Inside Block’s Rolling Layoffs Under Jack Dorsey
▼ Summary
– Block, the parent company of Square and Cash App, laid off hundreds of workers in February, with plans to cut up to 10% of its workforce.
– Current employees report a crumbling internal culture marked by severe performance anxiety and rapidly deteriorating morale.
– Management, including cofounder Jack Dorsey and an engineering lead, has characterized the layoffs as performance-based, a claim disputed by many staff.
– Dorsey mandates the use of generative AI tools for productivity, a requirement some employees criticize as a top-down imposition.
– Employees are required to send weekly updates to Dorsey, who uses AI to summarize widespread concerns about layoffs and the pressure to adopt AI.
The internal environment at Block, the financial technology firm led by Jack Dorsey, has become strained following a series of rolling layoffs that began in February. Employees report a significant decline in morale and a culture of intense performance pressure, compounded by a top-down mandate to adopt generative AI tools. The company, which operates Square and Cash App, is navigating a workforce reduction that could ultimately affect up to ten percent of its staff, a process unfolding gradually over several weeks rather than as a single event.
Morale within the company is described as being at its lowest point in years. One complaint submitted directly to Dorsey during a recent all-hands meeting stated that the overarching culture is crumbling. Current and former staff members, speaking anonymously, confirm a pervasive sense of anxiety as the layoffs continue. The uncertainty makes planning for the future nearly impossible, with employees unsure from one week to the next if their positions will remain.
Management’s characterization of the job cuts has sparked particular controversy. After the initial wave of dismissals, engineering lead Arnaud Weber sent an internal email framing the departures as performance-based, not a cost-saving initiative. According to the email, the company parted ways with individuals who were not meeting role expectations following performance calibrations. Several sources within the company strongly dispute this internal messaging, expressing dismay at the suggestion that the layoffs were solely merit-based.
A unique practice adding to the tension is a weekly requirement for employees to send update emails to Dorsey himself. The executive then uses generative AI to summarize the thousands of messages received. In the recent company meeting, Dorsey noted that common themes from these updates included widespread concern about layoffs, performance anxiety, and the tension between using AI to accelerate work and maintaining engineering quality.
During that discussion, Dorsey doubled down on the performance rationale. He suggested a sizable portion of the workforce had been underperforming, or “phoning it in.” He also emphasized that the remaining employees must utilize generative AI to boost productivity, warning that failure to adopt these tools could leave Block at a competitive disadvantage.
This directive has met with skepticism from some engineers. One current employee criticized the top-down approach, arguing that compelling the use of large language models is counterproductive. The sentiment is that if the tools were genuinely effective and beneficial, their adoption would occur organically without the need for a mandate, as teams would naturally gravitate toward solutions that improve their work.
(Source: Wired)
