Jack Dorsey’s block brings a few workers after mass layoffs
At least four of Block's employees joined the company after being cut in a major layoff in February.
Chan Rennie, who heads creative strategy at The Block, is one of them. He announced in a LinkedIn post that he was back on the job a week after announcing his layoff.
Another case is that of Andrew Harvard, a design engineer who was quickly invited back after an accidental layoff from the company. He confirmed his return in a statement
Some team members were hired after their manager and co-worker pressured management to bring them back.
Richard Hesse, technical lead for Square Online and site operations at Block, said he was the only team member left after 40% of the company was laid off. Hesse worked tirelessly to convince management that his colleagues were important and that he could not manage alone.
The effort paid off, and Block rehired some of those who were released.
These redundancies did little to compensate for the fact that Block had almost halved its workforce, from more than 10,000 to less than 6,000.
Company founder Jack Dorsey said the decision was prompted by structural and strategic changes to the company's operations.
Coinbase's former chief technology officer, Balaji Srinivasan, called this the first “AI hack” and predicted it would send shockwaves through the tech industry.
“Learn AI tools and up your game. Or you might not make the cut as an employee or as a company,” Srinivasan warned.
Automation and AI are changing work processes. Smaller teams are expected to accomplish more, and this has raised concerns about the AI productivity paradox.
Big companies like Amazon and Block aren't the only ones affected. Disruption in the labor market is also affecting the crypto industry, which is gaining mainstream adoption.
The sector has suffered a severe downturn, and as a result several groups have recently been restructured.
Earlier today, Algorand said it had reduced its workforce by 25% in response to market conditions and macro uncertainty.
The company joins a growing list of crypto firms that have made similar moves, including OP Labs, Gemini and OKX.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. See our Editorial Policy for more information on how we create and review content.
