Headspace reviews

Headspace Health focuses on appearances rather than quality services. Since the merger between Ginger and Headspace happened, the quality of clinical services provided/support of providers has diminished significantly. This accelerated rapidly in fall of 2022 and with layoffs in Dec. 2022, and June, 2023. Despite massive failures by senior management (the CEO acknowledged being "too optimistic" leading to 2 layoffs since Dec. 2022) the CEO and CFO remain. The response to the large layoff in June 2023 was to assure remaining employees that the company "did everything legally" and to gaslight the public (see the LA Times original article on the layoffs and the follow-up). Responses to Fiercehalthcare article on July 26: Russ: ""As a licensed medical provider, the first priority for us, has to be, must be, protecting member safety, protecting member data, protecting member privacy." Fact: "Syncs" where employees were informed they were let go effective immediately, did not include questions about high need clients/need to prioritize clients for transfer to new clients. Most syncs lasted 15 minutes or less vs. what the CCO reported as "an hour or more." Statement from article: ""Headspace said it used a 'team-based model' that includes psychiatry and behavioral health coaching to ensure continuity of care beyond individual therapists." Fact: This is misleading; many members do not utilize coaching or psychiatry and with the 1500 affected clients, coaches have even more demand on them. Russ: "We had a plan in place to make sure we contacted 100% of active members who lost their clinicians. We prioritized based on clinical need. We approached it with values-first and ethics-first," Fact: See note above about not asking departing therapists about high need clients. This is made worse by the fact that clinician's access to records was taken away first thing in the morning, so notes from the previous day could not be completed (meaning the remaining team did not have complete accounting of how members were doing). Also, Russ notes "active members." What he leaves out is what defines an "active member." Even if a member is being seen regularly (including some high need clients seen weekly) and cannot (due to changing job/school schedule) schedule a next appointment yet (or has to cancel a next appointment but cannot reschedule at that moment), they are considered "idle" (not active). These members were not included in the figure Russ gave. ----- Focus in the past 10 months has been on branding and more time is devoted in company wide meetings to introducing new graphics than improving client and employee outcomes. Russ does not seem to have an understanding of the healthcare side of the business (especially evident when he talks directly to clinicians), and has presented as more of a salesman than a CEO of a tech/healthcare company. Buzzwords abound with no real vision or clear meaning, and speech is being policed more intensely (individuals who ask questions about the sustainability of therapists and coaches having such high caseloads are labeled "negative" and reprimanded). In short, Headspace Health has lost its way and is driving away the good people still left.

My specific department is insulated with incapable mid-level and director-level leadership that the only way is out. The amount of privilege, incompetency, and overall lack of empathy is beyond me. I was kind of hopeful when Jodi came onboard and joined us, but unfortunately I'm not seeing any actual positive outcomes. I've been berated, mistreated, looked down on, and thrown under the bus several times by my own manager. This has been a recurring theme with minorities on our team. Anyone that looks and acts like my manager, has been put on a pedestal in both compensation and treatment. HR? Files your complaints and won't follow up with you. Sharing a list of additional cons to help you decide whether you want to work here or not. 1. Never reading the room. With the amount of layoffs, restructuring, and budget cuts, Headspace Health is still pushing the agenda to cross-sell into Ginger. They'll put money behind baseball games and fancy dinners, but won't even invest in additional engineers and data team members. Clearly we have to report good numbers to our board, but let's figure out a way to do it with some sort of integrity? 2. Nothing's changed. Since I came onboard, we have the same damn challenges years ago that we have today. The fact that clients have stayed with us for this long, is due to the sheer fact that employees actually enjoy using Headspace. 3. PTO isn't a thing unless you actually have a manager who knows how to the do the job and cover you. Resources are always limited and you can't even go out on PTO without someone pinging you for an "emergency". 4. It's never Leadership's fault. Mandatory meetings but no agenda, no feedback - just a leader who talks in ongoing sentences hoping that they're making an impact. It's not leadership's fault we have lack of resources, answers, and competitive edge in the marketplace. It's on the individual contributor, always. 5. Random firings. You're not liked by leadership? You don't hang out at directors' houses after day-long offsites? They'll find a way to let you go, based on lies, manipulation, and a smile. 6. No promotions, unless you're a manager! Because there's unlimited growth and compensation as a manager. 7. No boundary setting. Gossip comes directly from leadership and they'll spend their time assessing you inside and outside of the workplace. If the economy wasn't flooded with layoffs, I would've been out ASAP.