The past year and a half has been far from easy. A global pandemic, a national reckoning in the name of racial injustice, violence, and inequality, the immense and tragic loss of so many lives. On top of all that, many of us have had to manage increased ambiguity at work, juggling full-time jobs (or losing jobs) while trying to sort out childcare, dealing with the absence of physical touch with family, friends, and loved ones and a collective feeling of isolation and anxiety.
And as we begin to emerge from the pandemic, the emotional fatigue and mental burnout continue to linger. Despite the challenges and ongoing struggles, there have certainly been joyful moments and pleasant surprises to celebrate, too.
A few weeks ago, I received the following email:
Hi Val,
HubSpot is acutely aware of the pressure that the last year has put on all of us. Trying to navigate remote work, a pandemic, caregiving in addition to global unrest across the world would exhaust anyone.
In response to employee feedback and to invest in our employees, we’ve introduced a new initiative called HubSpot Unplugged. It includes no internal meetings on Fridays, new mental health and well-being programming, and a Global Week of Rest.
Our hope in launching this initiative is to empower our team to ultimately bring their best to their work with you, our partners.
What Does This Mean for Me And My Customers?
The week of July 5 - July 9, 2021, most HubSpot employees will be taking the week off to step away from work and recharge. We want to inform you of our plans, both as users of the HubSpot product, and as partners -- as it is possible that your customers may be more reliant on your support during this week.
Best,
The HubSpot Team
As their partners, a memo communicating a potential inconvenience would have normally been received with a sigh and a bit of discontent. But instead, it left me feeling delighted. When organizations flex their humanity and show care and respect for their team members – it matters. When businesses make empathic decisions, especially to support the wellbeing of their employees – it matters. When technology companies actually practice what they preach (e.g. human-centered design, “growing with a conscience,” “succeeding with a soul”) – it matters.
Here at HubBase, our team has always prioritized people and relationships above anything else. Even when it comes to everyday things like dining out – we tend to keep coming back to restaurants or cafes that make us feel like family. It’s particularly attractive when you also sense that employees are being treated well too – whether it be at a restaurant, an organization – anywhere. When you connect with a business or organization on a more intimate level, it makes working with them that much more enjoyable. When you connect with a business or organization’s vision and mission too? Whew! Watch out. That’s when the magic happens.
Eight years ago, HubBase co-founder Umair Khokhar heard Dharmesh Shah, founder & CTO of HubSpot, speaking at a virtual conference. Dharmesh shared his vision of providing startups with the same quality and complexity of tools to grow their businesses. At the time, these powerful tools were only available to enterprise organizations. The vision of bridging this huge gap, however ambitious, seemed incredibly logical. For example, HubSpot understood that managing websites shouldn’t feel like going to a mechanic – a well-built website should be easy to update and scale. As a solution, HubSpot created HubSpot CMS as one of their product offerings. It’s the first CMS created for marketers that comes with a built-in CRM system (but it makes things easier for developers, too). It won Umair over, and he (being a full-blown programming nerd 🤓) decided to offer his web development and design services centered around HubSpot CMS.
Then there’s me. I’ve always been passionate about storytelling, SEO, and web design, and I’ve always admired HubSpot for “getting it.” They understood from the start that leading with quality educational content and giving people helpful material is far more impactful than sending an intrusive flood of random promotions.
HubSpot has built and grown their business based on the notion of “inbound” – the idea that people just want to be helped by marketers, not interrupted or distracted by them. This ethos is applied to everything they do and build. HubSpot understands the value of innovating around customer experience (and apparently employee experience, too!)
HubSpot proves itself again and again as a preferred partner in doing the work that we do. Not only are our business values aligned, but our personal values also seem to be, too. I was once again reassured of our decision to work with HubSpot as a platform of choice for ourselves (HubBase.io!) and for our clients.
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