before Epidemic And with its resulting work from home, video meetings and conferences, employees of mental wellness app Headspace gathered at 10 a.m. each morning for a guided meditation led by the company’s co-founder, a charismatic Brit and former monk.
They sat on wooden benches in Headspace’s airy, sun-drenched office in Santa Monica, California, taking deep, calm breaths.
However, the Zen seems to have disappeared throughout the day, when more chaos settled in.
While the company’s motive was to promote mental health and wellness, many employees described working intense hours, leaving to take care of family tasks. time limit and a high rate of turnover.
bloomberg In interviews with more than 20 people who worked at startups before the pandemic earlier this year, employees reflect on an intense and sometimes grueling work environment, the report said.
Like others who spoke to Bloomberg, one former employee said, “I had to go to therapy completely, speaking on condition of anonymity to preserve my future job prospects. Three other people also said that he has started seeing psychiatrists to help process the stress of working at the company.
Headspace was founded with a mission “to improve the health and happiness of the world.” But startups with lofty goals often find themselves in an awkward position when they equate those values with actually making money. At Headspace, new recruits were sold the idea of a gentler, more mindful workplace, only to find that the company demanded the same grinding schedule they had heard about at other startups. “That’s the downside of monetizing meditation,” said Diana Winston, director of mindfulness education at the Mindful Awareness Research Center. University of California, Los Angeles. “It’s not like we’re going to stop the forces of capitalism.”
The company is now called headspace health The wellness app following its merger with Ginger was completed at the end of last year — from about 300 employees before the merger to 1,100 today. The startups were valued at $3 billion at the time of the deal. “Our employees are central to our mission and integral to our success,” said Headspace Health, disputing characterizing its culture as unusually demanding. “At Headspace Health we are focused on living up to our mission and values, and best serving all of our stakeholders—most important, our own employees.”
Simon Perry, a former human resources executive at Headspace, said the company’s mission was part of inspiring employees to work harder. It was challenging to log off at the end of the work day, knowing that Headspace’s app is helping users who are going through difficult times, he said. “I had a real hope and heart to grow the business through the lens of our mindful practices,” Perry said. He said he motivates himself and his team to make sure they are still finding work-life balance, but “in any startup, it’s challenging.”
According to research firm CB Insights, today, funding for digital health companies fell 36% in the first quarter of this year compared to the previous quarter, as the economy reels and venture capitalists retrench investments. Globally, the average weekly download of the Headspace app fell by almost half in 2022 from a high in 2020, the year the pandemic began and the US saw a divisive presidential election that strained Americans’ mental reserves. But there are still many people seeking some peace through meditation: Headspace has received more than 2.5 million downloads this year alone, according to Data.ai.
Headspace was founded in 2010 by Rich Pearson, who worked in the advertising industry, and Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk with a degree in circus arts. Its programming walks users through meditation and other calming exercises. Headspace was one of the first tech companies to become popular for mailing wellness and an iPhone app that promised the ability to be more mindful, calm, and present.
Within the company, however, there was no fault that Headspace was the first and foremost business to operate in a competitive market, even in its early days, employees say. In 2017, the startup gathered employees to unveil a wall mural adorned with new corporate slogans, according to a person present. The man recalled that “mercy” had taken off the official list of values. There were new “courageous hearts,” “curious minds” and, notably, “selfless drive.” When asked for comment, Headspace Health said it updated its corporate values after the merger, which now includes seeking diversified perspectives and acting with integrity.
During the pandemic, demand for Headspace’s services increased, with millions of people downloading the app, Data.ai numbers show. The company’s monthly bookings grew by an average of 14% to 18% in 2021, according to documents seen by Bloomberg.
At the same time, workplace demands on Headspace intensified, former employees said. Working from home, some described sitting through back-to-back Zoom meetings for 12 or more hours. One person remembers crying with coworkers over video conference more than once at the end of the day because they didn’t have time to eat lunch or use the bathroom.
To be able to fit in a meal during marathon meetings, another former employee developed a new habit that wasn’t necessary at other jobs before or after. Over the weekend, this person prepared small lunch containers—brown rice, chicken, and vegetables that were divided up for each workday—an effort to eat healthy to compensate for the lack of physical activity during the 20 call days. The person said that they would turn off their camera for a while to reduce the amount of food during the meetings.
The company made some efforts to reduce stress, including scheduled meditation breaks, non-meeting Fridays and “mind days” – one Friday every other week. However, because the actual workload did not change, many employees simply worked through the day off, two people said.
During the Black Lives Matter protests, with many companies grappling with diversity issues, concerns emerged over Headspace’s inclusion. The topic of diversity in startups was the subject of a tearful meeting in 2018, said a person present there. Some employees felt the app was slow to add diverse teachers – it had relied on Puddicombe’s voice alone for years – and did not include a woman until 2019. In 2020, more than 100 workers, or about a third of Headspace’s employees, signed on. A petition to increase representation on the company and the app.
Soon after, Headspace announced that John Legend would be its chief music officer and began a partnership with comedian Kevin Hart’s production company. And as it added more teachers outside of Puddicombe, the company improved representation on its app: In a statement to Bloomberg, Headspace Health said that 60% of teachers in its app are female and 40% are non-female. Identifies as white. The company recently promoted Wisdom Powell, its diversity chief, and a black woman to executive roles. In the statement, Headspace Health said, “As we grow and scale our business, we continue to build a diverse culture where our employees are involved in showing themselves to the fullest and doing their best work.” And feel empowered.”
In recent years, Headspace has seen significant management turnover. One former employee described having five owners in two years because of turnover and restructuring. Another person said they had eight owners in three years. The company got a new chief executive officer in early 2021, only to see that person replaced by the end of the year following the merger. The turmoil took a toll: Some employees described spending time on projects only to find them abruptly canceled, partly because people were leaving. One person said an initiative, scheduled to start at 8 a.m. on Monday, had been called off the night before. Another said he worked nights and weekends with teammates for more than three months on a project that was eventually canned.
Employees took to anonymous company rating service Glassdoor to address their complaints. One person posted a review titled: “Working here will worry you!!!’ For a time, HR executive Perry responded to negative reviews, including this. He acknowledged that there was room for improvement in Headspace. The company was working on communication and decision-making processes “in the hope that That we can support better ways of working here,” he wrote.
Responding to a comment that Headspace “doesn’t look like it from the outside,” Perry wrote, “As with any scaling startup, we need to constantly remind ourselves of the importance of maintaining work-life balance.” Perry left Headspace in April.
Last summer, Headspace announced a merger with Ginger, a startup that provides mental health coaches who respond to text messages. In the month after the deal closed, Headspace was up 25% for the year, according to documents seen by Bloomberg. That exceeds the sub-20% attrition rate for tech companies in 2021, as reported in a survey by investment firm Iconiq Growth. Headspace was aiming for an attrition rate of 15% at the time. According to the documents, Ginger had a crash rate of 8% prior to the merger and increased to 12% around the time of the merger.
Headspace Health said in a statement that the combined company’s turnover is now reduced to 10% and that any merger will bring changes and changes. “We are not protected from the same pressure that other companies feel at this time,” Headspace Health said. “That’s why we continue to add additional benefits and programs for employees”.
Today, some former Headspace employees say they no longer use the app — instead of being quiet, it’s now being triggered. One former employee, who described the day starting at 6:30 a.m. and ending well into the night, said they often miss kids’ performances and doctors’ appointments. His family rejoiced when he left the company. Since then, now at a new job, this person said he spoke to a therapist about how to set the boundary between work and life. So far, he said his mental health has improved.
(with inputs from Bloomberg)