Block, the Bay Area tech giant behind Square, Cash App and Afterpay, is abruptly laying off 931 workers, according to an email from CEO Jack Dorsey to workers on Tuesday. More than 200 of the employees worked in California.
Dorsey, who co-founded and led Twitter before co-founding the financial tech juggernaut, wrote in his all-lowercase note that Block would be cutting 80 managers, 391 workers from teams that are "off strategy" and 460 workers who were said to be underperforming. The cuts arrived suddenly, but that's as Dorsey prefers it; Business Insider reported in 2023 that the CEO decided to eliminate drawn-out performance improvement plans in favor of cutting underachieving workers "without delay."
FTA:
He called laying off staff "the toughest part" of his job but noted that it's his job to increase the company's value " and thus the value of the equity that workers hold. Dorsey wrote that he believes the cuts will "help us focus and execute better" to push up that valuation. Block's stock price slumped in February due to a worse-than-expected earnings report; as of Wednesday afternoon, the company was worth about $37 billion.
Laid-off Block workers flooded onto LinkedIn on Tuesday, with many posts expressing sadness and including pleas for help finding new work.
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