Heti Tuipoloa

5.30 AM

I am up early in the morning to kick start my day with my morning prayer. I then prepare my breakfast and get everything I need such as my work bag and extra essentials, in my car. From there, I also prepare my gym essentials and work clothes.

6.00 AM

I arrive at City Fitness, my local gym. I normally spend an hour at the gym every morning working on either leg, upper body, heavy lifting, or cardio. This is part of the day that I look forward to the most because it is an opportunity to have “me time” and start the day on a positive note. 

7.00 AM

I finish my gym session and utilise the gym facilities to get ready for work.

7.30 AM

I start making my way to work and face the typical Auckland traffic. It takes just under an hour for me to get to work but as torturing as it is sitting in the Auckland traffic, it is bearable thanks to music!

8.20 AM

I arrive at our amazing Foodstuffs Landing Drive office and get myself a coffee from the coffee machine before I settle down at my desk.

8.30 AM

I start my day off at work by doing admin work. I check all my emails whilst also making sure I accept any meeting invitations that I need to accept. I then jump on teams and start responding to all those waiting to hear back from me. 

9.00 AM

I have my one-on-one ‘Ways of Working’ meeting with one of my senior colleagues. As a new member of the team and a Junior Supply Chain Improvement Specialist, this meeting is one of my favourite meetings to have as I get the opportunity to ask my colleague any questions I have regarding my job and the upcoming tasks that I need to work on. My colleague also teaches me the expected ways of working in the team and the things I need to do to ensure I am performing to the best of my ability. 

9.30 AM

I immediately join my next meeting which consists of people in the wider supply chain team. We discuss our current projects, ticking off plans and actions we have completed and talking through our next steps to ensure we are working towards our projects going live at each of our distribution centres.

11.30 AM

IT’S TASTY THURSDAY TIME!! Once I finish my meeting, I quickly head downstairs to the kitchen area to grab some complimentary goodies. Tasty Thursday is a weekly opportunity for our suppliers in our stores to display the newest products they have recently released into the store, exclusively to Foodies staff at Landing Drive and the support centre. This is a fantastic way for our suppliers to connect with potential customers and for these customers to learn about their products in a more intimate way.

Here we have Proper Crisps displaying their different flavoured crispy chips that are now available in the market. Over the past few weeks, we’ve also had visits from Lewis Road Creamery, Tip Top, Kapiti Cheeses and Whittakers!

11.45 AM

Team Meeting! Every day at 11.45 am, the Supply Chain Improvement Team (SCIT) always meet via teams meeting to discuss how everyone’s morning is going and it is the opportunity for each team member to voice the daily task they have on their plate. I personally enjoy these team catch-ups because it is a great way for our team to connect with each other and discuss anything we need to do as a team.

12.00 PM           

I head downstairs to our cafeteria for lunch. I normally spend my lunch time with one of my colleagues Josh who has been my partner in crime since doing the Supply Chain Internship together and now working together in the same team. Once I finish eating lunch, I head outside of the building to get fresh air before heading back up to my desk. 

12.45 PM

After lunch, I’m back up at my desk and working on completing the tasks that I am yet to complete for the day. Each day, I have a set of tasks that I want to complete before heading home. I also then join more meetings that I have in the afternoon. I normally have about two meetings after lunch and these meetings consist of discussing the phases and timelines of the projects that we are currently on.

4.00 PM

Once I’ve finished all my meetings for the day, I head into the Landing Drive Distribution Centre and visit the Outbound office. With some of the projects I’m currently working on, I’m required to visit the DC and take some of the photos needed for my project. I also love going to the DC because I get to say hi to everyone that I met and had the opportunity to work with during my internship. It’s always good fun reconnecting with the DC team. I don’t see them as often as I would love because I’m always busy in my new role.

Fun fact: Landing Drive DC is the largest DC in NZ and is about the same size as eight rugby fields! So you could just imagine how big it is!

4.30 PM

To conclude my day at work, I’m back at my desk and I continue working on my tasks and adding the extra information I gathered from the DC into the documents that I was working on. One of the tasks that I’m working on is creating a poster that will be in our DC once we go live with one of our projects called Outbound Pallet Labelling. 

4.45 PM

It’s home time! But of course, before I start driving, I make sure to connect my Bluetooth and put on my best playlist which consists of Lizzo, Beyonce, Rihanna, and Bruno Mars to get me through the traffic.

Thinking of experiencing life as a Foodstuffs North Island Graduate? Sign up to GradNewZealand to receive job alerts for Foodstuffs North Island