To mark World Mental Health Day on October 10th, we reached out to our network of founders to get their take on burnout and mental health in fast moving startups. This post was created in collaboration with Calmer, a startup that empowers entrepreneurs to nurture good mental health and wellbeing.
Burnout has become something of a corporate buzzword. Tales of twelve hour days were met with accusations of busy bragging. Breakdowns were covered up, anxiety attacks disguised as nosebleeds, and emotions were hidden at all costs. Thankfully, that’s all behind us.
Awareness is only the first step in a journey that keeps going round, retreading the same path, until it’s truly embedded into our culture. Mental health in the workplace isn’t just about being nice, or accepting that sometimes we get stressed, it’s about making real practical changes – both on an organisational and individual level – to account for our needs as complex emotional creatures.
Founders are famously a unique breed. At Outfly, we’ve worked with hundreds over the years, and they really are different. As an entrepreneur loneliness is coupled with unparalleled uncertainty and, increasingly, an overwhelming responsibility; not only for your growing teams’ income, but for their mental health as well.
We spoke with a few of our clients, who form members of our extended network of founders, to find out how they deal with their own work/life alignment, how they defend against burnout, and how they’ve built processes to protect their teams as they grow. Visit Calmer to view the full article.
