“Action produces the very information inaction waits for.”
TL;DR
Canva says 1,271 people, 22% of the company, are affected by cuts and relocations, and everyone leaving gets at least six months' pay. TrueUp counts 204,364 tech layoffs in 2026.
The fine print: the six months includes legally required pay, and the 12 months of healthcare only applies where Canva already offers it.
Move of the week: holding a severance packet? Line it up against Canva's list and ask for one improvement in writing before you sign.
📊 Poll of the Week
Last week: 66% of you who answered said yes, you got an interview. Small poll, real interviews. Tell us how this week went.
Running tally since September: 31 weeks with an interview reported, and 3 offers.
Did you get an interview this week?
🚨 The Big Story
Canva's six-month floor and its fine print
What happened: On November 3, Canva CEO Melanie Perkins told staff that 1,271 people, 22% of the company, are “impacted.” Some get new roles or a request to move to Sydney; the rest are leaving. Canva hasn't said how many land in each group. Everyone who leaves gets at least six months' salary “regardless of location,” 12 months of healthcare, a year of its employee assistance program (family included), the vesting cliff waived for recent hires, their MacBook, and a shot at a $10,000 grant with no equity taken. Canva's memo
Why it matters: LinkedIn called it a masterclass, and the comparisons explain why. Squarespace offered 16 weeks plus tenure the day before. Oracle paid 4 weeks plus 1 per year, capped at 26, in March. The Labor Department says federal wage law doesn't require severance at all, so every week in a US packet is a number someone picked. DOL
Our take: Credit where it's due. A six-month floor is real money, and letting people keep Slack and Gmail through the week to say goodbye is decency most companies skip. Now the qualifiers. The six months is “inclusive of statutory entitlements.” Australian law already requires up to 16 weeks of redundancy pay, so a long-tenured Sydney employee's package is partly the law. Fair Work In the US, where there's no floor, all of it is Canva's choice. The healthcare applies “in countries where we currently provide this.” Australians keep Medicare with or without a job (funded partly by a 2% levy on taxable income), so that line matters most to Americans who'd otherwise be pricing COBRA. Canva won't say how many of the 1,271 are in Sydney. And the people asked to relocate aren't leaving, so the package doesn't mention them. If you can't move, a “changed role” ends like a layoff without the paperwork.
What to watch:
November 10: Canva's all-hands. Watch for the split between exits and relocations, and what happens to people who decline a move.
December 14: the deadline for leavers to register for the $10,000 Collective Fund.
Your move:
Asked to relocate and can't? Ask HR in writing whether declining counts as a redundancy with the full package.
Holding any severance offer? Use Canva's list as your checklist. Career CoPilot below has the script.
📣 From Offboard
Got a packet? Have it read before you sign.
Severance review in Offboard
Upload your severance agreement to Documents in Offboard and run a private AI review: what it pays, what it asks you to give up, and the deadlines buried in it. Your severance details stay private.
📉 The Layoff Report
Fiserv, NICE, Squarespace, and Google's buyouts
Fiserv: November 3. Its new CEO told investors Fiserv has cut 3,000 employees and contractors since June, including more than 10% of senior management. The stock rose about 9.5% before the open. Reuters
NICE: November 3. About 500 people, roughly 5% of the company, as AI tools squeeze the customer-service software it sells. Calcalist reports leadership had previously said cuts weren't planned. Calcalist
Squarespace: November 2. About 300 people, 19%, mostly product and engineering. The package: at least 16 weeks of base pay plus more for tenure, benefits through May 2027, the laptop, and support for people on work visas. TNW
Google: November 4. Reuters reports Google has extended voluntary buyouts, already offered in the US and UK, to Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland, with DeepMind and Cloud excluded. Uptake is reportedly low. After Microsoft's 60,000 offers last week, buyouts are the season's favorite cut. Reuters
Smaller cuts, same week: SUSE (about 250, 10%), Pipedrive (267), People Inc. (195), Schell Games (49, 40% of staff), and Circle (55, 5%, on the day it beat earnings).
Bottom line: TrueUp counts 204,364 tech workers laid off in 2026 across 691 events, up 6,724 since last week, with Canva's full 1,271 included. That's 664 people a day. TrueUp
☀ The Bright Spot
Canva's CEO put her own inbox in public
Under her LinkedIn post, Perkins wrote: “If you're hiring, please reach out to me at [email protected].” Canva is also sharing an opt-in alumni directory with investors and partners, and moving recruiters to help leavers with resumes and interview practice. People at Arm, Mentimeter, and CorePlan posted openings in the replies. Every layoff memo should end with an email address. Employer Branding News
🧑✈ Career CoPilot
Use Canva's list as your counteroffer
In the US, severance is whatever you and the company agree to, so most first offers have room in them. Before you sign, put yours next to this week's packages and ask for one thing in writing.
Weeks of pay. Ask for the formula in writing. This week's markers: Squarespace, 16 weeks plus tenure; Canva, 26 weeks minimum; Oracle in March, 4 weeks plus 1 per year.
Equity. Under a year? Ask for the cliff waived, the way Canva did. Past it? Ask for a few months of acceleration. Check your option exercise window and ask for more time if it's short.
Health coverage. Ask the company to cover your COBRA premiums for a set number of months, or pay the same amount as cash.
The release. 40 or older in a group layoff? Federal rules give you at least 45 days to review and 7 to revoke. Use all of them.
The cheap asks. Your laptop, extended email access, outplacement coaching, an agreed reference statement. They cost the company little, which makes them easy to say yes to.
The script. “Comparable companies this week offered [X]. Can you match [one specific item]?” One ask, one reason, in writing.
👀 Companies to Watch
Upwind and Bedrock just raised. Both are hiring.
Upwind: Raised $400 million at a $3.8 billion valuation on October 28 for cloud security. Its careers page lists 100 open roles, 26 in the US (many remote), heavy on sales, solutions architects, and security engineers. Upwind careers
Bedrock Robotics: Raised $600 million at $4.1 billion, announced October 26, to put self-driving kits on excavators. 58 open roles in San Francisco, New York, Lockhart, Texas, and remote, across engineering, operations, and commercial. Bedrock jobs
Two this week. The other big rounds came without open roles we could verify.
✅ Your Moves this Week
Benchmark your packet, ask once, then apply
Holding a severance offer? Line it up against Canva's list and ask for one improvement in writing before you sign. This is the move of the week.
Run the agreement through a private review in Offboard before the deadline on it.
40 or older in a group layoff? Find the date on your packet and count 45 days.
Apply to one role at Upwind or Bedrock from Companies to Watch.
Search the November Hacker News “Who is hiring?” thread (250-plus posts) for “remote” plus your stack.
Answer the poll at the top: did you get an interview this week?
Canva told the people staying to take a day off without logging it. Give yourself one this week.
A generous package is still a layoff. Read every line of yours before you sign it.
What's the best thing you ever got in a severance package, or the one thing you wish you'd asked for? Hit reply. We read every one.
Keep moving. The right role is out there.
The Offboard Team