Member-only story
STARTUP LIFE
Startup Stress Triggered A Rare Brain Disease
How to protect your health ROI
I’m sitting in a familiarly-shaped shared office. The center consists of low cubicles: three rectangles formed by low beige cabinet walls and movable stations, monitors and staff heads all visible. The conversation is lively, like a hive abuzz.
The setup mirrors many co-work spaces and tech headquarters. But here, in place of sales goals and Gantt charts dotting the walls, the machines track drip rate; the white boards hold nurse schedules and infusion protocols.
Instead of executive offices around the perimeter, patients sit sans desks behind netted curtains not glass walls. We are the VIPs — they bring us snacks and sodas, some of us stare out oversized windows. Everyone covets the corners.
I overhear phone calls both mundane and consequential. A lunch order to a friend and a disclosure of the treatment they are receiving; a remote meeting led by an actual executive immediately followed by his blood transfusion.
Like many days building technology companies, I turn on my noise-cancelling headphones to drown it all out. Next to me, clear liquid hangs in a bag on a rack attached to a needle in my arm.
