Block, Inc. laid off 4K employees last month, some are already back

Block, Inc., the firm behind payment platforms Square, Cash App and Afterpay, has quietly brought back some of the thousands of workers it laid off in late February with its transition to rely more on artificial intelligence.

Multiple Block employees posted on LinkedIn this month that they were offered a place to return to the company after initially being part of the 4,000 employees who were fired.

Design engineer Andrew Harvard said on March 3 that he rejoined after being told that his layoff was due to a clerical error. “They offered me the opportunity to return, and I’ve accepted,” he added.

On March 8, technical lead Richard Hesse said he was the only member of his team who wasn’t impacted by the staff cut and that he spent two days convincing management that he needed more staff to continue working on “infrastructure highly critical to our customers.”

“I’m happy to share that they listened to my requests and have decided to re-hire some of those laid off,” he said. “While my teams were not returned to full levels, I’ll have enough to continue on.”

Chane Rennie, creative strategy lead, said on March 12 that he was asked to rejoin the company about a week after being laid off, but did not explain why.

Cointelegraph contacted Block, Inc on what staff were rehired, but did not receive an immediate response.

Block CEO Jack Dorsey acknowledged at the time of the layoffs that Block may have made some missteps in its staff cut decisions and had built in flexibility to correct course.

Dorsey said recent advances in AI tools forced Block to restructure its 6,000-strong workforce, adding that AI now “fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company.”

The Guardian reported that several fired Block employees pushed back against Dorsey’s assertions that AI tools can effectively replace workers at scale.

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Some of those laid off said they believed the staff cuts were Dorsey’s way of regaining investor confidence, with Block shares down double digits so far this year.

Block, which offers a range of Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto products with Square and Cash App, currently has 27 job listings on its website.

The only two position types currently listed are manager or account executive, and none of the roles specifically mention the use of AI in the job descriptions.

Meanwhile, the Algorand Foundation, the team behind the Algorand layer-1 blockchain, said it had made the “difficult decision” to reduce its headcount by 25% on Wednesday, blaming the crypto slump and macroeconomic uncertainty.

On Monday, blockchain analytics platform Messari also announced staff cuts as part of its transition to become an AI-first company.

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