Mental health support at Sourcegraph

What is mental health?

The World Health Organization defines mental health as:

“A state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”

Long-term goals

1. Normalize the discussion and reduce stigma about mental health across the Sourcegraph team.
2. Increase access to and awareness of existing mental health resources for the Sourcegraph team.
3. Understand how our asynchronous culture can contribute to improved mental health for team members, specifically by decreasing the total number of synchronous meetings for team members.
4. Increase documentation about mental health management resources in our handbook by collaborating and sharing strategies and tools that work.

Overview Mental Health Perks:

We understand the significance of prioritizing mental well-being, especially in challenging times. We value and support our teammates’ mental health and wellbeing. Sourcegraph offers Mental Health support through multiple avenues to meet each teammate’s individual needs. We offer a reimbursement up to $250 annually, recommended applications/services, and health insurance plan benefits. Our reimbursement program does not require receipts to be submitted. In addition to general mental health support, our Family Planning vendor, Maven, offers 24/7 support to teammates with family concerns.

Resources

• Find a mental health provider through our benefits plans
  • General mental health:
    • Use the Sequoia app “find a provider” feature
    • Contact our benefits advocate team
  • Family planning or family concerns:
    • Contact Maven support
• Use an insurance plan sponsored app
  • Kaiser (Calm, Ginger, MyStength are all included)
  • UHC (Sanvello)
• Recommended mental health apps:
  • Calm: $70/year (Free for US Teammates on Kaiser)
  • MoodKit: $50/year
  • Headspace: $70/year
  • Happify: $140/year
  • Aurora: $50/year
  • Mindshift: Free
  • Sanvello: $110/year (Free for US Teammates on UHC)
  • Reflectly: $60/year
  • Open: $150/year
  • Breathwrk: $200/10 classes
  • Talkspace: w/insurance sessions start at $25/session
  • Wakingup.com: $120/yr

Sourcegraph-specific toolkits:

• Manager Wellbeing One Pager - For people managers to begin unpacking how to have conversations around mental wellbeing and to model best practices in regeneration and taking time off.
• Employee Wellbeing One Pager - For teammates to assess if they might be falling into patterns of burnout, and how to triage effectively by escalating to your manager and others.

Preventative resources:

• Burnout Index Test: Global IT Burnout Index - Take a quick quiz to see how at-risk for burnout you might be.
• LifeLabs Learning: Start/stop rituals - preventing burnout - Identify rituals you can use to separate your home-life from your work-life.
• American Psychological Association: The Road to Resilience – Prevent burnout by building your resilience to stress and adversity.
• Mayo Clinic: Job Burnout: How to Spot it and Take Action – Find out if you’re at risk of workplace burnout and what to do if you are.

Resources to identify and triage burnout:

• Inc.: 12 Stages of Burnout - Understand the different stages of burnout, and identify if you may be falling into one area.

• Ted Talks: 10 Ted Talks for when you’re feeling burnt out - Listen to others as they navigate the waters of burnout and how to obtain resilience.

• Skills Camp: Virtual class on burnout/mental health - Take this interactive class to enhance your skill set to support your mental health.

• The Caring Techie: Declaring War Against Burnout - Read this article series to identify burnout, process it, and become resilient from experiencing it.

FAQ:

Q: How do I submit the annual one-time stipend for my choice of mental health resource?

A: All teammates (US and non-US based) will submit the request for the stipend through this google form. The people team will approve within 3 business days.

US-teammates: Expect the stipend on your paycheck within 1 month of approval

Non-US teammates: Please add a one-time $250USD stipend to your next invoice

Q: Is the mental health stipend a taxable benefit?

A: Yes, like all stipends it will be taxed.

Q: If my mental health services cost more than $250 annually can I request a stipend for the full amount?

A: Unfortunately, not at this time. The maximum annual amount is $250/per teammate

Q: How can I use the stipend for mental health?

A: The stipend can be utilized for a wide range of mental health-related expenses, such as therapy sessions, counseling services, consultations, mindfulness and meditation classes, mental health apps or subscriptions, and self-help books. Recommended resources above

Q: Can I use the stipend for fitness-related activities?

A: Yes. While the stipend is primarily intended for mental health purposes, physical fitness can significantly contribute to overall well-being. As such, you can use the stipend in addition to the Wellness perk for fitness-related activities that have a direct positive impact on your mental health. Recommendations include yoga, pilates, tai chi, personal training sessions that focus on mental health and stress reduction etc.

Q: Can I use the stipend for a family member’s mental health support?

A: No, at this time the $250 benefit is focused on our teammates’ mental health.

Q: Why are we not offering a larger budget per teammate with how expensive therapy services can be?

A: The People Team is always evaluating our benefits and perks while working within a tight budget. We are very excited we have been able to repurpose our Modern Health budget to support a variety of mental health services.

Q: Will my manager need to approve my reimbursement request?

A: No, the people team will approve the stipend requests. Your manager is not part of the approval workflow.

Q: How do I know what resource is best for me?

A: There is not a one-size fits all solution to mental health resources. We recommend reviewing the recommended apps and find one that’s overview resonates with you. For US-based teammates: You can also reach out to our benefits advocate team to learn what therapy resources are available through your insurance plans.

Q: How do I know what mental health resouces my health insurance covers?

A: Please reach out to our benefits advocate team who can outline exactly what your insurance plan offers, and how to find a provider.

Q: What if I need additional support?

A: If at any point you feel as though you or your teammate is in crisis or dealing with a mental health issue which you are unsure of how to deal with, please reach out to any member of the People Ops team immediately either on Slack or confidentially at People-ops@sourcegraph.com. We will work with you to assess the situation and triage it accordingly with proper resources and support.

If you have questions not answered here, please reach out to the People Team through #ask-people-team or people-ops@sourcegraph.com.

People team resources:

Program owner: People-Ops

Internal process (full step-by-step here):

1. Teammate submits Google form
2. People Ops is notified of new submission and reviews
3. Teammate is notified of approval
4. Stipend is provided within 30-days (1 month)
   1. US-based teammates: People Ops sends email to Payroll@sourcegraph to have yearly stipend issued
   2. Non-US based teammates: People Ops will send teammate an approval email requesting a one-time yearly stipend of $250USD be added to their next invoice
5. Yearly a reminder is sent out to all teammates to submit the Google form to receive the stipend.
6. Here is the tracker (access only provided to people team members)