Jack Dorsey took a “hard, clear action” when he laid off over 4,000 employees. A select few say they’ve been let back in.
Block has rehired at least four laid-off employees, according to LinkedIn posts from affected workers and their colleagues. The employees span multiple departments, from engineering to recruiting. Some said they were rehired soon after the February layoffs, while others said they rejoined later in March.
These are small numbers, and there is no sign of any large scale rehiring of laid-off employees at Block. It’s a sign, though, that companies can sometimes decide they’ve cut too deeply after mass layoffs. Dorsey acknowledged the risk of this in his initial message to staff about the layoffs, which impacted roughly 40% of employees.
“I accept that we may have gotten some of them wrong, and we’ve built in flexibility to account for that, and do the right thing for our customers,” Dorsey wrote.
Four days after Dorsey’s announcement, Andrew Harvard, a Block design engineer, posted that Block leadership had told him that his layoff was due to a “clerical error.”
“They offered me the opportunity to return, and I’ve accepted,” Harvard wrote.
Block did not respond to requests for comment.
Matt Morris, a recruiter for the company, called the week after his layoff a “whirlwind” in a since-deleted post. After his manager advocated for him “all the way to the CEO,” Block decided to bring Morris back on, he wrote.
Creative strategy lead Chane Rennie recently posted that he was “relieved” to share that Block had brought him back.
Richard Hesse came to Block through its acquisition of Weebly, where he was the director of network operations. While he wasn’t affected by the layoffs, he wrote in a LinkedIn post that his entire team was.
“Block’s unprecedented layoffs this week have shown me that the company does not possess the same levels of loyalty that I do,” he wrote. “I still have a job, but the company’s current ghost ship status and disloyalty is troubling.”
Hesse initially wrote that he planned to leave Block “unless they give me a solid contract to stay and rehire my teams.”
Block seems to have done just that. In a later post, Hesse wrote that Block had rehired some of his colleagues.
“While my teams were not returned to full levels, I’ll have enough to continue on,” he wrote.
“I’m also thankful to have sincere, strong leaders who are willing to listen to my concerns and rectify the situation,” he added. “I’ve spoken with them personally and extended my gratitude.”
Do you work at Block? Contact the reporter from a non-work email and device at [email protected], or on Signal at henrychand.30
