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Layoffs at Block

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Re: Layoffs at Block

#821

Post by SanjayMehta »

dayone1 wrote: post #525
SanjayMehta wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: over hiring I haven't worked for a large company for a long time but the last place I was my VP pushed us to hire 1000 people in one year. Turns out he was an acting VP, and needed to have that number for his formal promotion. Our division got penalised at the end of the year for falling short. By 30+ people. I left before it collapsed and was sold for parts.

wow which company was this?

I'll give you a hint: the company was featured prominently in the preface to The Dilbert Principle.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#822

Post by SecretDreams »

rswail wrote: post #786
SecretDreams wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I find it helps best when I'm off script/going rogue doing something that I think will help, rather than working with 10 other people all with different opinions and knowledge that just absolutely bogs something down.

What makes you think corporate hierarchies and processes won't infect their use of AI so that you won't be able to "go rogue" and you'll be held up by AI reviews, not humans. Oh and the opposite when you are one of the 10 "other" people on someone else's project.

Agree

Re: Layoffs at Block

#823

Post by svantana »

NicuCalcea wrote: post #599
HDThoreaun wrote: post #597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's also giving out massive severance packages

Is four and a half month's pay considered massive in the US? What do you normally get when you're made redundant?

This site has stats. According to it, 20 weeks is way above average.

https://www.trueup.io/layoffs

Re: Layoffs at Block

#824

Post by maxehmookau »

Oh man, I'm so entirely sick of this.

Why are billionaires so allergic to using capital letters at the start of sentences? You're laying people off, it just shows how little you actually care about the detail.

"i'll own it" doesn't mean ANYTHING. You've kept your job, your money, your security. You haven't owned anything because your decision doesn't make you accountable to anyone.

Additionally, not a single person is being "asked to leave". Every single one of those people is being _told_ to leave, and given no choice about it.

Language matters, and this entire post shows how little they care.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#825

Post by sethev »

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…

Folks at Jack's level are just as susceptible to flawed reasoning and trend following as anyone else. Sometimes it feels like more so, possibly because they have so much buffer to absorb the consequences of bad ideas (see how Twitter ended up). A person living paycheck to paycheck has less leeway to veer too far away from reality.

All of this to say. I suspect a lot 10k person companies made up of white collar workers could significantly cut their staff and still survive. By the time you get to that size, there's a large middle management that is constantly looking for reasons to increase their 30 person org to 40, and who will be overbooked whether they have 20 people or 100.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#826

Post by Forgeties79 »

small_model wrote: post #713
Forgeties79 wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter is a strange example given it has experienced a massive drop in valuation and ad revenue as well as struggled with user acquisition since Musk bought it. By all metrics it has declined in value except it where it serves as a powerful megaphone for the US right.

[flagged]

> Twitter was a megaphone for the US far left, it's now more balanced and centred so allows both sides to post without censor.

I would say it leaned left, didn’t censor the right, and now it’s over corrected and absolutely has not stopped playing games with the content. It is not the space Musk claims and it is hardly a bastion of free speech.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#828

Post by oblio »

jalapenos wrote: post #794
DebtDeflation wrote: post #694

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the absurd overhiring that they did in 2022 and 2023 The overhiring took place from mid 2020 through mid 2022. The reversal into layoffs started in late 2022 and was in full swing in 2023. While the overhiring problem was real, the correction was largely complete over a year ago. The layoffs we're seeing today have nothing to do with overhiring and everything to do with managing earnings to sustain equity valuation…

> managing earnings to sustain equity valuations That's an interesting take, so eventually they'll just run out of these tricks and at that point the valuations will burst?

Bingo. Yes. The trick, as usual, is timing the pop.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#829

Post by freehorse »

DebtDeflation wrote: post #694
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…

> the absurd overhiring that they did in 2022 and 2023 The overhiring took place from mid 2020 through mid 2022. The reversal into layoffs started in late 2022 and was in full swing in 2023. While the overhiring problem was real, the correction was largely complete over a year ago. The layoffs we're seeing today have nothing to do with overhiring and everything to do with managing earnings to sustain equity valuation…

> the correction was largely complete over a year ago

I am not sure how to be certain about this case, as the numbers (as far as I remember) still stayed higher than before. Moreover I do not think Blocks fired people back then?

But there is an extra factor, that around covid times hiring became signal for growth thus stocks went up after the hiring rates were announced, now firing is a signal for AI/efficiency, thus stocks go up when they fire people. It becomes easier to mass-fire people when it does not signal that there are problems going on (for the company).

Re: Layoffs at Block

#830

Post by skywhopper »

senko wrote: post #254

This is one of the best (if not the best) layoff letters I've seen online (no affiliation, don't know anyone working there, purely outsider perspective). * Severance packages upfront because realistically that's what everyone worries about first. * Reasoning second. I appreciate the one clean cut vs prolonged bleeding. * Owning the decision and respecting the people that got you there. Opting for an awkward allhands…

Sorry, but it would only be “ownership” of the decision if he himself resigned for making the terrible decisions that led to than”necessity” in the first place.
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