Speaking on the Diversity and Inclusivity Finance Forum (DIFF) podcast, Brewer spoke of how being born with symbrachydactyly affected him. Symbrachydactyly is a condition where someone is either born with an underdeveloped hand or one which has not developed at all.
Brewer said this made it difficult for him at school because although he has no right hand, his brain tells him he is right-handed.
This affected his balance growing up and resulted in his receiving poor feedback from teachers.
Brewer was told by his headteacher that he would not be allowed back for sixth form and that he would probably “struggle in life”.
“More than anything, it probably just pushed me on. It made me a little bit more determined to prove him wrong,” he said.
After leaving school, Brewer went for his first job interview at a car sales place. This was his first exposure to what having a disability in the workplace felt like, which he said was the “biggest setback” in his life.
Brewer only had an automatic driving licence and was told this would make it impossible for him to do the job.
He then became a hod carrier, a job that involves carrying materials on building sites which can be adapted for people with one hand.
Later on, Brewer interviewed with Connells Group which gave him the opportunity to join as an estate agent while training to be a mortgage consultant.
Challenges at work
It was then that Brewer faced the challenge of dealing with the public at work.
“Every client meeting you interact with, you have to shake their hand.
“A large percentage of the general public are right-handed… it was quite unnerving for me at 18 or 19 years old meeting 25, 30 or 40 year old people with one hand having to introduce myself and always having to be the first one to say ‘hello’ and hold my left hand out in the hope they wouldn’t look at you peculiarly,” Brewer said.
Because of his disability, Brewer would be uncomfortable when people offered their right hand on the first meeting and would hide his hand under the desk during meetings.
Otherwise, he said his disability did not hold him back as he became the top broker in his region. When he was due to collect an award for this, a now retired director at Connells called Brewer before the event and told him that he would be receiving a certificate, envelope, trophy and champagne.
Brewer said: “I was thinking to myself ‘okay, I can probably handle two of those things’. But he said, ‘don’t worry, I’m going to shake your left hand, I’ll hold this, I’ll hold that, all you need to hold is the certificate and the trophy then I’ll walk back to the table with you and put the stuff down on the table’.”
Brewer said it was the level of detail and care he wanted to replicate if he ever became a manager, adding: “It really was a key moment.”
Re-entering the workplace
Lee Albino (Bino), regional development manager at Shawbrook Bank, had his right leg amputated in March 2019 after a cancer diagnosis.
It started after he was injured playing football with friends and his knee was giving him “grief”. After some rest, Bino went to the doctor then went through physiotherapy and found his injury was not getting a lot better. He then went to the doctor again and found the pain had moved to his thigh, which developed into lumps. He later broke his femur and went back for a check up, which revealed that he had a tumour.
He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a tumour in the bone, which Bino said was “a bit of a shock” as it did not usually happen to someone of his age. He had the option of keeping his leg which he said seemed like the default choice, until he became aware of the risks.
“It seemed like the only way I could actually survive and live is to have my leg amputated which is the way they wanted me to go, which thankfully I did,” Bino said.
Aged 39, Bino went through chemotherapy even though removing the leg from the hip was expected to remove the cancer. He finished chemo early as he was “done with it” but just a week later, the UK went into lockdown because of Covid-19.
When he told Shawbrook about his illness, Bino had an “overwhelming” number of people from the bank come to see him and reassure him.
The company asked what he needed to return to work such as adjustments to his desk and equipment, which Bino said was “managed professionally”.
Once he returned to work, Bino said he always felt included in activities whether he was in his wheelchair, on crutches or using his prosthetic leg. He also said his colleagues were accommodating by asking what he was comfortable with doing when it came to coffee meetings, for example.
Bino said he wanted to learn to walk and was doing “pretty well” with it. He said he had been given a new microprocessor leg where the knee is connected to a phone through Bluetooth.
Inclusive thinking
Brewer said at work, his colleagues would tell him they did not think of him as someone with one hand but sometimes it became awkward when they arranged activities that he could not take part in which forced him to remind them of his disability.
He said their attitude towards him was “great” in general, but people did not always consider that things may be difficult for him to do.
“It’s not their fault, it’s nice that they look at you just as another person,” Brewer added.
He said many things were considered for the masses and accessibility was not always thought about. He said firms in the sector had a long way to go on this.
Brewer added: “I’m not saying that’s wrong because what we can’t do is create a huge event for the minority, but I think there has to be an allowance or something that’s adapted for that.”
Bino said Shawbrook had recently hosted a golf event and it was the first time the company had thought outside the box as it included sessions for beginners and a spa, meaning he and more of its broker partners could take part.
As for what more could be done across the financial service sector, Bino said some offices and venues claimed to be wheelchair accessible but sometimes it was an awkward route, such as the fire exit or an entrance with multiple ramps.
He said more generally, companies should think about what people need and the support or grants available to help them become more accessible.
Brewer said before the interview process, employers should look more deeply at their practices and make sure the job advert is inclusive to show how a role can be adaptable or modified. He also said companies should make people aware if there may be any limitations to them accessing a building or to find out what could be done to accommodate a candidate.
Listen to the podcast [39:10] hosted by Bharat Sagar, ambassador at large at AE3 Media, featuring Lee Brewer, divisional mortgage services director at Connells Group and Lee Albino, regional development manager at Shawbrook Bank.
