Former employees of Australian tech unicorn Canva have flooded social media with a positive spin on news it was sacking more than 1000 staff in a mass redundancy round.
The Sydney-born company behind the titular creative design platform announced 22 per cent of its global workforce would be impacted by the restructure in a shock move last week.
Since then, wistful posts from now former “Canvanauts” have been popping up across LinkedIn and other social sites describing how grateful they were to have worked at the firm.
“Apparently, my new full-time job is being unemployed,” one staffer, dubbing herself a “Redundiva”, wrote.
“Today’s office? My bed. Today’s dress code? Pyjamas. Today’s productivity? Actually quite impressive, if I do say so myself.
“But honestly, the biggest part of today has been failing down a deep nostalgia rabbit hole, looking back at all the content I’ve created since joining Canva. And what a trip.”
“Would I change any of it? Absolutely not. Would I like to rewind to last Friday, when I was blissfully unaware of the s***storm heading my way? Also absolutely yes.”
Some industry watchers have labelled Canva’s mass firing a “PR masterclass”, with sacked staff offered six-month severance payouts, $US10,000 each in seed cash, LinkedIn premium subscriptions and the gifts of healthcare and keeping their laptops.
Co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins last week wrote the decision to restructure was “without doubt the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history”.
“After exploring a wide range of alternatives, I’ve come to the difficult conclusion that small changes won’t be enough,” she wrote to staff.
“To set ourselves up for the next decade, we need to refound Canva, getting back to our roots of small, empowered teams with the freedom to make decisions, take ownership and focus on what matters most for our community.”
‘Watch this space’
Among the stream of reactions from staff, which were promptly shared on social media, many were tinged with self-deprecation and gratitude in classic LinkedIn fashion.
“Waking up this morning I opened Slack and my calendar (like I normally do, toxic I know lol). But this morning was different because yesterday I was one of the 22% at Canva that no longer have a role,” one LinkedIn post read.
“When I applied for a product job at Canva from little old Nelson, New Zealand I was hoping to get some good interview experience and get a little insight into a product I’d used to land my first tech job 2016.
“I NEVER actually thought I’d get the job at Canva. (There’s a lesson here, don’t let self doubt be the thing that stops you!)
“But I am so incredibly grateful I did. While it will take some time to process how it ended, I wanted to start by reflecting on the journey and how this ‘just a job’ really changed my life.”
Another former staffer filmed her reaction to learning she had been fired before posting it to Instagram last week.
“Oh my God … I got laid off,” she says in the video. “What am I gonna do?”
She went on to say she had worked at Canva for three years and although she was “prepared” for receiving bad news, she not expecting it.
“When I found out yesterday I probably cried for three to four hours,” she said, before musing that the redundancy could lead to her finding a job she was excited about.
“Without a push like this I don’t think I would have ever made the decision to quit my job and do something I actually love.
“So maybe that’s the silver lining in all of this … maybe my life is gonna turn around.
“So having said that maybe I am a little bit excited about all of this. Another cheesy quote but ‘watch this space’.”
She posted another video documenting her last few hours spent in the Surry Hills office with work friends before her access to the building was revoked.
A Canva employee based in Dubai said news she had lost her job was “not something I wanted to wake up to” before highlighting how the firm had been supportive during her maternity leave.
“To be honest I’m still in denial,” she said.
“Some people have said being laid off is the best thing that ever happened to them, but for me I’m not too sure.
“I just wanted to come here and say that Canva has been hands down the best organisation to work with.
“Canva has been the most supportive employer ever … and I’m really, really bummed that I’m not going to get that sheer joy of telling people that I work at Canva.”
She shared a part two explaining what Canva was doing to help affected employees transition into the next phase of their careers.
One X user, who claimed to have last worked for the graphic design darling in 2021, took aim at the departing Canva employees for their enthusiastic LinkedIn announcements.
“It’s so funny scrolling Australian Linkedin and watching the collective Canva crashout,” he wrote.
“You either leave a company in good times or ride it out and get laid off in bad times.”
‘Capitalism in a woke dress’
Not all of the reactions were so bittersweet and twee, however.
The major restructure, the first in Canva’s 13-year history, came after the company posted lower than expected revenue this year with disruption from AI flagged as a challenge.
The Australian Financial Review reported in April that the company, which is not publicly listed, had a valuation of about $US31 billion ($44.5 billion). However, that was down from more than $US42 billion in 2025 as concerns lingered over how the firm would adapt to an artificial intelligence era where users can use other platforms to make content for free.
On LinkedIn, UK tech founder Isvari Maranwe shared a graphic from a news site announcing Canva’s redundancy which had been edited to draw a red line through “a masterclass in how to handle layoffs”. She replaced those words with: “bad. It’s bad”.
“Okay, I’ll be the bad guy. Canva is not a perfect company,” Ms Maranwe wrote. “It is just a company.
“What is this nonsense about the ‘dream layoff’? And ‘every company should copy them?’
“Have we lost our collective mind? Canva is laying off 22% of its staff.
“This doesn’t become good because of layoff perks. This doesn’t become good because the founder is a minority woman.
“That is just evil capitalism in a woke dress.”
US-based HR specialist Jessica D Winder was another dissenting voice on LinkedIn, writing people should “stop praising Canva for how they handled layoffs”.
“Canva announced a restructuring impacting 22% of its workforce. And somehow, LinkedIn turned it into a celebration of leadership excellence,” she wrote.
“We have lowered the bar so far that companies are now getting standing ovations for firing people nicely.”