22 years at AAB

After finishing my Secretarial Studies course at college and looking to start my working life, I wasn’t 100% sure which direction I was going in but having always been a people person, I knew the right job would need to involve meeting people on a day to day basis. After trying various jobs in offices, Reception seemed to be the perfect fit for me.

I had worked in a few offices doing Administration and Reception work and after working in a role within the oil industry for 6 years I decided it was time to try somewhere different. In 1999 the opportunity arose for Full time Reception to join AAB, and here I am 22 years later!

During my 22 years, I got married and had my son, who is now coming up for 16. AAB have been there every step of the way for me and have always been so supportive with the challenges that come with working and being a parent. I have always had the understanding and flexibility from them to be there for my son, especially in the early years for school events, parent nights, sickness, holidays and so on.

Over the years, I have met and made friends with so many colleagues and clients that will be friends for life. I’m often the first person they see at AAB and you spend so much time with them every day building a relationship, sharing your highs and lows, giving support to one another and you realise they are so much more than just a colleague.

And as you can imagine, over 22 years I have seen plenty of change: 2 office moves in Aberdeen, 4 new office locations, trainees I welcomed on their first day now sitting in the senior management team, celebrating birthdays, babies, weddings, retirements, you name it! The time has absolutely flown by and I can’t believe how different the firm is since I first joined.

Before the pandemic my role had changed to Front of House Co-ordinator, a role that would involve me evaluating and improving our client and visitor experience in the office, meeting and greeting our visitors and making sure they have a warm and welcoming experience so they would be happy to come back time and time again. This was something I was really exciting about and couldn’t wait to get started.

Unfortunately soon after, the pandemic hit and here we were working from home, which is very challenging in a Front of House and Receptionist role! However, I was pleasantly surprised at how well everything was put into place by AAB and how smooth everything became. I was never very good with technology but here we were having Teams meetings, online coffee catch ups, department get togethers and even the “Christmas night in”. It was so amazing to still have fun with the people we missed so much on a day to day basis.

Fastforward 18 months and I am now back in the office getting used to the changes that have come since Covid, but its great to see clients walking back through our doors again and having the interaction with colleagues again, something that we have all needed.

I am now looking forward to seeing what the future holds in the coming years at AAB after what has been a really exciting year.

By Anna Fergusson, Front of House Co-ordinator