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Layoffs at Block

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Re: Layoffs at Block

#401

Post by School-Cotton »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #389
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…

Is this actual five months severance? Or five months base pay with no vesting? Most people are making >50% of their income in RSUs.

The answer to this is in the post.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#402

Post by MeetingsBrowser »

xeckr wrote: post #202
MeetingsBrowser wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also don't understand that take. Imagine you run a mowing service with 4 employees. Suddenly 2 more people volunteer to mow yard for your company for free! Is your reaction to fire two of the paid employees and keep mowing the same number of yards (with reduced payroll costs), or to expand the business to mow more yards? Which of those responses feels more in line with a "strong and growing" business that is "conti…

Now imagine you run a mowing service with 4 employees. Suddenly an unbounded number of people appear on the job market who are ready to work for your company at a 5% the cost of your previous employees. Best of all, they become more competent and less expensive over time. You can't yet fire your entire original roster all at once since they need to teach the new hires the specifics of the job, but after that's done,…

No sane person is claiming AI can fully replace a human worker today.

It is a productivity multiplier at least for now.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#403

Post by School-Cotton »

geraneum wrote: post #129
singpolyma3 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wrong? A company doesn't owe anyone a job. Either they need the employee or they don't.

But something something trickle down! Or perhaps public doesn’t owe corporates bailouts when push comes to shove?

Block has never been bailed out.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#404

Post by hedora »

daxfohl wrote: post #48

We'll see how much the AI aspect is true by whether they're thinning out teams equally, or just axing whole initiatives. My impression of Block was that it was mostly a one-trick pony (okay, two if you include CashApp) with a bunch of side initiatives that never seemed to pan out, so I'm expecting it to be more of the latter, with this being more of an admission that they're now in "maintenance mode". Either way, I t…

Option 1) You’re right. They’re screwed because they won’t be able to keep the lights on and these layoffs make it worse.

Option 2) AI can just vibe code what block needs now, or maybe in a few years. Laying off talent makes sure there are people on the market to do the vibe coding, and that block will not be able to respond to widespread competitive pressure. They’re screwed and these layoffs make it worse.

Of course, they could realize they magically have 2-10x the engineering and organizational capabilities they used to and improve the product. They won’t because late stage capitalism only cares about weekly stock swings and graft so it can’t plan all the way to end of quarter anymore.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#405

Post by MeetingsBrowser »

33MHz-i486 wrote: post #186
MeetingsBrowser wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in "AI psychosis" I don't see how firing people is a logical response to advances in AI. If AI tools really are a significant multiplier to productivity, companies should be hiring more people to take advantage of that multiplier. If you suddenly have the ability to get more output per dollar spent, a healthy business should respond by spending more dollars, not spending less to keep output the same.

because demand is weak and the product markets are saturated. there are dimishing returns to increasing investment. so these companies switch to managing their earnings ratio. if you cant grow revenue, then cut costs.

But that’s not what they are claiming.

> our business is strong. gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers

The implied claim is that they have more work to do but need fewer people to do the extra work effectively

Re: Layoffs at Block

#406

Post by tombert »

alephnerd wrote: post #306
tombert wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm convinced that these "AI Layoffs" are these companies trying to save face from the absurd overhiring that they did in 2022 and 2023 because apparently they thought that these no-interest loans/free money would just last forever. No one really "knows" how to grow businesses so the easiest way to spend a lot of money quickly is hiring lots of people, whether or not they are "necessary". Then this free money dries u…

> I'm convinced that these "AI Layoffs" are these companies trying to save face from the absurd overhiring that they did in 2022 and 2023 because apparently they thought that these no-interest loans/free money would just last forever. Partially. The first nail in the coffin was the change in assumptions around output. Before 2023, there was an assumption that more bodies means more output. After the massive X/Twitter…

I don't know that I agree with most of what you wrote but others have already addressed that.

> The reality is the current set of layoffs and work stresses were the norm in the tech industry until 2015-22. We live in a competitive world and complaining on HN does nothing to help your material condition.

I really fucking hate when people post this. It's one of those things that sounds substantive but it actually isn't. This is a social media forum, people express their opinions. Sometimes those opinions are negative about corporations or businesses. It's weird to tell people "STFU with your discussion on a discussion forum".

Re: Layoffs at Block

#407

Post by bdangubic »

sealeck wrote: post #214
borroka wrote: post #156

Anyone who has worked in the big tech industry knows that probably more than half of the workforce performs tasks that, in essence, are superfluous. But these things happened: 1) Musk has shown that Twitter can operate with 5% (approximately?) of the workforce he inherited; 2) laying off a lot of people was seen as a sign that the company was in trouble, but not now because; 3) artificial intelligence makes point 2)…

> Musk has shown that Twitter can operate with 5% (approximately?) of the workforce he inherited Is X profitable? I don't think the argument was that Twitter couldn't _operate_ with 5% of the workforce (i.e. skeleton sysadmin crew), the issue was whether Twitter could make money and remain a viable business. It seems that Twitter is no longer a viable business (i.e. less advertising spend, decline in users - especial…

[flagged]

Re: Layoffs at Block

#408

Post by Rapzid »

shaftway wrote: post #244
garbawarb wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To anyone who's been looking for SWE jobs lately, has this been your experience?

I've actually had really positive responses. I'm fairly senior (~20 years of experience). I was laid off by Meta in 2022, started at Block 3 months later. Laid off by Block in 2024, started at a smaller company 1 month later. Decided to leave that company in early 2025, contacted one company from a HN Who's Hiring post and took that job. That ended up being a poor fit, and I went back to a FAANG around July of 2025.…

Also getting lot's of direct recruiter and engineering leadership pings.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#409

Post by marcus_holmes »

atomicnumber3 wrote: post #393
marcus_holmes wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've seen hackathons where attendees build a SaaS business in a weekend. More than just Startup Weekend validation and a shitty MVP. A pretty-much complete SaaS product. It's a step change. But this means the market for SaaS products is going to get hit hugely. If you can vibecode up a specific service for your specific requirement in a few days, why bother buying a SaaS product? And, of course, if you can build a m…

The value in SaaS was never the code, it was the focus on the problem space, the execution, and the ops-included side. AI makes code "free" as in "free puppy".

Yeah, agreed, but it was at least part of the moat. Competitors can see the model, the approach to market, etc. They still had to code up a better product.

And part of the problem that the SaaS solves is that "I have this thing that I need to do. I can probably do it in software, but I don't know how. Can I buy that software?". Which is now becoming "Can I get an LLM to do it?" instead.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#410

Post by mattmaroon »

paxys wrote: post #273
rco8786 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My impression of Block was that it was mostly a one-trick pony (okay, two if you include CashApp) with a bunch of side initiatives that never seemed to pan out, I worked at Block for ~6.5 years up until 2024. This is mostly correct. They were the first to market for portable CC readers, and segued that into "high tech" POS systems which, to be fair, were significantly better than the available alternatives at the t…

Exactly. Square was the first great checkout system, but now a decade and a half later every other system is good enough that retailers aren't going to pay extra for a flashier app.

It’s not extra and their hardware is still far better than the competition. Square is still awesome in the small business PoS space. Their lead has not shrunk.
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