Block Cuts 931 Jobs to Speed Up Business

Block is cutting 931 jobs today as the company tries to move faster and spend less money. CEO Jack Dorsey sent a note to employees explaining the decision. He said the company has become too slow and needs to change how it works. The cuts affect about 8 percent of the total staff at Block, which owns Square and Cash App.

Key Facts

• Total Cuts: 931 employees (roughly 8% of the company).
• The Breakdown: 460 people were cut for performance, and 391 were cut for strategy reasons.
• Management Shakeup: 193 managers are losing their titles and moving to regular worker roles.

Source: Payments Dive

Additional source: TechCrunch

Why This is Happening

Jack Dorsey, the head of Block, told workers that the company has too many layers. In an email written entirely in lowercase letters, he said the business has grown far faster than its sales. He wants Block to feel like a startup again. To do this, he is removing middle management. The goal is to make decisions quicker without waiting for approval from too many bosses.

Dorsey was clear about why specific people were chosen. The largest group of cuts, totaling 460 workers, received low scores on recent performance reviews. Another 391 jobs were cut because those teams no longer fit the company’s new plan. On top of the layoffs, Block is closing 748 open jobs that it had planned to fill. This effectively puts a freeze on most new hiring.

Managers Demoted

A major part of this plan involves changing who is in charge. The company is removing 80 manager roles entirely. But the bigger change is for the 193 managers who will stay at the company but lose their management titles. These employees will go back to being “individual contributors,” meaning they will do the work themselves instead of supervising others. Dorsey said this will help flatten the organization and remove the distance between the top bosses and the work being done.

The Bigger Picture

Block is not just cutting jobs to save cash today. The company is trying to fix deep problems with how it operates. By removing layers of bosses and cutting teams that do not make money, Dorsey hopes to make the stock price go up. The company has struggled recently to keep investors happy. These changes are designed to show Wall Street that Block is serious about fixing its business and focusing on profit.