This has been going on for actually quite a while now, but the latest example of blatant lying by Jack Dorsey has finally made me want to scream out a Substack post.
Look at this graph for Dorsey’s company Block (apologize for the employee number Y axis not starting at zero- Just keeping it there for reference while looking at the growth rates):
We can clearly see that he and his company hired like mad during the pandemic. According to Forbes, Block’s employee base MORE THAN DOUBLED from about 4,000 employees to over 10,000 from 2019 to 2025. That’s not accounting for the reduction between 2024 and 2025 so the actual picture is a bit worse than advertised; The company has been trying to recover from that hiring binge since 2023. Now Dorsey’s trying to cover up that gross mismanagement with what’s apparently the most popular excuse for layoffs nowadays: “AI”.
It’s also already apparent that this is a blatant LIE. Thousands of CEOs had admitted that AI has had no impact upon employment at their companies (emphasis mine):
A study published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that among 6,000 CEOs, chief financial officers, and other executives from firms who responded to various business outlook surveys in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Australia, the vast majority see little impact from AI on their operations. While about two-thirds of executives reported using AI, that usage amounted to only about 1.5 hours per week, and 25% of respondents reported not using AI in the workplace at all. Nearly 90% of firms said AI has had no impact on employment or productivity over the last three years, the research noted.
So the next time someone tries repeating that same lie to you, tell that person straight up that it’s a lie. Show them the study if that makes any difference (it probably doesn’t but at least it’ll get that person off your face.) If it’s from a C-suiter, then you’d just need to close the email or browser tab you’re reading the BS from because they’re lying.