Fintech Block laid off 931 people today, according to a leaked message from the company seen by TechCrunch.
The news was announced to staff in an email from Block’s co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey. Dorsey told staff that today, Block will be “making some org changes, including eliminating roles and beginning the consultation process in countries where required.”
In the email, Dorsey explained that Block is cutting roles across three broad buckets. The first he lists is 391 people being cut for “strategy” reasons.
The second and biggest bucket, 460 people, is for “performance” reasons, with Dorsey explaining that Block is “parting ways with folks” who score a “below” or “trending towards below” rating.
The third bucket is managers, 80 of whom are being cut in order to flatten Block’s hierarchy.
Dorsey’s email denies that the layoffs are for financial reasons or to replace workers with AI. Specifically, Dorsey wrote that “none of the above [cuts] are trying to hit a specific financial target, replacing folks with AI, or changing our headcount cap.”
Rather, he continued, Block is cutting the roles owing to shifting strategic needs while “raising the bar and acting faster on performance.”
Dorsey also noted that Block is closing “all” 748 open roles at Block with the exception of ones that have progressed to an offer stage, critical operations roles, key leadership roles, and others.
Block last underwent major layoffs in January 2024 when it cut around 1,000 roles. The outfit has about 12,000 staff, so that’s two cuts of about 10% each time within 15 months.
Block didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
