Nathan Wisse

6.45 AM

Rise and shine, or so my Hue lights tell me. My mornings start with a short French lesson, and then I'm out the door on my bike (or electric longboard, weather dependent) to work. I use the office shower, grab a piece of fruit from the snack/fruit cupboard, and make some porridge for breakfast.

8.00 AM

It's time to park up at the desk, eat breakfast, catch up on emails, prioritize daily tasks, and have a yarn with my colleagues. One of the great things about working in the Tauranga office is that we are a team of 12, so I have gotten to know everyone well, and we have some great office banter. Josh (the senior PM I work with) and I have an informal WIP (work in progress) catchup to get aligned on what each of us is doing for the day.

9.00 AM

I am working on two projects, one in the construction phase (a mixed-use commercial building within the CBD) and another in the pre-construction phase (seasonal worker's accommodation on a horticultural orchard). Josh and I are currently preparing an NZS 3910:2023 construction contract for our seasonal workers' accommodation project. We'll be the first in the Tauranga office to utilize the new revision of the standard to make sure we have considered all risks, approaches, and special conditions; Josh and I jump on a call with one of RCP's internal advisors and one of the directors for a quick workshop to sound out our reasoning and processes. One of the great aspects of RCP is the cross-office interaction, allowing us to leverage an extensive knowledge base. It is important that Josh and I are well-informed before presenting our approach to the client for approval.

10.00 AM

Project management is a very dynamic job. Different urgent items pop up each day that need to be resolved quickly. But between reacting to work that pops up, I have been creating a high-level project budget for my project in pre-construction to share with Cuesko (a local quantity surveying company) for review before we advise the client. I currently work with two different clients; both are Iwi Trusts. I spend some time digesting advice from the external project team to provide the client with a clear outline of feasible design or product options; depending on the item's scale and importance, I will schedule a team meeting with the relevant parties to workshop solutions.

12.30 PM

Lunch varies a lot for me. A typical lunch for me would involve playing squash with some colleagues, watching sports on the TV in the lunchroom, or having lunch with a client between meetings.

1.00 PM

We have our fortnightly site meeting, so Josh and I host the project team in the office board room. The site meeting is a platform for the consultant team and contractor to work through the key technical issues and provide an update on the project to the client. I capture the meeting minutes and participate in the discussion for sections of work I've been working on.

2.00 PM

After the meeting, I head to the site, a 10-minute walk from the office. Health and safety are big parts of RCP and our roles in project management. Any health and safety items to report during the site visit can be easily captured and uploaded to the system through RCP's app. I walk around with the main contractor's project manager and discuss the current issues on-site and progress in more detail.

3.00 PM

Park back up at the desk for the afternoon to start working through the actions from the site meeting and producing the meeting minutes for distribution. The project team is currently navigating a Building Consent amendment process. One activity for the afternoon is calling the Tauranga City Council building consents team lead to work through a key issue and close out Council’s Request For Information (RFI) requests.

5.00 PM

I'm done for the day. My evening activities vary depending on the day but generally always include some form of sport. On Tuesdays, you'll find me playing volleyball. On Wednesdays, I have three futsal games, one of which is an RCP social sports team. One benefit RCP offers is a monthly fitness subsidy. Tonight, however, we have our monthly office social event. Tonight, we are going for the mid-winter Xmas partner's dinner followed by cocktails; previously, we have done white water rafting, paintballing, go-karting, and tennis.

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