Insufferable moment The ‘head of vibe’ at the Australian tech giant raves about the ‘magical’ life workers have at Canva, but there’s a problem with his claim
- Canva’s ‘vibe boss’ brags about the workplace
- The company introduced an employee classification system
An employee of a large tech company with the strange title of “environment manager” appeared in an interview revealing reports that the company has introduced a controversial employee classification system.
Following the news that Canva topped Fast Company’s 2023 Best Workplaces for Innovators list, Chris Low, who holds the title ‘head of environment’ at Canva Australia, appeared in a live interview on channel 7’s Sunrise Wednesday morning.
The $25.6 billion graphic design software platform boasts that its contemporary workplace includes a dedicated chocolate chip cookie chef, fitness classes, catered meals, rooftop hives, and an “assignment of environment” annual.
While Mr. Low admitted his title was “unusual,” he said Canva employees like him “literally… bring the vibe to the workplace every day.”
Low said the Canva Australia team created “magical moments” in the workplace every day.
But in separate reports, the company, which attracts 300,000 job applications a year, recently introduced employee benchmarking systems that rate employees out of a five.
A Canva worker detailed how he had been told that he had fallen into the lowest-ranking group of employees at the company.
“It just came out of nowhere,” David, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, told the Australian Financial Review.
David said managers at the graphic design rig told him he was missing targets, which meant he had snuck into the last batch of workers.
“Everyone is now looking over their shoulders,” David said.
It’s all a bit surreal.
Reports have surfaced that Canva has introduced employee benchmarking systems that rate employees out of five
Low said it had been a “momentous” year for the graphic design platform.
David said his manager at Canva talked to him about his performance from a pre-written script, however the company denies this.
“We don’t use pre-written scripts for performance conversations,” a Canva spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
The spokesperson said the company has had the same performance system for more than two years and has “not made any changes in that time period.”
They also said the company had seen an increase in people “who are in our top performing category, rather than the bottom.”
Winning the award from Fast Company, Low said in a statement that it had been a “momentous” year for the technology platform.
“Fostering innovation has been at the core of our culture from the beginning and is a big part of who we are today,” he said.
“We’re almost a decade into our journey now, but it still feels like we’re just getting started.”
