Why we do this

Gabe Greenberg, founder and CEO of G2i, spent over 8 years suffering from a chronic illness rooted in consistent overworking. While building the company, Gabe was clocking 60 - 70 hour work weeks on average and growing more distant from his wife and young children. For years Gabe experienced extreme headaches, fatigue, and pain throughout his body. It wasn't until he was diagnosed with Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) caused by an exposure to toxic mold that he was forced to slow down and reevaluate his work/life priorities and practices.

The path to recovery required honest self-reflection, regularly meeting with health professionals for both mental and physical health, leadership coaching, and a complete overhaul of the ways in which Gabe was working and running his company. This was only made possible by the support of the global developer ecosystem that rallied behind Gabe, raised money for his medical expenses, and offered him encouragement.

Creating programming and resources for developer health is a means of giving back to the developer community that aided Gabe's recovery, without question, and paying forward the aid he received. Reflecting back, Gabe's story isn't unique, our story isn't unique, the industry already has planted the seeds of support and our goal is to simply water, or champion, this existing foundation.

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Our health matters

In 2021, Indeed conducted a survey that found that burnout is on the rise with 52% of participants reporting that they've experienced burning out within the last year (1).

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An article on the survey states:

This is likely a reflection of workers’ struggle to find work/life balance during the pandemic: 27% of all respondents are unable to unplug from work, whether due to an inability to take time off or a lack of clear boundaries between the workplace and home [...]. Various stress factors also contribute to feelings of burnout during the pandemic, from finances, with 33% worried about paying monthly bills, to health concerns, cited by 25%.

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Wellness programs are not enough

Currently, most workers' best option depending on the company, is a wellness program, but wellness programs are not enough. A 2019 Harvard Medical School study shows that workplace wellness programs had no impact on overall health, sleep quality, nutrition choices, health markers, or health care usage. These programs also failed to improve basic workplace metrics such as absenteeism, performance quality, and retention of key employees. (2)

Workers need the proper time and access to resources that will allow them to rest, recover, and heal in order to live healthy, fulfilling lives.

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Support when we need it

We believe that end-to-end developer health includes deep partnerships to serve developers, and part of this vision is the Developer Health Fund. With support from the tech industry and our community, it's our goal to keep open a rotating door of financial access where developers can apply to withdraw funds to support anything that would improve their physical, mental and emotional health.

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What is Developer Health?

Developer Health prioritizes the well-being of technologists in a way that provides the resources necessary to:

Learn more about G2i's Developer Health Mission