Trust isn't tested when things are going well. It's tested on the day a leader has to say something nobody wants to hear.
On November 3, 2026, Canva co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins told her team that 1,271 people, 22% of the company, would be affected by a restructure.* Some would see their roles change or be asked to relocate. Others would be leaving. In her words, it was “without doubt the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history.” The news itself is painful, and nothing in this post is meant to soften that for the people living it.
But how a hard decision is communicated is a choice, and Canva's announcement is a useful case study in making that choice well. Seen through Charles Feltman's four distinctions of trust (Care, Sincerity, Reliability and Competence), it shows what humanizing change can look like when the outcome itself can't be made painless.
Say the hard thing in plain words
Perkins didn't open with “rightsizing,” “realignment” or “optimizing our talent footprint.” She wrote:
This is the hardest decision we've made in Canva's history, and we know it will deeply impact many people and their loved ones.Melanie Perkins, LinkedIn
That sentence does three things corporate announcements usually avoid. It names the decision as hers. It admits it hurts. And it acknowledges that the impact reaches beyond the office, into families and households.
The full letter goes further. She apologizes more than once, without qualifiers: “I'm deeply sorry for the pain and disruption this will cause for everyone affected.” And she tells the people affected that these decisions “are not a reflection of the talent, care and dedication people have brought to Canva.” Leaders often skip that line. It's the one people need most.
She was just as direct about the why. Growth “has slowed for the first time in a decade,” and “small changes won't be enough.” People can disagree with a decision and still trust the person making it, as long as the reasons are real and stated out loud. Euphemism does the opposite: it signals that leadership is protecting itself, not its people.
Your team can handle hard news. What erodes trust is the feeling that they're being managed instead of told.
Honour the people, then back it with something real
The post credits the people leaving before it explains anything else:
Canva would not be the company it is today without their hard work.Melanie Perkins, LinkedIn
That line matters. It tells departing employees their contribution was real, and it tells everyone watching that the company sees them as people, not line items.
Then comes the part that turns kind words into care. Perkins' letter spells out exactly what departing Canvanauts receive:
- At least six months' salary, including statutory entitlements, regardless of location
- 12 months of continued healthcare where Canva already provides it
- 12 months of Canva Care, its employee assistance program, extended to family members
- Removal of the one-year vesting cliff for anyone who joined in the past year
- One-on-one coaching, interview prep, a year of LinkedIn Premium, and a large share of the recruiting team dedicated to helping with resumes and interview practice
- Their Canva MacBook to keep
- A US$10,000 grant from the new Canva Collective Fund for anyone who wants to start something of their own, with no ownership or equity taken
Care that stays in a speech is just tone. Care that shows up as time, money, health coverage and help finding the next role is something people can feel.
Look at the reason given for the laptop: “as we know not everyone has a personal laptop.” That's care at the level of detail. Someone thought about what losing a work computer means in the middle of a job search.
Before you write the announcement, ask what the people affected will actually need in the next six months. Then build that, and lead with it.
Put your own name on the follow-through
The most striking line in the post isn't emotional. It's practical:
If you're hiring, please reach out to me at mel@canva.com, and we'll do our best to help make those connections.Melanie Perkins, LinkedIn
A CEO publishing her own email address and asking her network to hire her former employees is a commitment, made in public, that people can hold her to. Pair that with the opt-in alumni directory shared with investors and partners, and “we want to set them up well” becomes something with a mechanism behind it.
The letter also promises a human conversation, not just an email. Everyone affected gets an invitation to a one-on-one meeting with a senior leader in their area to talk through next steps and support. Whether to attend is their choice.
Reliability, in Feltman's terms, is doing what you say you'll do. In a layoff, the promise is “we'll help you land.” The only way to keep it is to make it specific, visible and owned by someone with the power to deliver.
Don't just offer support. Name who is responsible for it, how people access it, and make yourself personally reachable.
Make room for questions and grief
Layoffs don't only affect the people who leave. The ones who stay lose colleagues, friends and the version of the company they signed up for. Many wonder if they're next.
Perkins speaks to them directly:
Please look after yourselves and one another and be there for those who are leaving.Melanie Perkins, letter to the Canva team
Then she backs it up. Non-critical meetings are cancelled for the rest of the week. Anyone who needs time to process can take the day off, and “there's no need to log this as leave.”
The letter also protects the dignity of goodbyes. People leaving keep Slack and Gmail until the end of the week, “so they can choose when and how to share the news with their teams.” Everyone else is asked to respect their privacy. Questions get a clear time and place: a Company All Hands on November 10, then org All Hands from November 11.
And she published the full letter. Everyone, inside and outside the company, gets the same story.
This is also where Competence, Feltman's fourth distinction, comes in. The people who stay need to believe the plan makes sense. Canva laid out the specifics: merging product, growth and platform teams, simplifying management layers, and building more teams in person. She also explained the order of decisions: mission and goals first, then structure, skills and locations, and only then individual roles. You don't have to agree with the plan to respect that it was explained.
Acknowledge the grief of those who remain, out loud. Give them the full picture, not the press-release version, and create space (team check-ins, open Q&As, one-on-ones) for the feelings that follow.
A leader's checklist for humanizing hard change
Whether you're restructuring, cutting a program or changing direction, these questions will help you lead the moment with trust intact:
- SincerityHave I named the decision plainly, owned it, and explained the real reason?
- CareHave I recognized the contribution of the people affected, by name or by team, before anything else?
- CareDoes my support match what people will actually need (money, time, health, help finding work)?
- ReliabilityIs every promise specific, with an owner and a way to access it?
- ReliabilityAm I personally reachable, and will I follow up?
- CompetenceCan I explain how this change makes the organization stronger, in plain language?
- The people who stayHave I made space for their questions, their grief and their uncertainty, and given them real time to process?
Words are the beginning, not the proof
A well-written announcement doesn't make a layoff painless, and it isn't the final measure of how a company treated its people. That will show up over the coming months: in how quickly the alumni land new roles, how the transition is handled day to day, and how the people who stay feel a year from now.
Still, the first moment matters. People remember how they were told. Canva's approach shows that even when the outcome is hard, leaders can choose honesty over spin, care over cost-cutting language and real commitments over vague reassurance. That's what keeps trust alive through change.
At KindCo, we help leaders and teams build the kind of trust that holds up on the hard days.
If your organization is navigating change, let's talk* For context: the restructure followed a difficult year for Canva. In August 2026, Blackbird, Canva's largest venture backer, cut its valuation of the company by 17% to US$34.9 billion, amid investor concern that AI could undercut software businesses (HCAMag). This post looks at how the decision was communicated, not whether it was the right business call.
