I want to open up the discussion about mental health in the workplace

With DrupalCon Europe 2020 approaching fast we wanted to introduce our speakers at the conference to our readers. Who are they and what do they do at 1xINTERNET?  Diego Costa is the Director of Business strategy at 1xINTERNET and at the conference he will talk about mental health and how it affects employers and employees.

From Brazil to Canada to 1xINTERNET

Who is Diego Costa? I grew up in Brazil, but moved to Canada with my wife in 2007, when we were in the beginning of our careers. Now we have three children, 2 girls aged 9 and 5, and 2 year old boy, all born in Canada. We moved to Germany in 2019, and have been living in the Taunus region since we arrived, which we really like. I have been  working remotely or from our office in Frankfurt since joining 1xINTERNET in January 2020. While still in Brazil, I did both a Bachelors in Computer Science and an MBA in Project Management.

What is your role at 1xINTERNET and where did you work before? My title is Director of Business Strategy, but I really play a variety of roles at the company, spanning sales and delivery. I have the opportunity to actively work with clients from the moment we first engage during the sales process, until we deliver the solutions we promised, which is very rewarding. Before joining 1xINTERNET, I've spent most of my career working for two companies: Compasso UOL in Brazil and Thinkwrap Commerce in Canada (which became Pivotree after being acquired in 2018).  During these 10+ years, I was focused on the delivery and sales of eCommerce solutions for a variety of customers in North and South America. At Pivotree, I was the VP and General Manager for our SAP Customer Experience practice, responsible for all aspects of that business unit.

Employee engagement and the possibilities to see the company grow

Has anything surprised you starting to work at 1xINTERNET?  The main reasons I decided to join 1xINTERNET were the focus on employee engagement, exciting projects, and the prospect of helping the company to grow. The team is very talented and we deliver high quality solutions to our clients. Even though we focus extensively on Drupal and React, the projects vary greatly from one another, which makes the work quite interesting.

Has working during a pandemic affected you? I was used to working remotely, so that has not affected me that much. I've been able to go to the office from time to time so that has been good. I was looking forward to meeting more team members throughout the year, which was not possible, especially during the planned company retreat in Iceland, which had to be cancelled. I also didn't have the chance to visit our offices in Conil and Berlin, which I was looking forward to. But in 2021 I hope that will all be possible :-).

Being open about mental health is important for every workplace

Now you are going to be talking at DrupalCon Europe, what is your session about?  My session is titled ‘Being Open about Being Human’, and it’s about mental health, and how it affects employers and employees. I’ll be sharing my personal journey dealing with depression and anxiety, some of the symptoms to pay attention to, the impact it has on people’s lives and their work performance. I’ll also be sharing some examples of what companies are doing to provide a healthy environment for their employees. For me this is important topic and has affected even more people during this year, so I encourage anyone that is interested in learning more about my Mental Health journey to join my session, or just feel free to ping me on LinkedIn or Twitter to chat if not attending the conference.

Why this subject? Because it’s something personal that I care about, and to try to break some of the stigma around being open about this, as it is something that happens to a lot of us.

The passion about Drupal and the community is charming

Have you attended many DrupalCons? I started working with Drupal in the end of 2019, and attended DrupalCon Europe in Amsterdam last year and the virtual DrupalCon Global this year. You can see people have many stories to tell from previous conferences, and everybody seems to have a lot of fun. Hopefully we can have in-person conferences again in 2021. One of the things I noticed while attending DrupalCon in Amsterdam was the sense of camaraderie, and passion about Drupal, and sharing the knowledge with the community.

DrupalCon Europe 2020 

When: 8-11th of December

Where can I buy tickets? You can buy tickets on the event's webpage

When is Diego's session talking place? Tuesday the 8th of December at 10:30-10:50 UTC

Name of the session: Being open about being human