Ramon Quitales

7.15 AM

I wake up and start to get ready for work. I check my calendar for the day to see the kinds of meetings I have coming up, so I know how formal my outfit needs to be (even if it’s casual Friday at work)!

8.00 AM

I leave home and begin my forty-or-so minute walk to the Treasury. It’s a nice trek that starts in the bushy suburb and winds through the hustle and bustle of Wellington’s ‘Golden Mile’ before finally ending right across from Parliament. On days that I’m running late for an early morning meeting, I might take a bus… or an Uber if I’m super late!

9.00 AM

I get in and pick a desk next to those in my team that have already arrived. While hotdesking allows me to pick a desk almost anywhere else, I won’t get to exchange quips and witty banter with my team if I’m not with them – and yes, the ability to ask seniors on the team quick work-related questions is a huge plus too!

My computer only takes less than a minute in total to boot up, but it’s still long enough to use as an excuse to make coffee while I “wait”. Within a few minutes, I’m back at my desk with a cup of java in hand ready to check my emails and properly start the workday.

9.30 AM

I now have my first work meeting of the day - a quick team “check-in” where we see how we’re all doing and highlight any urgent ‘need-to-knows’ about any of our respective workstreams. These check-ins are especially useful during Treasury’s very busy Budget period. After the meeting, I feel like a change of scenery and temporarily move from my desk to one of the comfier work pods. I plug in my headphones and really focus on helping to draft up a Treasury Report to provide advice to the Minister of Finance on new Education Budget initiatives.

12.00 NN

I break for lunch and spend it at kapa haka practice. There are many things to like about working here and singing alongside some fellow colleagues in Treasury’s waiata group, Te Puna Wai, is definitely one of them.

1.00 PM

My first external meeting of the day is with a central team within the Ministry of Education where I will need to update them on progress we have made working on the Budget. Even though we work for two separate government agencies, we both have shared interests in helping Ministers decide on the level of additional government investment in Education in the next Budget, and so we work fairly closely and collaboratively as a result. With the rest of the core Education team at Treasury away today, it is up to me to lead Treasury’s engagement during this meeting. While this may be intimidating, I really appreciate the trust that the Treasury places in its graduates to manage relationships with some of its most important stakeholders.

2.00 PM

I return to my desk and reply to some emails from other parts of the Ministry. Other teams at Treasury have also sought some clarification from me around the level of funding set aside for certain tertiary education initiatives, so I reply to those queries too. To get some of these answers, I need to do my own research through browsing Cabinet Office Circulars, joint Ministers’ papers, and asking some ‘wiseheads’ around Treasury for advice.

3.30 PM

I get a call from a Chief Policy Analyst at the Ministry. It’s an urgent question and I take up his offer to meet face-to-face to quickly talk through it. I head over to the Ministry and sit down with him and another senior policy analyst to discuss. Unfortunately, the specific topic is not one I’m overly familiar with, so I offer to go away and come back to them on Monday with a firmer answer.

4.00 PM

It’s 4 pm on a Friday and this is truly the home stretch now. I make some more progress on the Treasury Report I was working on earlier, and I also finish off replies to a few more emails on my to-do list. I can hear the chatter coming from work drinks in the kitchen area, and I head over there as soon as I get the most urgent things off my list that can’t wait till next week. It’s been a long week, but I’m ready for more come Monday!