There are still people with souls in Silicon Valley.
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There are still people with souls in Silicon Valley.
Leaving Block after 40% layoffs and AI-driven job cuts | Naoko Takeda posted on the topic | LinkedIn
My employer Block laid off 40% of its workforce last Thursday (2/26). I wasn’t affected… but I was *affected*. I decided to quit immediately and left the company the following day on 2/27. I figured that a company able to Thanos-snap away half of their employees doesn’t need two-week's notice from me, just another IC that could easily have been in that 40%. This is my personal story and reflection about the time we are in, working in tech. Some of the company’s choices have felt deeply problematic, and, quite frankly, I’m mad. I’m willing to bet that many of those who were laid off or are still working at Block are mad too. Anger is a feeling of perceived injustice, a valid reaction to these events. Since layoffs disproportionately affect certain teams, I found out in a span of 10 minutes that ~70% of my immediate + sister teams were going to disappear. On my immediate team, the only people left were me and a new hire who had started 3 days ago. I felt immense dread and survivor’s guilt. So Block laid off 40% of its employees and offered the rest of us Retention Packages. I’m not sure how the Retention Package looked for others, but I was personally offered a pay increase of ~75% (90% if you include the one-time bonus!). So basically, I saw my company discard half of my peers and double my pay. That’s not an honor. It feels shameful and dehumanizing. I’d rather see my peers keep their jobs than personally profit from their trauma. I have the immense financial privilege of being a steadily-employed, healthy person with no dependents, but many of my peers have families to care for, medical bills to pay, or visa issues putting them at risk of deportation. After the layoff announcement, I asked several people if I could be included in the layoff. Of course, everyone answered “no”. Because really, why should you get to choose to leave with dignity when you see your entire team — the people you worked hard to build a positive relationship with over the past year and a half — disappear? But here, take the fat paycheck that's well above market rate, because we actually value *you*! So why did this happen? Block claims it’s because AI is making the company so productive. In the last year, AI was shoved down everyone’s throats. Everything was about AI. We were told to use AI as much as possible. It’s nothing short of dystopian to be forced to employ the very tools that accelerate the disappearance of the jobs on which our livelihoods depend. Personally, I saw very limited gains in productivity from AI, nothing nearly profound enough to justify tossing out half of the company's workforce along with their institutional knowledge and expertise (bus factor, anyone?). So 40% of employees had no choice but to take the severance and leave. The remaining 60% of us were offered fat paychecks to stick around and clean up the mess our "leadership" created, all so we can continue contributing to a future where AI leaves us all unemployed. No thanks, I'm out! | 374 comments on LinkedIn
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