“What mattered was my ability to do a good job”

This includes colleagues who care for family members at home, like Peter Oudt, business analyst in Global KYC, who has been a carer for his son for many years. Peter talks to us about how he manages these responsibilities alongside his work, and why he’s never felt like he’s been disadvantaged in his career because of this.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us, Peter. Can you tell us more about your carer role?

As my son was growing up, we had quite a tight schedule on the day-to-day: getting up and out of the house, taking him to daycare, rushing off to work, then always making sure we were back in time to fetch him back home. Lots of other parents will be able to relate to the busyness of looking after children – it’s only that for us, it could be quite intense, as even up to today there are things he still needs help with.

Now that my son’s officially an adult, it’s become a little easier, but my wife and I still give him a lot of support. And because I’m over 60, I can take advantage of an ING policy that allows me to spend one day a week volunteering, so I go to my son’s daycare centre and work with him and the other people there. We’ll also take him to the doctors and to his other appointments, like we’ve always done, which means we often need to be quite flexible with our working hours.

What does that flexibility look like at ING?

It helps that my work is largely project-based, so I can arrange my schedule according to the hours that suit me. But in all the years I’ve been at ING, I’ve had amazing support from managers and colleagues who have never seen my extra commitments at home as an issue. It’s actually this trust and confidence that has helped me to perform better at work.

So would you say you’ve been able to fulfil your role as a carer while also progressing in your career?

I’ve discovered that one does not cancel the other out. Every time I’ve had discussions about moving to another function, for example, my responsibilities as a carer never counted against me. What mattered was my ability to do a good job. I’ve had to manage my time accordingly, like working during the parts of the day that suited me best.

My wife also works for ING, and together we’ve been able to keep the ship running at home without having to sacrifice too much in the office. I even had time to return to education when our son was little and take some evening classes.

What does this year’s IDPD theme of ‘stepping forward’ mean to you?

I think it all starts with raising awareness. Since having my son, I’ve discovered there’s a whole world of healthcare that I had previously little idea about. Sometimes this feels completely separate from the ‘regular’ world, so it’s like our family constantly crosses between the two. To help bridge that gap, it might be useful if people understood just how much goes on outside the office for colleagues with disabilities or medical needs.

As a company, we can ‘step forward’ with a positive attitude, one that says ‘let’s just do it’ when it comes to hiring people with disabilities or neurodiverse conditions. It’s my hope that when candidates look at ING, they see a place where they can feel comfortable and supported, no matter who they are.