For a man that supposedly wanted to cut his connections with the Big Bad Royal Family, Prince Harry still appears to be reaping the rewards of his blue-blooded lineage.
Last week, Cockburn discovered that BetterUp, the mental health company that named the Duke of Sussex as its “chief impact officer” in 2021, has been branded by people purporting to be former employees as a “psychologically unsafe place to work” on Glassdoor, a website where posters can review companies.
Posts on the site allege that the leadership “lie, play games, test/watch/spy on employees” and say the company “a pretty nasty underbelly.” BetterUp did not respond to a request for comment regarding the claims.
After some more digging, Cockburn learned that Harry isn’t the only royal with links to the company apparent previous employees branded a “toxic boys’ club;” the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, presided over by the Queen herself, lists BetterUp on its page of “principal funders and supporters.”
The trust, for which Prince Harry previously had served as patron, aims to provide “flexible funding that enables Young Leaders and their organizations to invest where it will have the best effect.” The exact terms of the arrangement — the amount of funding and number of people who will benefit from it — have not been disclosed. BetterUp did say that the initiative is part of a “’Pledge 1%’” movement, under which BetterUp donates 1 percent of its coaching to communities.”
Less surprisingly, Cockburn found that BetterUp is also listed as a partner of the Invictus Games foundation, Prince Harry’s charitable, not-for-profit organization. Upon the partnership, Harry announced that he was “honored to bring the work we do at BetterUp to Invictus and look forward to expanding the support systems that service members and veterans depend on to achieve remarkable feats.”
But given the contents of the Glassdoor posts about about the company, Cockburn wonders if the veterans involved with the Invictus Games might be better off without the involvement of a company that has been described as making staff “uncomfortable and living in fear.”
Since leaving the British royal family, Prince Harry has been more HR than HRH. Cockburn wonders what steps the prince, who is billed on BetterUp’s website as level with its founders, is taking to investigate the “impact” of the behavior alleged on Glassdoor…
