laying of 50% of your workforce is the obvious solution. next year the party will only be $34 million. repeat that 4 more times and you get down to just over $4 million.
He said very specifically that the layoffs weren’t for financial reasons, and they are publicly traded company so you can just look at the reports. Anyone who thinks this wasn’t because of AI has a level of optimism I’ll never achieve.
The $68M number comes from a statement that says their General and Administrative expenses were up year over year and the growth was primarily driven by an in-person company event.
The Tweet extrapolates to assume that the entire difference was due to the event and calls it a "party"
Even if we assume 100% of the increase was due to the event, that's about $6800 per employee, or about a week or two of pay for developers.
This includes flights, lodging, and food for remote employees. That adds up fast.
I think this is missing the forest for the trees. With 4000 fewer employees, they could have a $136M meetup party and still be ahead by hundreds of millions, assuming they can sustain or increase revenue.
That's the big bet software companies are making right now.
I sincerely hope the event branding played on calling it a "Block Party".
But anyway, as others have said, the tweet seems outrageous at first, but at $6800 per employee for a multi-day offsite, with hotels, travel, etc included, it doesn't seem excessive. I'm sure their salary for that month was significantly higher.
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[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 41.2 ms ] threadEdit: never mind, the report clarifies that without the party expense G&A would have been flat YoY.
Data $150
Rent $800
Party $68,000,000
Utility $150
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my company is dying
Calling an all-hands a party without any supporting evidence feels willfully negligent.
Side note: I have no idea what Block does and why they need 10,000 employees anyway.
The Tweet extrapolates to assume that the entire difference was due to the event and calls it a "party"
Even if we assume 100% of the increase was due to the event, that's about $6800 per employee, or about a week or two of pay for developers.
This includes flights, lodging, and food for remote employees. That adds up fast.
This is just Twitter ragebait.
That's the big bet software companies are making right now.
Was it necessary? Probably not. But I found the in-person time valuable, especially with teammates I’d never met face to face.
Source: I was there
The crucial point is, was it an unnecessary expense?
But anyway, as others have said, the tweet seems outrageous at first, but at $6800 per employee for a multi-day offsite, with hotels, travel, etc included, it doesn't seem excessive. I'm sure their salary for that month was significantly higher.