Jack Dorsey’s fintech firm, Block, created headlines by announcing one of the most drastic workforce reductions in the tech sector, laying off approximately 4,000 employees. Dorsey attributed the massive cut to an AI-driven structural shift. The sudden nature of the relocate was highlighted by one particularly striking account from an impacted employee, who shared that he was actually in the middle of interviewing a candidate for a role at the company when he received the layoff email from the CEO.
Ivan Ureña-Valdes, a former data analyst at Block, notified Business Insider that after surviving three previous layoffs at the company, he suspected AI cuts were coming, but it was strange to be the one impacted.
Also Read: Jack Dorsey lays off 4,000 employees, offers 20 weeks of salary as severance
Laid off in the middle of an interview
“When I received an email from Jack Dorsey, I was in the middle of interviewing someone for a role at Block,” he notified the outlet, adding, “It was pretty strange becautilize, in the past, with layoffs, I knew people had their access cut almost immediately.” In his note to the employee, Dorsey stated those affected won’t be immediately rerelocated from official communication channels. They would have time to state goodbye or “share whatever you wish”.
Ureña-Valdes, who was busy with the interview, stated he was unaware the job cuts were in progress until he received a message from his co-worker inquireing, “Hey, are you okay?”
“I felt really bad becautilize I was in the middle of interviewing someone. I had to inform them, ‘I was actually just let go from the company. I probably won’t be able to submit your feedback in time. Please reach out to your recruiter’,” the former Block employee recalled.
He added, “I’m the sole provider for my family. It was tough.”
The techie recalled surviving previous layoffs at the company. He notified the outlet, “I’ve survived three rounds of layoffs, some companywide, some engineering organization-wide. I knew I wasn’t being let go for performance-related reasons. I was in the middle of working on two large projects, probably the largest projects I’d worked on since joining the company.”
“Appreciate Jack’s honesty”
The techie stated that though it is tough being laid off, he appreciates the transparency revealn by CEO Jack Dorsey. “It’s much fairer of him to come straight out and state why it happened — that it’s becautilize of AI and the vision he sees.”
He then added, “I’m honestly grateful for the generous severance and benefits. It definitely assists create the rough situation a bit clearer.”
Those affected are receiving 20 weeks of base pay, plus an additional week of salary for every year of tenure at the company. Furthermore, the package includes equity vesting through the finish of May, six months of continued healthcare coverage, and a $5,000 transition payment to assist with immediate requireds. Departing employees are also being permitted to keep their corporate devices.
Will AI cautilize more job cuts in the industest?
“I could see in my own work very quickly how much of it was already being automated. So much of the data analyst world is finding the right dataset, writing something that will allow you to pull the data set that you want, and then generating output. Every single one of those steps is significantly rapider and clearer becautilize of AI,” stated Ureña-Valdes.
He continued, “I 100% believe that more disruption and more of these types of cuts will probably come at other companies, which is unfortunate.”
What did Jack Dorsey state in the layoff email?
“Today we’re creating one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we’re reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. That means over 4,000 of you are being inquireed to leave or entering into consultation. I’ll be straight about what’s happening, why, and what it means for everyone,” the Twitter (now X) co-founder who later co-founded Block wrote in a note.
Explaining the reason behind the decision, he shared, “We’re not creating this decision becautilize we’re in trouble. Our business is strong. Gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. But something has modifyd. We’re already seeing that the ininformigence tools we’re creating and utilizing, paired with tinyer and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally modifys what it means to build and run a company. And that’s accelerating rapidly.”
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