We’ve always been fans of this online bank for its simplicity and great user experience.
However, he decided to leave the company earlier this year, as his heavy workload took its toll and his wellbeing suffered as a consequence.
In a recent article with the Guardian newspaper in the UK, he described why he left the business and struggled with anxiety and his own mental health.
He said the stereotype of superhuman tech bosses could not be further from the truth. “There’s this myth of the superhero founder who sleeps four hours a night and reads 500 books a year and is up hiking before dawn kind of garbage. If it’s true, I’ve never met that person.”
His brutal honesty on running a Unicorn company is refreshing, as we often thought that these CEO types were workaholics who managed to successfully balance their wellbeing and work. His working day was intense. “It would be packed with meetings from pretty much 9am till 7pm,” he said. “Down to the nearest five minutes, my time was planned.”
Calls with US investors ate into his evenings, sometimes running until 2am.
Worst was the red phone kept in his room at night in case of work emergencies such as major technical outages or the odd financial crisis. “Every couple of months the red phone rings, and you know it’s going to ruin the rest of your week,” he said.
How Can You Work and Get Well?
We started our coworking and office company to try and address some of the issues that Tom experienced.
Our mission is to get you well whilst you work - to make sure burnout doesn’t creep in. We think that you need to allocate at least 2-3 wellbeing ‘meetings’ for yourself each week, where you switch off and look after number one. We offer a range of member wellbeing activities for the mind and body, including Yoga, Breathwork, SUP and Surf.
We also chose a location next to the beach which is an obvious and convenient place to promote wellbeing and wellness.
So, if you also want to ‘Feel Like Yourself Again’ then we would love to show you around our space.
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