MARCH 29, 2025 — 931 EMPLOYEES
In an all-lowercase email, CEO Jack Dorsey announced an 8% reduction in force, including 80 managers, to flatten the company's hierarchy, while 391 roles are set to be cut from "teams that are off strategy." Also to be let go are 460 underperforming employees.
From Jack Dorsey…
hi all.
today we’ll be making some org changes, including eliminating roles and beginning the consultation process in countries where required. i want to give you all the straight facts.
as I said at the last Block, there are three areas we’d like to address:
strategy: reducing from teams that are off strategy, and fixing our discipline ratios.
performance: parting ways with people with a “below” or trending towards “below.”
hierarchy: driving to flattening our org to a max depth of innercore+4
what that translates to in actual numbers of people:
strategy: 391 people
performance: 460 people
hierarchy: 80 managers (with 193 moving it individual contributor roles)
we’re also closing all the 748 roles we had open with the exception of:
roles progressed to offer stage.
critical operational roles
start/accelerate roles
key leadership roles
none of the above points are trying to hit a specific financial target, replacing folks with AI, or changing our headcount cap. they are specific to our needs around strategy, raising the bar and acting faster on performance, and flattening our org so we can move faster and with less abstraction.
why do this all at once instead of over time? we’re behind in our actions, and that’s not fair to the individuals who work here or the company. when we know, we should move, and there hasn’t been enough movement. we need to move to help us meet and stay ahead of the transformational moment our industry is in.
this is the toughest part of my job, and I fight hard against any of these considerations. we must have a very high bar of correctness for us to take any action, which takes iteration and time to get right. i always balance this with the fact that everyone here, and those that are departing, has equity in our company. it’s my job to increase that value. we believe this will help us focus and execute better to do just that.
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. if there are areas where you think we could do better, please send me a note. direct feedback makes us better, and I always act when it makes sense.
thank you to all those leaving us. i am grateful and appreciative for you and your work, which has built us up to this point. we will continue to honor that by increasing our value to our customers, and therefore to all of our shareholders, including you.
thank you,
jack
FEBRUARY 19, 2024 — Original post…
Oakland, California-based Block (formerly known as Square), a financial payment processing firm, has announced a 10% reduction in its workforce, mainly in its Cash App, Foundational and Square operations.
The reduction in force will impact 1,000+ employees.
Co-founder Jack Dorsey noted, “We decided it would be better to do at once rather than arbitrarily space them out, which didn’t seem fair to the individuals or to the company. When we know we need to take an action, we want to take it immediately, rather than let things linger on forever.”
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?
