Telling colleagues how you actually feel

A zero-bullshit conversation with Jessica on 'non-parental' culture, and why it's better to be direct with teammates when they annoy you.

Jessica and Maite discuss dealing with a sensitive founder who was willing to talk about mental health—but only on his own terms—and how promoting wellbeing and mental health days isn't even close to a complete conversation about mental health if you can’t take feedback.

Whereby are remote first, so they prioritise building a non-parental culture which relies on employees being able to voice how they're feeling. As well as speaking up and being proactive about their own mental health, Jessica explains how she encourages teammates to tell each other when they’ve done something hurtful or irritating—even if this is harder for most people than you might think.

Before becoming COO at Whereby, Jessica spent years in senior People Ops roles at various startups and scale-ups. She believes how your team works together is its biggest competitive advantage. Originally from Australia, Jessica has lived and worked in Europe since 2014.

Oliva is the UK & Europe's #1 rated employee mental wellbeing benefit.

We help companies respond to the pivotal moments that impact mental wellbeing at work and beyond—driving employee retention and exceptional effort.

We do this by:

• Empowering individuals to take control of their mental wellbeing
• Developing manager emotional intelligence
• Helping HR teams create org-wide psychological safety