"Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is running into some serious issues while overhauling his financial services company, Block. Earlier this month, the company started laying off its staff as part of what Bloomberg characterized as an "efficiency push," potentially affecting up to ten percent of the company's workforce. It's been a painful, drawn-out process that could drag on for weeks, sources told Wired, triggering major anxiety over job security."
"For Dorsey, AI has clearly been top of mind. Block staffers are now obligated to use AI, an order that has led to frustration. "Top-down mandates to use large language models are crazy," one employee told Wired. "If the tool were good, we'd all just use it." They're also required to send weekly update emails to him, echoing Elon Musk's DOGE requirement for federal staffers to summarize five weekly achievements in emails. (The requirement was mostly ignored, months before DOGE largely crumbled.)"
Block began layoffs potentially affecting up to ten percent of staff as part of an efficiency push, creating prolonged uncertainty and anxiety about job security. The reduction process is described as painful and drawn-out and may continue for weeks. Employees report collapsing morale and a crumbling company culture. Executives link cuts to generative AI while mandating staff use AI tools and weekly update emails. Leadership uses generative AI to summarize those updates. Executives have framed some firings as performance-related and accused departing employees of phoning it in, increasing performance anxiety and eroding trust.
Read at Futurism
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