At least four Block employees have returned to the company after being laid off during its sweeping February workforce reduction.
Chane Rennie, who leads creative strategy at Block, rejoined just one week after announcing his layoff.
Design engineer Andrew Harvard was also rehired quickly after being mistakenly let go.
Richard Hesse, technical lead for Square Online and Site Operations, successfully lobbied leadership to bring back teammates, arguing he couldn’t operate alone after Block slashed its headcount by 40%-from over 10,000 to under 6,000.
Co-founder Jack Dorsey cited structural and strategic shifts as the reason for the cuts. Former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan called it the first “AI cut,” warning that AI adoption is reshaping workforce needs across tech and crypto sectors.
Algorand, OP Labs, Gemini, and OKX have also recently downsized amid market pressures and macro uncertainty.