Jack Dorsey, in a big update, announced the layoff of 40 percent of the team at Block, his payments company. Essentially, Dorsey has slashed 4,000 jobs at the company bringing the team headcount to 6,000 on Friday. Dorsey said pairing intelligence tools with flatter, smaller teams has unlocked a new way for corporates to work on, which is something he wishes to explore.
Dorsey, in a post on X said, he decided to announce the mega layoff at one go rather than doing it in gradual intervals and smaller numbers to avoid the loss of morale among team members.
Those being laid off will be informed via internal channels within Friday itself. The others will be entering into consultation, which indicates that Block will be undergoing an internal restructuring with revised reallocations of assets as well.
Giving details about the severance Dorsey said, “you’ll receive your salary for 20 weeks + 1 week per year of tenure, equity vested through the end of may, 6 months of health care, your corporate devices, and $5,000 to put toward whatever you need to help you in this transition.”
In the fourth quarter of 2025, Block clocked a gross profit of $2.87 billion clocking a 24 percent YoY growth. For the overall year of 2025, Block’s profit came at $10.36 billion, registering a yearly growth of 17 percent.
Despite roping-in profits, Dorsey decided to slash Block’s workforce.
“We’re not making this decision because we’re in trouble. Our business is strong 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 and run a company. and that’s accelerating rapidly,” Dorsey noted.
In the backdrop of this development, the shares of Block spiked by seven percent to trade at $54.53.
On social media, meanwhile, a flurry of sentimental opinions have unleashed around AI replacing humans in scaling companies, taking jobs.
In the aftermath of the Block job cuts, players from the crypto sector have seemingly opened hiring gates for those laid off. Robinhood, for instance, has posted an update on LinkedIn.
Source: LinkedIn/ Gaetan Thabot
To those retained at Block, Dorsey said, what they build at the company in the coming times will have intelligence at the core of it.