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Layoffs at Block

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Re: Layoffs at Block

#71

Post by TSiege »

softwaredoug wrote: post #56

Pre pandemic Block had ~4000 employees They grew to 11000 Now they’re going to shrink to 6000 The whiplash from ZIRP days to whatever AI cost restructuring happening today is massive

This makes it make way more sense. That is a huge amount of growth really fast. I've worked in those companies, it's really hard on the work culture and organization when things grow that quickly.

I think the potential for productivity is there with AI, but this size of a cut based on speculation made no sense. This is actually reasonable in this light and is probably for the best. I'll be curious to see if any employees, former or otherwise talk about it

Re: Layoffs at Block

#73

Post by gusmally »

re-thc wrote: post #18
htrp wrote: post #5

>we're not making this decision because 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 changed. we're already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build an…

> but something has changed i.e. we finally decided to audit head count from post covid-era. > paired with smaller and flatter teams i.e. management was axed

you don't think LLM impacts on productivity were a factor at all?

Re: Layoffs at Block

#76

Post by mmcclure »

wmf wrote: post #37
raverbashing wrote: post #22

So, what does Block actually do?

CashApp

Square is still a much, much bigger portion of the business than CashApp.

    Square’s ecosystem is expected to contribute $1.77 billion, while Cash App is expected to provide $58.3 million to transaction revenues.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#77

Post by davidw »

Swizec wrote: post #36
t-writescode wrote: post #28

Nice severance; but in this job market, holy shit. Yeah, you get 5 months of severance and a bunch of devices and such; but, does this CEO really think these employees will find new work in that time? In this job market? If the profits are still up and growing, why on earth would you evict 40% of the company, to send them into this job market? Why not … try new industries, play around, try to become the next Mitsubis…

> Nice severance; but in this job market, holy shit. I just talked to a bunch of recruiters (we're hiring) and their main piece of advice was: The market is crazy. Move fast . We're seeing people getting jobs within days of starting to look, bailing on offers after signing because they got a better offer somewhere else, etc. 24 hours is the longest you can leave a candidate waiting. You have been warned edit: I am in…

Is this hiring people to dig ditches for data center infrastructure or something? Because it doesn't sound like software.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#78

Post by wffurr »

krzaG wrote: post #47

It is hard to tell what this company does, but it seems to be involved in bitcoin. Coincidentally we have had a huge drop in bitcoin in the last months. I don't buy anything this weirdo says.

Block runs Square and Cash App among other payments tech.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#79

Post by rxyz »

hokumguru wrote: post #64

I'm still not sure I quite agree with this AI replacement premise. Assuming the premise of profitability and a sound business then this sounds like a failure of product if anything. It just doesn't follow for me that when you see more productive teams the immediate answer is that you need less people. Especially for silicon valley types this seems antithetical to scaling. Thinking of it in two ways - Yes you could (i…

Dorsey is in AI psychosis. He required every employee to send him an email weekly which then he had summarized by AI because of course he aint reading it himself.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#80

Post by ej88 »

operatingthetan wrote: post #70
Swizec wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nice severance; but in this job market, holy shit. I just talked to a bunch of recruiters (we're hiring) and their main piece of advice was: The market is crazy. Move fast . We're seeing people getting jobs within days of starting to look, bailing on offers after signing because they got a better offer somewhere else, etc. 24 hours is the longest you can leave a candidate waiting. You have been warned edit: I am in…

It seems like the tech job market is exactly the opposite of this right now? Could you be more specific?

trimodal swe compensation (elite, big tech, everyone else) extends to the job markets too
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