have calmed down.

The display received many positive comments, especially from Ishbia workers.

“There’s no better place to work in Michigan outside of UWM,” writes Rocky Lund, senior account manager at UWM. “I worked at Quicken Loans for 6 years. The main reason I decided to leave was the lack of work-life balance. Constantly working 60-70 hours a week with weekends mandatory didn’t give me any personal life. Going to UWM was by far the best decision I’ve ever made.”

Gilbert’s people fight back.

“I find it interesting that you forgot to mention that the layoffs are voluntary and include months of base pay, 6 months of health insurance, full PTO reimbursement, and free career services,” writes Joseph Hrabnicky , associate business strategist at Rocket Central. “All of this on top of a proper start in which the team members will be welcomed when the market permits. I shouldn’t be surprised, after the hollow ultimatum you laid down last summer and which turned against him.”

Ishbia issued an ultimatum asking mortgage brokers doing business with his company to stop making loans to Rocket and another lender. It has become a subject of litigation.

Jared Fleisher, vice president of government affairs for Rock Central, also weighed in on Isbia’s post:

“Nobody asked me to write this. Mr. Ishbia’s comments about ‘metro Detroit families’ are just empty cynicism to his community. You, sir, don’t have a such a record to speak of. Rocket is reacting to drastically changed market conditions in the most thoughtful and caring way possible. The fact that you seek to exploit it for your own ends proves nothing but the true depth your cynicism, your lack of attention and your immorality.”

Additionally, former employee Seth Logan had little to say about UWM.

“UWM is the only former employer I would say anything bad about because he is unprofessional. It’s the company that’s run so badly, they used to have mandatory 10 hour days off warning. It’s so terrible that someone defecates on the ground and got out because of the gravity of the steering. My car broke down on the way to work and my supervisor attacked me for asking for a day of PTO … because it took 5 hours of walking to get there.