Canva

Decent compensation, promising trajectory, solid values, and working culture. Most people I work with are talented, amazing individuals. Work-life balance highly fluctuates based on team, time of year, and pure luck, but is generally OK. Benefits are consistent with big tech.

While I appreciate that Canva is fast-moving, there are clearly some bad eggs at senior to exec level that can't plan their way out of a one-way street. Terrible communicators, unnecessarily secretive discussions, a lack of process, or sometimes swinging the other way – full of bureaucracy.

Result? It rains down on everyone below: unclear needs, tight deadlines, constant pivots. Too many "yes men" along the way to push back reasonably.

Something went wrong when hiring half of leadership. The other half are amazing individuals. You toss a coin sometimes on whether you'll be working with one or the other.

Honestly, with some of the mismanagement I've seen, you just need to clear house. There is no feedback you can give to solve certain levels of incompetence.

But separate the duds from the stars. You might just find that a few duds in the 'inner group'...