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Layoffs at Block

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Re: Layoffs at Block

#41

Post by nxm »

garbawarb wrote: post #6
toomuchtodo wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep saying it’s pandemic over hiring, but it should be called ZIRP hiring. With the cost of money almost 4x what it used to be, companies have to deliver now, not just coast on promises of growth and success that may never materialize. Have to sing for that supper. https://paulgraham.com/startuplessons.html

I miss those days. It may have been economically silly but there was so much optimism, especially in the tech world.

Pre-paid optimism that we've been paying for now with high inflation due to overstimulated economy through printed money.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#43

Post by pmdr »

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…

More profits, line mustn't just go up, line must go higher. Giving away the devices is like saying "we're replacing both you and your device with AI and it's not like that device will help you get another job in this market anyway, good luck lol."

Re: Layoffs at Block

#44

Post by wmf »

rvz wrote: post #10

> 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 a…

It's AGI if it works. Didn't Salesforce lay off support people to replace them with AI but then the AI didn't work?

Re: Layoffs at Block

#45

Post by reactordev »

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…

No, the job market is dead outside of implementing workflows for AI.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#46

Post by akshshha »

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…

Most C levels adhere to the “cattle, not pets” idea too.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#47

Post by krzaG »

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.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#48

Post by daxfohl »

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 think this is how it's gonna be. Regardless of whether AI significantly increases productivity (40%? come on), layoffs will be preemptory. Executives will see the lack of productivity boost as being due to lack of pressure, and imagine engineers are just using the AI to make their own lives easier rather than to work more efficiently. You can't really double output velocity because your users will see it as too much churn, so the only choice is to lay off half the workforce and double the workload for those who stay. "Necessity is the mother of invention." They'll overlook the fact that the work AI tools provide only encompasses 10% of your job even if they're 100% efficient.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#49

Post by unreal6 »

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…

> If you’ve got the manpower and talent, why not play with it and see if anything makes money. In-house startups with stable capital, all that

We are no longer in a zero-interest rate environment, so I think those experiments are more costly than they were a few years go

Re: Layoffs at Block

#50

Post by jcims »

citbl wrote: post #26

[flagged]

I noticed that as well and it oddly made me sit for a minute to think about it. I ended up deciding that it landed a bit more 'real' and unfiltered. Could be interpreted many ways. Nobody knows the actual why but (possibly) Jack.
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