The Dread of Workplace Disruption

In 2021, the popular mediation app Headspace merged with the enterprise teletherapy provider Ginger. The merger created a $3 billion mental health care company that serves both enterprise and consumer customers. The company says it now serves 4,000 employers across 200 countries and that several million people actively use the Headspace app each month. Headspace Health is keenly interested in the growing need for mental health support in the work place. A May 2023 Headspace Health survey of over 4,000 workers found that 49% of respondents felt a sense of dread at work at least once a week. That number climbed to 59% for CEOs.

In this episode of Leadership Next, Headspace CEO Russ Glass joins host Michal Lev-Ram to discuss how the provider's services can help address these dreadful feelings and why he thinks these feelings have persisted beyond the pandemic. He also talks about how the company's approach differs for its enterprise and consumer customers, and why those differences matter. Additionally, Glass shares what he thinks business gets wrong about mental health and offers his advice to leaders on how they can support their employees' mental health while also protecting their own. Glass also discusses how meditation changed his life and why he stepped back from his career for over a year to raise his three daughters.

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