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Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of X (formerly Twitter), appears to be following in his successor Elon Musk’s footsteps amid reports that he laid off almost 1,000 workers from his fintech over email.
Block employees received an email from Dorsey Tuesday alerting them of the mass firings coming to the financial services giant, which owns Cash App, Square, and Tidal.
Dorsey, who founded Block under the name Square in 2009, told staff the company would be “making some org changes, including eliminating roles and beginning the consultation process in countries where required,” according to TechCrunch, who published the email.
The tech billionaire explained that worker cuts fall under three brackets: 391 people for “strategy” reasons; 460 staff for “performance” reasons; and 80 managers being cut to flatten to Block’s hierarchy.
Along with the 938 roles being slashed, an additional 784 open positions at the company are being closed—with the exception of candidates who have progressed to offer stages and those in critical operation or key leadership roles.
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Block has around 11,300 staff members globally, according to recent company filings.
Dorsey denied that the layoffs were for financial reasons or to replace human workers with artificial intelligence counterparts. In the email, he insisted that they were for “raising the bar and acting faster on performance.”
“We’re working to give clarity to everyone as quickly, with as much context and support, as possible. You’ll receive an email soon about what this means for you,” he added.
Block’s share price has plummeted about 32 percent this year and fell another 1.5 percent on Thursday. The company’s fourth-quarter earnings also fell short of analyst expectations.
Dorsey’s last wave of layoffs at the company was in January 2024, when he cut about 1,000 roles.
His latest actions are reminiscent of Musk’s mass firing email in November 2022, a month after closing the $44 billion deal for X, then Twitter.
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Workers received an email with the subject line “a fork in the road” and were given an ultimatum: commit to “extremely hardcore” working conditions to build what he called “Twitter 2.0” or take three months severance pay and leave.
By April 2023, Musk said that he reduced X’s workforce by about 80 percent.
The world’s richest man has employed a similar tactic in his efforts to gut federal departments under the Trump administration with his Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk’s “Fork in the Road” email in January offered 2.3 million federal civil servants a “deferred resignation” through September if they would not commit to “extremely hardcore” work.
Approximately 75,000 federal employees accepted the buyout, the White House said.
