Transcription
I wasn't even planning on making this video. In fact, I was in the middle of editing another video that I'm about to release. I came across this article and I felt that it was worthy enough to stop what I was doing and jump over and discuss this.
Basically, what's happening is a massive AI reorganization or an AI-driven reorganization. Block Corporation, or Block Company, is the parent company behind Square and Cash App. And, uh, this is actually Jack Dorsey. He's the CEO. You probably know him from Twitter. This is his ventures that he's been doing since Twitter. And he has announced that he is reducing his workforce for the entire holding company, so both Square and Cash App, from 10,000 to less than 6,000. So that's almost half of their entire workforce is being reduced.
And the reason he is saying, he said it in a shareholder meeting, in a lengthy post on X, and basically what he said is that he's deciding to make these deep cuts all at once rather than over several, over several rounds over coming months and years, in order to lessen the blow on employee morale. Do so, you think that like ripping an entire organization apart, literally ripping it in half, is going to make that better for morale? That like, I'm trying to understand the logic on that one. One day you're sitting there with your team, the next day half of the team is gone, or more, almost half the team is gone, and you're looking around going, "Oh yeah, you know, I feel great." If instead of you doing them in incremental, to me, I think I'd rather it be an incremental if it was going to happen at all, because then it gives you time to react. It gives you time to plan, gives you time to start to put together those contingencies that you should be doing now.
This is like, this is no longer a conspiracy. This is no longer a pie in the sky. It's no longer something that is coming. It is already here. It was coming two years ago. It was coming a year ago. It is now here. And if we cannot deny it, and, and like, what's frustrating about this is, is that I, I do think that there's a two, there's two sides to this. On one side of the, the, the story of AI coming into the workplace is a lot of innovation and, and it really has helped, at least me, do a lot of things. It's helped some, a major project that I'm working on right now. It's really been a big benefit, but it's only if you use it the right way. The problem is, is that a lot of people aren't using these tools. I did a recent survey on my channel, showed that 30, more than 30% of people were not even touching it or refusing to use it.
And what this means is that we're coming to a reckoning. And I'm, I'm trying really hard not to be like Chicken Little, sky's falling, looking at the negative aspects of what AI represents. This is the negative stuff. This is the, the fear-based content loops that, that are not healthy. I understand that. But to not recognize what, what is actually happening in the market and just saying, I only want to see the good stuff, is being dishonest with yourself because you're, you're disarming yourself. You're saying, I don't have to do anything. And when you don't do anything, you put yourself at so much, so much risk. It's just such a reckless way to, to run your career.
So, we have to find the right balance of like, what is the right amount of like realism with not necessarily being completely pessimistic about everything you do. The career space has just become a very pessimistic place, and it's hard to navigate it. I'm trying to give this balanced approach of, you know, every piece of content I put out, for the most part, tries to give at least some sort of a solution. Maybe I'm, that's my, my fault. Maybe I'm trying too hard to give people a light at the end of the tunnel, solution, a way to navigate through it. And maybe sometimes people just want to be heard or want to be recognized. And you, maybe, maybe that's a changing content that I should consider going forward.
But the fact of the matter is, is that this stuff is coming. It's coming rapidly. It is, it's not even coming again. It's, it's here. It is right in front of us. This stuff is happening. There are 4,000 people that woke up today without a job that had a job yesterday, and had a, probably a well-paying job in the tech space. And we're just going to continue to see th, this headline unfortunately is not unique. It is going to be something that continues to happen throughout the rest of 2026 and into 2027.
And there are, you know, the, the CEO from Anthropic is saying, all white collar jobs, if you sit in front of a screen for your role, it doesn't even matter what kind of screen. And a lot of jobs that don't even sit, sit in front of a screen. If you sit in front of a screen, you can basically plan to be replaced. Plan for it. Don't even think that it could happen. Plan for it to be replaced. And what's your contingency? I'm building a very strong contingency myself. I'm hoping that it is successful. I'll be talking more about that in future videos. But what is your contingency? How are you going to handle this?
Because what he is saying, let's just look at what he's saying. So this headline reads, "Block Shares Soar As Much As 24% As Company Slashes Workforce By Nearly Half." And isn't that disgusting that this is what the market reaction to this is? The people who are being impacted are actually being celebrated by Wall Street, 24% share bump. This is the number one reason why this is going to continue to happen and accelerate. Wall Street wants to see this. They're rewarding their shareholders by slashing these costs. Does not mean that the tools are ready for prime time. Does, they're not even making logical, rational decisions. They're making financial decisions. That's the bottom line here.
It's already been proven. The tools are getting better, by the way, but it has been proven that these tools are not ready for prime time. Anybody who's used these tools knows there is a lot of manual input and human touch still needed. They're not, they are not ready for prime time. But people like Jack Dorsey, they don't care. This is proving it. They do not care because it impacts their, their bottom line by 24%. The share price.
But what he says is, "Today, we showed a difficult decision." Jack Dorsey, uh, Block's CEO and co-founder, wrote in a letter to shareholders. "We're reducing Block by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 4,600 people, which means over 4,000 people are being asked to leave or enter into consultation." So, in other words, they're taking your job and turning it fractional. They're taking your full-time job, asking you to come back. They still want your knowledge, but they're coming back. They're asking you to come back and be a consultant with no benefits, no long-term prospects, no pay increases, no bonuses. Do you see what's happening here, guys?
This is what we're up against. And this is why I, I preach till I'm, I feel like I'm my face is probably blue at this point. Become the CEO of your career because when you're completely at the mercy of these companies, this is the kind of crap that they can pull on you. And you have to just take it. You have to experience it. You have no option if you've left yourself no option. And people will say, "Well, there's nothing that I can do." There is something that you can do. It's just uncomfortable. And that's why people don't want to hear it. It actually requires you to have to do something. People don't want to do that.
I have noticed a really interesting correlation. I put out a video that highlights a problem that's in the workplace and it gets a lot of views. But then I put out a, a sol, a literally a solution-driven video that has exactly what you should be doing, and it gets crickets. The engagement tanks, nobody watches it. It fades off into obscurity. And this, this has happened for years. This is how it's almost always happened on this channel. And I've noticed it even on other platforms like LinkedIn. People, I'm convinced some people just don't want to be helped. They just want to feel bad about themselves.
But this is not the time for us to be feeling bad about ourselves anymore. This is the time for us to take actual action and start moving forward with a, a plan. You don't have any time anymore. There's no more sitting on the sideline. You either get off the pot now and you start moving forward, or you'll be left behind. And unfortunately, this job market is just continuing to do this.
And what, what this is saying is, is that, uh, the, the CFO is saying, "For our next phase of long-term growth, we chose to shift how we operate to, uh, at a time when our business is accelerating." So, business is improving, and we're seeing an opportunity to ma, move faster but with smaller, highly talented teams using AI to automate more work. We've been talking about this. This is what they're doing. This is what you need to be doing yourself. They're seeing efficiency gains from intelligence tools. "Within the next year, I believe," this is Jack Dorsey saying this, "I believe a majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes. I'd rather get there honestly with on our own terms rather than being forced to react."
This, he, this is a first mover, not really even a first mover, but one of the first major movers to say this. I, if you don't think that every other boardroom across America is looking at this exact scenario and, and talking behind the closed doors about what do we do? You're completely, you're, you're very naive. I'll just say that.
Going back to 2020, there were first movers in the space. Everybody was holding on, not laying anybody off, kind of looking around when the economy completely shut down. For those of you who recall, I very distinctly remember this and feeling this and look around. Everybody was holding on and not really sure what was going to happen. Then when one and two first mover companies start to do the layoffs, now everybody goes, "Okay, we can lay off." Okay, boom. Then they lay off. And then you just had people piling on. You had companies piling on going, "Well, if everybody else is laying off, I'm laying off, too." That's what caused this huge spike in the, the unemployment. All these companies reacting. We know they overreacted because they went and tried to to grab everybody back up in 2021 and 2022.
This is the exact same thing that's happening right now. This cycle of layoffs is, is shortening, and it's going to continue to shorten even more. And in fact, I think my prediction would be that we break the layoff cycle altogether, and it just gets into a much more streamlined workforce where now it's increasingly a world of halves and have-nots. It's becoming increasingly like, there is an opportunity right now for you if you decide to take it. There's an opportunity. But for most people, they're not going to choose to do anything different than they are today. They're just going to continue winging their careers, not using any strategy at all, and they're going to, they're hoping for the best. And unfortunately, hope is not going to get you a job. And unfortunately, it's not going to keep you employed long term and have a successful career. That's the name of the game here.
There has never, ever been a more important time, and I want to stress this as clearly as I possibly can. There's never been a more important time to reclaim control in your career than right now. The market is changing. It is not coming. The market has changed. It's not even changing. It's changed. And if you haven't gotten on the train yet, you're being left behind. The doors are closing now on the train. This is not a intended to be a panic video. Well, I'm probably sure it's kind of coming across that way, but you don't have a lot more time left to figure out a pivot here. You've really got to start making your move.
These companies are, are telling us what, like look here, you got all these other headlines. eBay laying off 800, or 6% of its workforce. Um, Google's continuing to put, they're pushing more innovation tools. You got most of Hollywood dealing with certain files that they probably wish they had made better decisions on, but then you've also got them suing certain AI companies because of image, image and likeness. I mean, even actors in Hollywood are facing the same thing we are. Every single job, mine included, is facing this existential crisis. This isn't going away. It's only getting bigger. Other companies like Pinterest, Crowdstrike, Cheg have all announced similar job cuts recently.
This one is a very purposeful, in-your-face. He choose to, uh, face the layoffs of staffers again as, as the shift plays out, or act now. And he chose the latter. He wanted to act on it now and basically just rip his proverbial band-aid off. I don't agree with that. I don't think that that was the right move. I, I, I think that this is horrible. I think this is, this is, this is a humanit, like this is not being talked about enough at the highest levels of our government and our, in our society. This, this issue of like, what are we going to do as a humanity? What, like, what is coming?
There are certain people that are saying like, oh, we'll be, you know, robots will run the world. I mean, maybe I've just watched too many Black Mirror episodes, but I don't know if I, I think that that's in our best interest. I think that there is a, there is a path where I could see a positive. Maybe robots and AI help you with all the things that you don't really, really want to do, especially around your house, mowing lawn, doing laundry, and allows you to focus on things that are actually beneficial to you or something that you actually care about. I like to think that that's our positive timeline. Or there's a, a negative timeline with this where, you know, you're, you're all forced into UBI and, and things like that where you now are completely powerless and you completely rely on a third entity and then something outside of yourself to either come save you or to provide you with your substance to be able to live to. If, and if you don't do what they tell you to do, guess what gets turned off? That's what I see.
And I'm, I'm trying, choosing to reclaim control my career. I'm going in a different direction. That's my path. I'm going to continue talking about this stuff. This is not going away right now. I'm going to continue talking about it. I'm going to continue finding positive stories, too. I'm not going to just continue to talk about the, the negative stuff. But unfortunately, the negative headlines are here, guys. I, I can't just ignore that they are not here and do a disservice of people saying everything's roses and butterflies and let's just go all hold hands and run through fields of flowers together. Just is not reality.
So, giving you this news, I want you to pay attention to it. I want you to ask yourself, and I want you to leave me a comment. I want you to tell me what is your plan specifically. And your plan, if it includes, I'm just giving up and I'm going to sit on my couch and just let the, the tsunami wave come at me, then I, I don't know what to tell you. But I want to hear people who actually have a plan. Share your plan. Share your plan of what you're doing. Give us some ideas. I, I have ideas myself. I'm going to share. But let me know your plans. I'm really interested to see how people are actually, actually going to navigate this thing.
Anyway, saw this was actually in the middle of editing a completely different video, and I'll hopefully get that up soon, but and that one's actually a more positive spin than this. So, I apologize, but, um, I, I just wanted to share this because I think that this is important. Appreciate you watching. We'll see you on the next one.