Inside the Rolling Layoffs at Jack Dorsey’s Block
Hundreds of workers were laid off in early February at Block, and employees say jack dorsey’s company is experiencing a sharp decline in morale as performance-focused firings and mandated generative AI use reshape daily work. The developments matter because Block employs around 11, 000 people and management has signaled the reductions could affect up to 10 percent of that workforce while continuing through the end of this month.
All-hands meeting and employee complaints with Jack Dorsey
An all-hands meeting held after hundreds of staff had already been fired drew blunt feedback from employees. One complaint submitted to management read, “Morale is probably the worst I’ve felt in four years. ” Another message from the same meeting said, “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 who discussed internal operations requested anonymity.
Arnaud Weber’s email framed firings as performance-related
Multiple employees said they were appalled when Arnaud Weber, Block’s engineering lead, circulated an email after the initial wave that described the departures as performance-related rather than primarily cost-saving. In that message Weber wrote, “As part of our 2025 performance cycle, we have parted ways with teammates who weren't meeting the expectations of their role, ” and described those departures as based on “clear performance gaps, role expectations, and alignment coming out of calibrations on the bar for each level. ” Employees disputed the internal messaging that characterized the firings as merit-based.
Weekly updates, generative AI summaries and contested mandates
Block employees are expected to send an update email to management every week, and those messages are summarized by generative AI after they are collected. During the all-hands meeting, leadership said frequent topics in the latest messages included “widespread concerns about layoffs, ” “performance anxiety, ” and “the tension between accelerating delivery through AI adoption versus maintaining code quality and engineering rigor. ”
At the same meeting, management reiterated that the layoffs were made for performance reasons, stating there was “a sizable portion of our population that have been phoning it in. ” Remaining workers were urged to adopt generative AI tools to maximize productivity or risk being outpaced by competitors. One current Block employee pushed back on the mandate, saying, “Top-down mandates to use large language models are crazy, ” and adding, “If the tool were good, we’d all just use it. ”
Scope, timeline and company background
The layoffs at Block started this month and could eventually impact up to 10 percent of the company's workforce; before the headcount reductions began, Block had around 11, 000 people on staff. Management has enacted the firings over the course of weeks and told employees the process will continue through the end of this month. Block is the parent company behind the merchant payment processor Square and the payment app Cash App; jack dorsey cofounded the company in 2009 after previously cofounding Twitter.
Access and response
Employees described pervasive performance anxiety and rapidly deteriorating morale as the company implements a rolling series of layoffs and technology mandates. A Block spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment about the firings, the use of generative AI for internal summaries, or the pace and criteria of the workforce reductions.
