Tom Mahon

7.00 AM

Each morning differs depending on where I am working. If I am in the office, I will wake up around 7 am, have a quick shower, feed myself and my cat, make a coffee and head into the city. When working from home, I like to go to the gym before work, so I will wake up a bit earlier, and head there to start my day. My commute into the office is quite quick, I will be left and be sitting at my desk within 30 minutes.

8.40 AM

When I get into the office, I connect to the monitor on my “unofficial” desk (We have hot desks, first in best dressed!), and begin to check the emails I have received overnight. I like to also check up on world news, especially in the finance area.

9.00 AM

At 9am I have my first meeting of the day with my manager. It is just an informal meeting as she sits right next to me. We talk about how our nights were, and then we speak about our day, any meetings that are planned and pieces of work that need to be completed soon. Today, we had a few meetings planned, so we talked through what the expectations and any questions I can start thinking of since the last time we met.

9.30 AM

After our catchup, we like to venture down to the lobby of the RACV building to get another coffee. Dave at STREAT produces amazing coffee with a positive externality. STREAT is an Australian charity who strives to educate and feed disadvantaged youth. Proceeds from the coffee that RACV employees and other customers around the area goes directly to funding education programs to become a barista or chef, many of which have been employed at RACV resorts. There is a strong connection with charity right through RACV, much of which I had no idea about until I joined the company, as we like to keep it subtle but meaningful.

10.30 AM

I have my first meeting of the day with some external advisors who are helping on the implementation of one of my projects. These catch ups are usually weekly and bi-weekly, where they update the team on any developments that have occurred, any important information that needs to be found, and any key dates coming up for the project. Usually, they go around the group and ensure all members have all questions answered which I find very helpful in learning how to connect and work together in a team efficiently.

11.15 AM

Occasionally the members on my level will organise a morning tea to break up the day and allow people to chat and get to know each other better. We have gone from cake for a birthday, to sausage rolls, both delicious options which get snapped up quickly!

12.30 PM

At lunchtime, I like to either catch up with any graduates who are in the office, or other colleagues on my level and go out, stretch our legs and breath in some fresh air. The most popular option for lunch is sushi, having 3 sushi spots all within 50m, we are spoilt for choice! We then venture back into the office to eat all together in the café style set-up with an adjoining kitchen. This is a good time to connect with those you work with on a personal level, and I enjoy learning more about RACV just in general conversation, as well as the other jobs that there are in the business.

1.30 PM

Usually, the afternoons either are full of meetings, or no meetings at all. Today, it was the latter, which gave me a chance to work on my current projects, as well as some items of work that the graduate group are completing together. It is very helpful sitting right next to my manager to ask any questions that come up and we can have informal chats which also involves a bit of knowledge transfer. A few of the other grads and I went down and got an afternoon coffee today to break up the day.

4.00 PM

Each day my manager likes to catch up and speak about things that have been achieved throughout the day. We then talk about any plans for the night and wrap up any last-minute jobs that have popped up in the final hour and think about tasks that will need to be done the following day.

5.00 PM

Between 4:30 and 5, most people start to wind up their work and pack to head home.  After work, I like to stay active because sitting and standing at a desk all day can make my body sore. I currently play field hockey, and we train twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, otherwise I will go to the gym if I haven’t already in the morning. Tonight, I am going to the AFL to watch my Melbourne Demons take on Essendon at the MCG.