Dare Obasanjo

I think two things are true

1. Block is not a well run company.

2. Jack Dorsey’s layoffs at Block will give tech companies make similar AI-driven workforce changes. Similar to how Elon’s cuts at Twitter in 2022, kicked off a wave of layoffs and animosity towards tech employees that hasn’t abated.

Feb 27 at 4:03pmWeb
Show threadKevin DenteFeb 27
@carnage4life The test will be to see if 6 months from now they've hired a bunch of those people back.
Show threadprivilegejunkieFeb 27
@kevindente @carnage4life I don’t think that will happen tbh. Many tech companies way over-hired during the COVID years and the market has been flooded with entry level applicants since. Seeing fresh college grads get 200k around 2021 in some cases was absolutely ridiculous.
Show threadRay JepsonFeb 27

@carnage4life When I was in management, I always asked for less parties and this is why.

It always confused me when all the other managers would say, "But, we have all this money! Why not do something with it?"

I would much rather get a pay check for another year than see Jay-Z.

Show threadRay JepsonFeb 27

@carnage4life $68 mil ÷ 4k = $170k.

Man, I hope all these people have 6-9 months severence!

Show threadDrew PickardFeb 27
@carnage4life and they just laid off a bunch of engineers 2 weeks ago
Total chaos.
Show threadFrancis CookFeb 27
@carnage4life so Jack Dorsey can’t run companies is what I’m getting from this.
Show threadxgermanFeb 27
@carnage4life assuming the remains 60% can do the work - layoffs are the easy way out. The better much harder thing would be to grow the business, explore adjacent business opportunities, etc. - so you can put the other 40% to work AND increase the revenue per engineer.
Show threadfelixFeb 27
@carnage4life Is it also possible that their products are basically built out and ready for maintenance mode? If you say "we have too little impactful work for these people to do" then the markets would write down your future growth potential. Not needing those people "because of AI" sounds much more positive...
Show threadfelixFeb 27
@carnage4life There does seem to be a "bubble" in large companies with products that should be in maintenance mode, but for historical reasons employ thousands of people to rearrange the decor. One "tell" for this historically was when companies switched from selling the software vs selling subscriptions, since people wouldn't bother paying to upgrade.