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Twitter co-founder and Block (formerly Square) CEO Jack Dorsey ain\u2019t your typical corporate suit. For one, he doesn\u2019t always wear them. He brings up<\/a> \u201cworld peace\u201d when endorsing his favorite tech like crypto. Nobody really knows where he lives. He meditates frequently and sports a longish beard. He comes off as more New Age guru than CEO.\u00a0<\/p>\n So perhaps it was very on brand that, when Dorsey announced he was firing 4,000 employees at Block<\/a>, he was wearing a hat that said \u201cLOVE\u201d on it in prominent lettering.<\/p>\n Was the \u201cLOVE\u201d hat was tone-deaf? That may seem a silly consideration compared to the broader concern of Dorsey eliminating around 40 percent of his company\u2019s workforce, especially given his explanation that AI motivated the cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n But his sartorial choices evidently angered at least one employee at a company meeting after Dorsey announced the layoffs, leading Wired to ask in an interview<\/a> if a \u201ccompassionate layoff\u201d was indeed possible.<\/p>\n Dorsey, ever the romantic, argued that it was. In fact, he seemed to suggest, that\u2019s exactly what he was trying to do.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s an impossible task,\u201d he told Wired. \u201cI wanted to approach the whole situation with love.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe had an all-hands where they could show me all the emotion and give me the feedback,\u201d he continued. \u201cI believe our settlement to be generous compared with the rest of the market. I wanted to do it from a position of strength, so that we\u2019re not offering a less interesting severance package for people when our backs are against the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n You hear that? \u201cLOVE\u201d is kicking someone, or four thousand someones, to the curb \u2014 while making sure they don\u2019t land on the asphalt too hard, somehow.<\/p>\n Asked about the massive layoffs his frenemy Elon Musk carried out after buying Twitter \u2014 with more than 6,000 culled, he claims \u2014 Dorsey seemed to approve.<\/p>\n \u201cTwitter was a public company becoming a private company, loaded up with a massive amount of debt,\u201d Dorsey told Wired. \u201cElon could dramatically change the business model, which it needed. I\u2019m grateful for all that. I think Twitter should have been private for quite some time.\u201d<\/p>\n Dorsey\u2019s layoffs stoked fears that AI was beginning to eliminate white collar jobs<\/a>. In his announcement, Dorsey explained that \u201cintelligence\u201d tools were creating a \u201cnew way of working\u201d with smaller teams. Under this new paradigm, he implied, you had to stay competitive by embracing AI and leaner organizations. Experts, and a former employee<\/a>, however, have argued that AI\u2019s shiny promises are being used as cover for carrying out decisions that are motivated by other financial factors \u2014 like over-hiring during COVID.<\/p>\n