When does a Company become a home? For Debbie Nickerson, it happened pretty quickly, and seventeen years later, US Housing Consultants remains her home.
Debbie joined US Housing Consultants from a temp agency to help with accounting, and nearly two decades later, she’s still part of the fabric of the Company. When she started, she shared an office with three other employees in Concord, New Hampshire.
Debbie recalls her early days with the Company: “When I first started, it was in a tiny little office in Concord, but then it moved into Scott’s (Scott Precourt, the founder of US Housing Consultants) house in Northwood. The house’s furnace would always make this huge noise, and Dan (Dan Biron, now our EVP of Inspections) had to go downstairs and “fix it”. He’d come up and say, Well, I didn’t blow up the place. It was fun, you know – it was small. Working in that office, and being so tight knit.”
A Start-Up Company with a Soul?
Debbie stuck with the small upstart Company and quickly found it was where she was meant to be.
“Even when I first started here, I was shocked that you could feel how much they cared about their employees,” says Debbie. “I mean pretty much right off, within the first couple months, I was kind of like, yeah, this is where I want to be…. Would I have ever imagined that the Company would grow as much as it has? No, but it did.”
Finding a Company that treated its employees like family drove Debbie to turn her job with US Housing Consultants into a career.
“You’re not just a number; the Company cares about its employees, which is hard to do. It’s why I left my last job. Even though that was a small business, too, they didn’t have any heart for their employees, and it was more than just dollars and cents.”
Debbie’s career has taken her from an insurance company to laser manufacturing to a technology company, all with various roles in customer service and business support. Working in affordable housing was not part of her plan, but a chance temp job led her to a career that has become a significant part of her life.
While Debbie loves the fact that she’s not “just a number” at US Housing Consultants, she was, in fact, the seventh employee ever hired when the Company was only three years old. She moved with the Company from the small office in Concord to several larger offices and eventually back to our current office in Concord, which now has a predominantly remote workforce.
Growth Has Its Perks
The small start-up that changed Debbie’s life in 2008 has grown substantially since then, which has not only provided Debbie with a change of scenery but also led to the addition of new co-workers, like Deborah Russell, the Company’s CFO, who quickly became Debbie’s mentor after joining the Company in 2018.
Of Deborah, she says, “She inspires me professionally and personally and has since day one. She’s the ideal mentor for me. Deborah is very knowledgeable and always willing to help me learn new things and become who I am today. She is always willing to train me on new things and teach me in areas where I may lack knowledge.”
The feeling is mutual, too. Deborah Russell says of Debbie, “Debbie is a key member of US Housing and our Accounting team. She excels at every challenge and has successfully grown into the role of Accounting Manager. I look forward to working with her for many years to come.”
The Company’s growth has allowed more talented executives to be added. It also includes leadership focusing on work-life balance and finding ways to keep the family culture that brought her in nearly two decades ago.
This work-life balance has allowed Debbie to explore a true passion: her five grandchildren, ranging from newborn to eight years old. With her now remote position, she can spend more time with her family, from her husband to her expanding roster of grandchildren, and know that her future with the Company remains secure—like a family.
