Block reviews

The business decisions the company makes are illogical and Block is often times behind new products, designs and marketing. In face, Block's marketing budget is really low compared to all other ecommerce platforms. The company also heavily sends out emails of inclusiveness and has a clear political stance on modern political issues. The company spend a lot of time and money towards special minority groups and singles out all other groups of people. The company spends too much money on buildings for CS reps who don't even go into the office. The office can hold 200+ people and only 3+ are there at any time. The company has done away from team builders, so to get to know anyone on your team (while working remote) there is none. While the culture was a pro, it is actually on a decline.

Negative turn for the company culture. It's easy to "do the right thing" and be magnanimous when things are going well. The true test of character (for both people and companies) is when things get difficult. Block talks a big game about economic empowerment and valuing its people. But their 2023 layoffs demonstrate that their rhetoric has become threadbare. When they are done with you they don’t hesitate to discard you with little to show for it. Layoffs are a fact of life. But decent companies treat their people decently, even when those people are on the way out. Yes, the odds of you getting laid off are slim. But Block’s recent stingy exit packages are not consistent with their past. It is indicative of a cultural shift away from valuing people. Here is a table of the relative size of exit packages compared to the company’s size (a measure of the depth of their finances). The data are normalized so Block = 100%. Block, Market cap = 100%, Exit package = 100% Stripe, Market cap =125%, Exit package = 375% DoorDash, Market cap = 63%, Exit package = 288% Plaid, Market cap = 34%, Exit package = 325% Lyft, Market cap = 10%, Exit package = 325% Coursera, Market cap = 5%, Exit package = 341% “Exit package” includes the notification period (period where you are no longer working but still on the payroll), any stock vested or bonus paid after notification of layoff, and severance. Naturally, Block’s package also pales in comparison to those of larger companies. Salesforce's severance was 6x Block's, Alphabet's was more than 4x, and Meta's was 3.5x Block's exit package.