Annie – Business Services Manager

Annie is no stranger to hard work. Proudly one of the first SIP employees, a 20-year working relationship with the firm’s directors means Annie has deep roots in the SIP family tree.

She has grown to love being an accountant. The variety of work, clearcut processes and methodical nature of things help her power through the high-pressure workload, giving her immense satisfaction when everything is balanced, submitted and compliant.

It wasn’t always the dream. 

Annie loves history and dreamed of being an archaeologist, spending her days studying ancient civilisations and how humans evolved. So, when faced with a choice of 3 courses on offer to

her by her family, Annie did the only sensible thing -she chose the shortest one and became an accountant!

Annie worked hard, and like many women only paused when the time came to consider her growing family. Then she worked harder. Stepping away from a full-time accounting career to care for her young sons, while launching her own sole trader business from home. She remembers those years as tough. Taking care of urgent work matters and emails during the day whilst looking after her children and settling in to do ‘real work’ from 8pm – 3am each night. Working as a team with her husband was the only way to make it through. And she did.

Breaking the bias for Annie means equality.

She explains that pausing work life to care for family, or any other reason, means taking a step back professionally. “Returning to the workforce isn’t as simple as taking the train to the city, it takes time to find your place again, get up to speed and get across legislative changes.” She acknowledges that there has been a small shift to make things more equal, but that there is still a way to go. Annie says, “every family is different, of course but women CHOOSE to pause, there’s an innate responsibility to a baby and a mothers’ instinct to provide care if you can. But it shouldn’t be penalised by lack of career progression, pay or super savings.”

According to Annie,

Behind every successful woman there is…

Her own persistence and drive to succeed. Her own strength is what prevails.