Can a Czech-made app boost your office well-being? We tried it

Today, Oct. 10, is World Mental Health Day – and this year, the global theme is mental health at work. A finding this week from the Czech National Institute of Mental Health (NUDZ) that mental health problems cost the EU “billions” of euros (and Czechia’s economy and workforce millions of crowns) shows the importance of tackling this crucial – yet often unseen – illness.

According to NUDZ director Petr Winkler, while there are examples of good practices and policies for protecting workers’ mental health, as well as solid evidence showing the benefits and cost-effectiveness of workplace mental-health support programs, most employers in Czechia and Europe still lack adequate support. 

In some cases, when companies become aware of problems like low productivity or high burnout, they often turn to quick fixes that don’t actually help. 

But is there another way to deal with intense work stress? Expats.cz staff members tested an alternative solution that could help employees: a Czech-made self-help app that aims to boost your mental state and well-being – VOS.health.

Made back in Covid-crisis-era 2021 and available in nine languages, including English, Spanish, and Ukrainian, VOS tracks and improves your well-being by offering a multitude of features and options, ranging from mood journals, guided meditation, and AI chat functions, all the way through to ambient music and helpful articles.  

Amid hectic and full-on days in the Expats.cz office, we tried out the premium version of the app (you can also use it for free) to see just how much it helped us instill calm and peace during tough working days.

We all know the feeling. A high and ever-changing workload, pressing deadlines, tricky co-workers, and an exacting boss can undoubtedly contribute to daily stress. With its myriad of features, VOS.health helps you unpack your busy thoughts. 

Self-reflection is a key focus of the app – as the news editor, juggling various news articles and features can be a handful. VOS’ handy mood tracker let me log my thoughts and self-assess why I felt exactly the way I did after a day at work. 

A daily journal in-app allowed me to document my thoughts, also prompting me with new questions every day, such as: “What is your biggest worry at the moment?” A handy notepad inside the app also lets the user jot down your thoughts and feelings at any time.

This allowed me to look back on the visual-based mood tracker and see the days on which I felt sad or stressed. This helped me remember the cause of my discomfort – and what I did to deal with it. 

Our social media manager also tested the app. She found that VOS considers many external factors that may contribute to feelings of stress and anxiety, which is especially evident during the app's initial short survey. She found that this really personalizes the experiences to offer you work-related help, based on your needs.

And VOS certainly does help users deal with stress – in a huge variety of ways.

I found VOS’ comprehensive library of over 15 different meditation exercises extremely helpful when days just got too much. What was particularly helpful was that the exercises were guided and narrated – as a novice to meditation, this really helped me learn how to properly do it.

Our social media manager found the meditations helpful and suited to specific situations such as work-friend relationships and other sources of stress. 

On a more practical level, she found that VOS’ “Sounds” feature –  a range of calming music and ambient sounds – really helped to focus when noise levels got a little too elevated in the office. The “white noise” soundtrack particularly helped, as did the fact you can play the app music in the background while doing other things on your phone.

She also felt that a whole section dedicated to tips and reminders was great for staying on track with her mental health while in the office. “For example, VOS will remind me to ‘Eat healthy’ and to ‘Practice kind self-talk’ if I ever feel that what I’m doing at work is not up to standard,” she thought.

Our busy graphic designer also tried out the app – VOS’ breathing techniques (in its specially dedicated “Can’t Focus” tab) really helped her calm down during a stressful working day. Each session took her around 90 seconds, which was just the right amount of time to calm down and regain composure at work, she thought.

In the “Can’t Focus” tab, she also particularly used positive affirmations and quotes to help her through moments of difficulty at work. Additionally, she said that the dozens of helpful articles readily available on VOS made her overall more stress-resistant at work.

What really impressed the Expats.cz staff was VOS’ Chatmind function, which uses AI to chat with you. It also remembers everything you’ve ever mentioned, so recalls things, places, and people – this can be very helpful in giving tips.

Our social media manager felt that this feature was especially useful for her – she said that she could literally come straight out of a stressful meeting at work, or just have general feelings of anxiety, and go straight to the AI chatbot for immediate consolation and assistance.

Macrocosmic of the technology, the VOS’ AI is by no means perfect, and sometimes gives overly generalized answers or even misunderstands your work-based problem, offering little in the way of specific help after feeding it details. 

I also found it questionable that VOS refers to it as an “AI therapist” – a term that feels a reach for a general chatbot. However, when it comes to giving quick, practical advice for dealing with office stress, it is an impressive feature – one that will likely only get better as the app (and AI) continue to develop.

Overall, we found that the app was very helpful in helping us unpack our thoughts and giving us practical ways – such as meditation or journaling – to reflect, stabilize, and calm down in our busy working days.

With so many features, we all believed that the user interface could seem overwhelming and even a little daunting to begin with. Our social media manager mentioned that she would not want to use it every day, but that it’s good for those days at work when your mental health feels particularly low.

Another standout point she said was that, unlike some other mental health apps, the notifications are not obtrusive. Around late afternoon every day, it sends a gentle reminder: “How are you feeling right now?” She found that this served as a good way to stop what she was doing at work and acknowledge how she felt at that moment.

Costing USD 14.99 (around CZK 350) per month or, with a current special promotion of USD 38.99 (CZK 902) for the entire year, we believe that VOS is a worthy and cost-effective app to use in order to make you feel better overall at work – and in life.

The main feeling one gets is that the app genuinely wants to get to know who you are and help you based on what you feel and want. This, ultimately, will help you during those dark days at work, which we all sometimes go through.