Scandals in private life have affected the careers of tech company executives; Neha Nagar's book on investing

In the corporate world, when the word 'layoff' is mentioned, feelings of tension, uncertainty, and anger usually arise. However, recently, Melanie Perkins, CEO and co-founder of the graphic design platform Canva, has given this trend of layoffs a completely new and human dimension. While the tech sector is mass-cutting jobs, Canva's approach to severance pay and managing this process has become an example in both social media and business circles.

Canva announced a restructuring that affected 22 percent of its total staff, which is 1,271 employees. Characterizing it as the most difficult period in the company's 13-year history, Melanie Perkins took full responsibility for humanizing this process. The package offered to departing employees attracted significant attention.

Employees were offered the following:

• Six months of salary.
• Medical insurance for up to 12 months in relevant countries.
• Gadget discounts, allowing employees to take their office MacBooks home.
• Career support, including an annual subscription to LinkedIn Premium, as well as assistance with interview preparation and career counseling.
• 'Canva Collective Fund': financial aid of $10,000 (grant) for employees who wish to start their own business or social project, without requiring equity.

The reaction from employees and social media was mixed. Despite the sadness of job loss, employees highly appreciated the company's attitude. One employee wrote on Instagram that although the news was hard to accept, the support provided by the company during maternity leave and during a difficult time proved that Canva is a great organization.

This case demonstrates an important lesson: employees may feel disappointed about being laid off, but if a company treats them with dignity and respect during difficult times, that respect remains in their hearts.

Although Canva is not the only company to offer support, its package has unique features. It is worth noting that other companies offered the following conditions:

• Meta: 16 weeks of salary plus 2 weeks for each year of service.
• Dropbox: 16 weeks of salary, one extra week per year, and retention of the laptop.
• Microsoft and Amazon: Time to seek internal opportunities and voluntary departure.

Compared to these offers, Canva's package focuses not only on financial security but also directly on career relaunch, such as through startup grants and the ability to keep a MacBook.

Following all these events, the discussion has resurfaced about whether female CEOs tend to handle complex decisions from a different perspective. Although attributing empathy solely to gender is incorrect, a recent report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) indicates that companies led by women have a 6.4% higher probability of achieving better business results.

Nubank laid off approximately 30 employees from the team dedicated to investigating financial fraud claims as part of an internal sector restructuring after automating various tasks using artificial intelligence. These layoffs occurred on Tuesday, November 3rd.

According to reports from former and current employees, the introduction of AI managed to decrease the accumulation of complaints related to financial scams by 80% over the last six months. The company itself justified these cuts as a result of internal changes.

The affected team, known internally as 'investigations', belonged to Nubank's anti-fraud operations area. Their responsibilities included analyzing accounts suspected of involvement in financial crimes. The cuts affected professionals who investigated shell accounts used by criminals to move funds and hinder tracking, a practice that has previously been the subject of actions by the Federal Police.

As reported by Folha, the AI tools were implemented about six months ago, starting with the analysis of less complex cases. Initially, some employees were responsible for reviewing the conclusions generated by the systems. This additional work served both to detect potential failures and to improve language models with examples of corrected responses. Thanks to this automation, the backlog of pending issues and complaints saw a sharp decline.

The workers were dismissed without cause and were informed that the restructuring was linked to the reduction in workload. Nubank reportedly communicated that the reorganization of an administrative area led to personnel reallocation and job closures.

The laid-off employees are entitled to a benefits package, which includes salary supplementation and temporary extension of the health plan. Before these dismissals, about 40 members of the investigations team had already been transferred to other areas. The analysts who remained will focus on combating fraud, concentrating on the most intricate cases.

Nubank has not disclosed new layoff plans related to this restructuring. In July, Ellen Kiss, director of the Design Excellence Center, informed Tecnoblog that the company would not halt hiring due to AI.