Jack Dorsey’s Block Moves Through Rolling Layoffs as AI Mandates Fuel Morale Crisis

Hundreds of employees were laid off at Jack Dorsey’s payments company in early February, a rolling process that could affect up to 10 percent of the workforce and is scheduled to continue through the end of this month. The combination of sustained cuts and a new push for mandatory generative AI use has driven performance anxiety and sharply lowered morale at Block.

Early February layoffs at Block

Block began letting go of employees in early February, with management executing the reductions slowly over several weeks rather than in a single wave. Before the headcount reductions began, Block employed around 11, 000 people; company leadership has indicated the process could eventually touch as much as 10 percent of that staff. Management has told employees the firings will continue through the end of this month, leaving many workers uncertain about their near-term prospects.

Employee complaints at the all-hands meeting

At a recent all-hands meeting, which took place after hundreds of staff had already been dismissed, employees raised blunt concerns about the company’s internal climate. One complaint read, "Morale is probably the worst I’ve felt in four years, " while another noted, "We don't yet know if our livelihoods will be affected, and this makes it incredibly hard to make major life choices without knowing if we still have a job next week. " Seven current and former Block employees, speaking anonymously, described a culture that many say has deteriorated as the cuts proceed.

Arnaud Weber and the 2025 performance cycle

Arnaud Weber, Block’s engineering lead, sent an internal message after the initial wave characterizing departures as performance-related rather than primarily cost-driven. Weber wrote that "As part of our 2025 performance cycle, we have parted ways with teammates who weren't meeting the expectations of their role, " and added, "These departures were based on clear performance gaps, role expectations, and alignment coming out of calibrations on the bar for each level. " Several employees said they were appalled by that framing and disagreed with management's characterization of the firings.

Jack Dorsey’s weekly updates and generative AI

Employees are expected to send an update email to Jack Dorsey every week; those messages are processed at scale by generative AI that summarizes thousands of submissions. The company has flagged frequent themes in those summaries as "widespread concerns about layoffs, " "performance anxiety, " and "the tension between accelerating delivery through AI adoption versus maintaining code quality and engineering rigor. " Jack dorsey has told staff that the reductions were motivated by performance issues, saying there was "a sizable portion of our population that have been phoning it in, " and has urged remaining employees to adopt generative AI tools to maximize productivity so Block does not get outpaced by competitors.

Impact on Square, Cash App and company origins

Block is the parent company of the merchant payment processor Square and the Cash App payment service. The company was cofounded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey, who had earlier cofounded Twitter. Employees and managers alike say the push to force usage of large language models is intensifying daily pressures. One current Block employee described top-down directives on AI as untenable, saying, "Top-down mandates to use large language models are crazy, " and adding, "If the tool were good, we’d all just use it. "

Responses and broader implications

A Block spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. The rolling nature of these layoffs, coupled with explicit managerial messaging that ties departures to the 2025 performance cycle and requires rapid AI adoption, has produced a clear cause-and-effect dynamic: performance-framed cuts and AI mandates are increasing anxiety and deteriorating morale, which employees say makes sustained delivery and engineering rigor harder to maintain. What makes this notable is the convergence of headcount reductions and a company-wide mandate to incorporate generative AI into daily work, a combination employees say is reshaping career risk calculations and workplace culture within Block.