How can companies better help support employee mental health?
It’s a question that’s top of mind for Fortune 500 execs and perhaps even more pressing for startup founders where the move fast and break things pace can be both incredibly inspiring—and a fast track to crisis.
That’s exactly where Andy Dunn, cofounder of men’s clothing startup Bonobos and author of the 2022 memoir Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind found himself several years back. Actually, the story is so dramatic, let’s pause to set the scene.
In short, the hyper successful entrepreneur had been hiding a bipolar diagnosis since college. While CEO, a manic episode resulted in him being taken to the Bellevue hospital psych ward and held there for a week as the psychosis gradually lifted. Upon release, he was greeted by a welcoming committee of NYPD officers who informed him he was being arrested for stripping naked in the throes of mania and assaulting his then girlfriend and elderly mother-in-law, an incident he can barely recall.
It’s hard to square that image with the Dunn who several of us were lucky enough to see the other night at a dinner in downtown Chicago sponsored by Fortune and ServiceNow. Polished, charismatic, funny, and brutally honest, he spoke to an assembled group of CHROs about mental health and the workplace in conversation with my Fortune colleague Matt Heimer—and it was an amazing ride. He traveled back through the onset of his condition in college, through the wild startup years where the manic life of an entrepreneur served as a screen to mask his underlying condition, all the way to the point where he had to inform Walmart—the company that had agreed to buy his startup—that when they performed a background check they would find the felony arrest.
In recent years, Dunn has partnered with execs such as ServiceNow’s Chief People Officer Jacqui Canney to help destigmatize mental illness. As Dunn wrote in Burn Rate, “The truth, though, is that the stigma is here, and it is profound. Mental illness is one of the final taboos. The business community values stability. When it comes to leading teams, shepherding capital, and governing enterprises, a steady hand is what is sought. So even as we have entered a new era, one where assumptions surrounding race, gender, and power are being interrogated more deeply, issues of mental illness in the workplace go largely unmentioned. For most of my professional life mental illness has felt unspeakable: a fast track to an awkward silence, a closed door, or a lost opportunity. The thing is a lot of us have it. A lot.”
He goes on to say that bipolar is seven times more prevalent in entrepreneurs, which may mean some 20% of entrepreneurs have the condition. While Dunn recognizes that his “exited startup” good fortune allows him to speak more frankly than most, such disclosures are, as he puts it, “contagious.” If a leader admits vulnerability and talks about their own struggles, employees will feel a door has been opened. Though the rest of the dinner table conversation was off-the-record, I can say that the personal stories, ideas sparked, and questions raised (How much should a company cover for ER visits? Which mindfulness shows meaningful benefits?) got everyone strategizing about how they can do more to help employees who are struggling.
And truly, whether you’re a CHRO, startup founder, or just someone who appreciates a rip-roaring read, if you haven’t read Burn Rate, pick up a copy—I cannot recommend it highly enough.
See you tomorrow,
Lee Clifford
Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
