An employee at Jack Dorsey’s Block claimed she resigned from the company immediately after the firm laid off 40% of its workforce. Despite being offered a retention package that included a 75% pay increase and a one-time bonus, the techie chose to walk away the following day. In a detailed post, she explained that she could not justify profiting from a situation in which the majority of her team members lost their livelihoods.
“My employer Block laid off 40% of its workforce last Thursday (2/26). I wasn’t affected… but I was *affected*. I decided to quit immediately and left the company the following day on 2/27. I figured that a company able to Thanos-snap away half of their employees doesn’t need two-week’s notice from me, just another IC that could easily have been in that 40%,” the laid-off techie wrote on LinkedIn.
Also Read: Man gets layoff email from Jack Dorsey while interviewing new candidate for Block: ‘I’m the sole provider for my family’
In the post, she shared that this was her personal story and experience of working in tech. She claimed that some of Block’s choices were “deeply problematic,” and that the entire situation has left her mad. She continued, “I’m willing to bet that many of those who were laid off or are still working at Block are mad too. Anger is a feeling of perceived injustice, a valid reaction to these events.”
Within a harrowing 10-minute window, the employee watched as nearly 70% of her immediate and sister teams vanished. The sweep left only her and a three-day-old new hire to pick up the pieces, saddling her with “immense dread” and a crushing sense of survivor’s guilt.
Hefty retention package:
According to the techie, Block offered substantial salary increases to those who survived the mass layoff. “I’’m not sure how the Retention Package looked for others, but I was personally offered a pay increase of ~75% (90% if you include the one-time bonus!). So basically, I saw my company discard half of my peers and double my pay.”
The woman continued that getting a hike was not an “honour”. Rather, she called it “shameful and dehumanising”.
“I’d rather see my peers keep their jobs than personally profit from their trauma. I have the immense financial privilege of being a steadily-employed, healthy person with no dependents, but many of my peers have families to care for, medical bills to pay, or visa issues putting them at risk of deportation.”
“I asked to get laid off”
She continued that she wanted to include herself in the layoff, but was answered “no”.
“Because really, why should you get to choose to leave with dignity when you see your entire team — the people you worked hard to build a positive relationship with over the past year and a half — disappear?”
Techie questions the reason behind the mass layoffs:
Jack Dorsey, in a note to his employees, said that the company took this drastic step due to an AI-driven structural shift. However, the techie questioned the reasoning.
“So why did this happen? Block claims it’s because AI is making the company so productive. In the last year, AI was shoved down everyone’s throats. Everything was about AI. We were told to use AI as much as possible. It’s nothing short of dystopian to be forced to employ the very tools that accelerate the disappearance of the jobs on which our livelihoods depend. Personally, I saw very limited gains in productivity from AI, nothing nearly profound enough to justify tossing out half of the company’s workforce along with their institutional knowledge and expertise (bus factor, anyone?).”
“Employees had no choice”
The woman continued, “So 40% of employees had no choice but to take the severance and leave. The remaining 60% of us were offered fat paychecks to stick around and clean up the mess our ‘leadership’ created, all so we can continue contributing to a future where AI leaves us all unemployed.”
She added, “No thanks, I’m out!”
Also Read: Jack Dorsey’s Block employee says ‘stellar review in morning, laid off by evening’ after 4,000 job cuts
Last month, Jack Dorsey announced that his tech company Block was reducing its workforce “by nearly half” and cutting 4,000 jobs.
Dorsey maintained that the company remains strong and financially stable, crediting the aggressive staff cuts to a strategic shift toward the creation, usage, and reliance on “intelligence tools.”
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)