Job cuts at the music streamer Tidal are just the beginning of a planned reduction in the number of employees across Block, CEO Jack Dorsey has said.
In a Wednesday note to staff viewed by Business Insider, the billionaire cofounder and CEO of Block, which operates Tidal as well as the payment platforms Square and Cash App, addressed Tuesday's layoff of about 40 Tidal employees. The layoff was reported by Bloomberg.
Dorsey, who also cofounded and led Twitter as CEO, said in the note that cutting staff was among the "hardest actions" Block was taking as it looked to get on a more "sustainable" financial path, his plans for which were first reported by BI.
Dorsey reiterated in his note his intent to put in place "constraints" on the company's growth. He made clear that Tidal would not be the only Block platform to be hit with layoffs.
Block employees were previously told to expect a 10% reduction in head count across the company in the coming months, as BI reported. With a current head count of about 13,000 people, that means more than 1,000 people could lose their jobs.
Dorsey added in his note that he wanted to be more communicative during this time at the company "to bring us all into a shared understanding of why we made a particular move." While he didn't include any rationale in his own note, Dorsey said individual leaders of teams would explain changes and cuts "as they occur."
Late last month, Dorsey told staff he was putting an end to yearly performance reviews in favor of immediate feedback and possible terminations, among other changes.
"The growth of our company has far outpaced the growth of our business and revenue," Dorsey said last month in a memo to employees.
A company spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Read below for the full note Dorsey sent to staff:
Hi all. It's been over a month since I sent this email to announce some of the constraints we're putting on our company's growth. Since then, we've been doing a lot of work, and taking some actions. The most notable and hardest actions will be when we have to part ways with teammates. TIDAL just announced one such action this week. During this time I want us to increase our information flow throughout the company, to bring us all into a shared understanding of why we made a particular move. Most importantly and whenever possible: the business rationale, what else was considered, and how this sets us up better for the future. The alternative was to keep these communications limited to their respective teams, but in the spirit of connecting the blocks and treating everyone as an owner, we're going to have the respective business unit or foundational lead send these updates via email to team as they occur. Thank you all, jack
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