Fired mid-interview: Block employee learns he’s laid off while hiring someone else as AI cuts 4,000 jobs

Jack Dorsey’s fintech company Block has sparked widespread conversation across the tech industry after announcing one of the sector’s most significant job cuts in recent times.

The company confirmed that roughly 4,000 employees would be laid off, with Dorsey linking the decision directly to an AI-led transformation reshaping how the business operates.The human impact of the move became especially clear through the experience of one employee who discovered he had lost his job in the middle of interviewing someone else for a position at the company.Ivan Ureña-Valdes, a former data analyst at Block, told Business Insider that he had already lived through three previous rounds of layoffs at the firm and suspected more changes were coming as artificial intelligence began taking on a larger role.

Still, he never imagined learning about his own dismissal in such an unexpected moment.According to Ureña-Valdes, an email from CEO Jack Dorsey arrived while he was actively conducting an interview for a candidate applying to join Block.“It felt surreal,” he said, recalling that earlier layoffs had typically involved employees losing access to company systems almost immediately. This time, however, Dorsey informed affected staff that they would temporarily remain on internal communication channels, allowing them time to say goodbye to colleagues or share final messages.

Because he was focused on the interview, Ureña-Valdes initially had no idea that mass layoffs were underway. He realised something was wrong only when a colleague messaged him asking if he was okay.The moment quickly turned awkward. “I had to tell the candidate that I had just been laid off and wouldn’t be able to complete their interview feedback,” he said, adding that he asked them to follow up directly with a recruiter instead.For Ureña-Valdes, the news carried personal weight. As the sole earner in his household, the sudden job loss was deeply stressful.He emphasised that performance was not a factor in the decision. Having survived multiple restructuring efforts in the past, he said he was actively contributing to two major projects at the time — among the most significant assignments he had handled since joining the company.Despite the shock, he expressed appreciation for Dorsey’s openness about the reason behind the layoffs.“He was upfront about it being driven by AI and the company’s long-term vision,” Ureña-Valdes noted, adding that transparency made the situation feel fairer even though it was difficult.The severance package offered to departing employees has also drawn attention for being relatively generous by industry standards. Affected workers will receive 20 weeks of base pay, along with an extra week of salary for every year spent at Block.

The company is also extending equity vesting through the end of May, providing six months of healthcare coverage, and offering a $5,000 transition payment to help with immediate expenses.

Employees are additionally allowed to keep their company-issued devices.Reflecting on the broader shift, Ureña-Valdes said the growing role of artificial intelligence in his own work had already been evident. Much of a data analyst’s job - identifying datasets, running queries, and generating outputs - has become significantly faster due to automation tools powered by AI.He believes similar disruptions are likely to spread across the tech industry. “I think we’ll see more companies making moves like this,” he said, calling the trend unfortunate but increasingly inevitable.In an internal message explaining the decision, Dorsey described the layoffs as one of the most difficult moments in Block’s history. The company is reducing its workforce from more than 10,000 employees to fewer than 6,000.

He stressed that the cuts were not driven by financial distress. According to Dorsey, Block’s business performance remains strong, with growing profits, expanding customer reach, and improving profitability.Instead, he pointed to a fundamental shift in how companies operate in the age of AI. Advances in intelligent tools, combined with smaller and more streamlined teams, are rapidly redefining how organisations are built and managed.“We’re not making this decision because the business is struggling,” Dorsey wrote, explaining that emerging AI capabilities are enabling entirely new ways of working — changes he believes will only accelerate in the coming years.