Diverse Perspectives - An Employee Spotlight featuring Anthony Johnson

Veritas Perspectives May 26, 2023
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In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, Veritas is dedicated to empowering and supporting our employees in their mental health journeys. 

Here at Veritas, we believe that a dedicated support system is crucial to overcoming hardships.  Anthony Johnson, Senior Tech Support Engineer for NetBackup Core, shares his journey in hopes to support and connect with others who have encountered similar experiences. 

Early in his career,  Anthony had an  opportunity to intern at Lockheed Martin where he worked on mapping for flight simulations. This opportunity led to a  transition into data communications which eventually brought him to Veritas as a system administrator. Just a year into his time at Veritas, Anthony suffered a stroke, caused by rare condition called hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT).  As a result, Anthony experienced short-term memory loss after being in a coma and had to spend two months in inpatient rehabilitation. During his time in rehabilitation, Anthony had to focus on re-learning how to walk as well as restore his memory. The stoke not only cause short-term challenges, but cause Anthony to face long-term challenges such as Aphasia— A loss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage.

Living with a brain injury is not easy, people will often make rude comments about my sudden loss for words or forgetting what I was going to say mid-sentence.” - Anthony Johnson

Anthony encourages people to be more compassionate and patient with others who live with brain injuries.

Patience is key; take the time to understand and help others and don't assume they can do things exactly as you, and at the speed that you can, because everyone learns differently.” - Anthony Johnson

He shares that living with a brain injury has helped him to become mentally stronger and has grown to have “thick skin” and not take things personally when people are critical. When someone makes a rude comment or remark, instead Anthony takes the criticism as an opportunity to educate people on brain injury awareness. This positive change in perspective has been greatly beneficial for his mental and physical health.    

In addition to cultivating a positive mindset, Anthony has taken on fun passion projects to focus on his mental health. In 2008, after his recovery, Anthony started volunteering to bring the Santa Experience to kids in hospitals and to give back to his community.

My wife and I started formulating our goal of a non-profit doing this free for services like hospitals and non-profits...Veritas has a fantastic Volunteer Time Off program that allows you to take paid time off to work on passion projects such as these.” - Anthony Johnson    

Today, Anthony is a member of our employee resource group “Differently abled at Veritas Empowered” (DAVE). He aims to support and connect with others who have encountered similar experiences. He believes that a dedicated support system is crucial to overcoming hardships such as strokes and brain injury. It’s the foundation for maintaining your mental health as well. 

If you enjoyed Anthony’s story and would like to learn more about Life at Veritas, check out our Employee Value Proposition. Learn more about our new DAVE (Differently Abled at Veritas Empowered) Employee Resource Group to give a voice to employees and families of individuals with different abilities.

As part of Veritas’ Mental Health Awareness activities in May, the company is sharing resources and engagement opportunities including webinars, workshops, and a global Veritas healthy and balanced life challenge. The goal is for employees to feel empowered to support their mental health journey and well-being.

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Emily Cai
Staffing Specialist
Human Resources
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