Survived the Block layoffs? You might be getting a hefty retention package, including a bonus.
Naoko Takeda was a data scientist at Block’s Cash App for two years, per LinkedIn. After over 4,000 of her Block colleagues were laid off last week, Takeda wrote on LinkedIn that the company offered her a roughly 75% pay increase as well as a “retention bonus.”
She quit “almost immediately,” she wrote.
“I saw my company discard half of my peers and double my pay,” Takeda wrote. “That’s not an honor. It feels shameful and dehumanizing.”
Takeda wrote that her overall “retention package” represented about a 90% bump when factoring in a “one-time bonus” she received. She declined to comment further when reached by Business Insider.
Business Insider viewed messages between current and former Block employees in which those who survived the layoff round described retention packages they were offered. One wrote that they were offered $80,000, and the another wrote that they were offered $60,000, according to screenshots of the conversations. Both wrote that the bonuses paid out in quarterly installments.
Block did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
In her post, Takeda estimated that about 70% of her immediate and sister teams were impacted by the layoffs. Her only colleague left on her team was a “new hire who had started 3 days ago,” she wrote.
On Block’s earnings call after the layoffs, Block CEO Jack Dorsey made the case for AI efficiencies, predicting “all companies will eventually” embrace the trend.
“A significantly smaller team using the tools we’re building can do more and do it better. And intelligence tool capabilities are compounding faster every single week,” Dorsey said.
In her LinkedIn post, Takeda pushed back on Dorsey’s remarks, saying she had seen “very limited gains in productivity” from the tech.
“In the last year, AI was shoved down everyone’s throats,” she wrote. “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.”
Multiple laid-off Block employees described the company’s AI push to Business Insider, including rising expectations for engineers. Some said that while they fully embraced AI, it did not save them from the sweeping cuts. One laid-off machine learning engineer told Business Insider that he felt like “a horse and buggy in the age of the automobile.”
Retention bonuses after layoffs
Why might a company like Block choose to offer employees retention packages after significant layoffs?
A retention bonus can help quiet concerns among those left standing over whether they’ll continue to have a job, said Sarah Rodehorst, cofounder and CEO of Onwards HR, which helps companies manage severance and offboarding.
A retention bonus can also make it easier to stomach that there will likely be more work left for fewer people to handle, she told Business Insider.
“They’re going to probably have to double down and be a little uncomfortable for a while as the company adapts to the new reality of where they are,” she said of remaining employees.
The stock market’s positive reaction to the layoffs — Block’s stock price jumped roughly 20% after hours following the layoffs announcement — speaks to the potential cost savings of decreasing head count, said Pav Stojkovic, former chief people officer at The Athletic, who now advises companies on developing hybrid human and AI workforces.
“If you’re cutting your staff by 40%, your profit margins expand significantly,” he said. “Any short-term retention is going to pale in comparison to the long-term savings over the next five to 10 years, especially if you’re deploying AI agents in their place.”
Still, there can be downsides to a mass reduction in workforce, even if workers who aren’t affected are given generous retention payouts, said Jennifer Schielke, CEO of the staffing firm Summit Group Solutions.
Workers who weren’t cut can feel uneasy about being spared, Schielke said, which can impact a company’s culture and, in some cases, ultimately lead to resignations.
In her post, Takeda wrote that she was left with “dread and survivor’s guilt.”
“The guilt comes because we’re relational beings. Inherently, people who work together get tethered together,” Schielke told Business Insider. “The retention may be short-term, but if you don’t resolve the guilt, it may well not be a long-term solution.”
Takeda wrote that, for her, the path forward was clear: “No thanks, I’m out!”
Are you a current or former Block employee? Contact the reporter from a non-work email and device at hchandonnet@businessinsider.com, or on Signal at henrychand.30
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