Canva Just Set a New Bar for How to Lay People Off, and the Internet Noticed

Canva is restructuring, and roughly 1,271 employees, about 22% of its staff, are losing their jobs, switching roles, or relocating as a result. Co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins called it "the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history," which is the kind of line companies say regardless of whether they mean it. What's different here is what came with the news.

Every affected employee gets a minimum of six months' pay across Canva's 37 markets, a year of continued healthcare, a year of LinkedIn Premium, career coaching, access to an alumni network, and a year of Canva's employee assistance program extended to family. They keep their work MacBooks. Recent hires get their one-year vesting cliff waived so they walk away with equity they'd otherwise have lost, and departing staff can apply for $10,000 grants through a new "Canva Collective Fund" to launch a business or community project.

The internet's verdict has mostly been admiration: one tech CEO called it "a master-class in how to handle layoffs," and coverage elsewhere called the announcement "thoughtful, honest and generous." Some of that praise comes with an asterisk, a layoff is still a layoff, and a few commenters flagged there's often fine print nobody reads until it matters. But as Canva leans harder into AI and watches its valuation get cut ahead of an eventual IPO, how it treats the people on the way out is doing real work for the brand on the way up.

Source: Newsweek

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →