6.00 AM - Morning
I am an early bird, so I try and take advantage of this, I will often wake up around 6, so get up and dressed, then head to the gym to work out for about an hour, depending on the exercises I’m doing that day. I then go back home, get ready, and make a protein shake.
7.30 AM
I leave my house around 7:30 am, and then walk to the bus stop, which is about 7 minutes away at the Belconnen Mall. After hearing about the work conditions, and location I started researching parking, and the cheapest that I could find was around $10 a day, compared to $3.22 each way, or $2.55 for an off-peak bus ride, I’m spending half on travel compared to driving in, paying for petrol and parking. And there have been improvements to the public transport in Canberra the last few years, so is easier and quicker to access.
8.15 AM
I get off at the bus stop and walk around 7 minutes to work. This usually gets me to my desk around 8:15. When I was based at Health in Woden it would take a bit longer on the bus and be normally getting to my desk around 8:30. One way that I had found to counter that was to catch a bus earlier in the day and use the gym around the corner from work, then I would shower and get dressed there before walking into the Sirius building.
8.30 AM - Start of work
At the start of every day, I will check any emails that might have come in since the time I had finished (starting earlier means that I can choose to leave earlier as well, which gives me more of the afternoon). I also look at my diary in Outlook and plan my day out where I can. If there are any meetings I need to plan and prepare for, or if there were any urgent requests that I need to action. If not I will move on to any BAU or project work that I am doing.
The model that I have been working on uses previous hospital visits, and new estimates from the States and Territories to allocate the amount of funding that the Commonwealth will contribute to pay up to 45% of hospital funding at a growth rate of 6.5% per year. This is done with several intermingled excel workbooks, as well as a SAS model. We use the two different methods to be able to check and cross verify the outputs that we are giving to ensure that the correct amounts are allocated.
Some of the updates I have been working on lately are to incorporate an exemption for Highly Specialised Treatments, such as chemotherapy. This is to ensure that these are being funded in full for two years from the commencement of the hospital/state offering this type of treatment so they can help service Australians better and potentially start providing a service that they wouldn’t have previously been able to offer.
To do this I have been modelling a number of different scenarios and ways of applying for this exemption in the excel model. We are trying to find the best way that will work reliably, estimate any redistribution of unused funds, and be easiest to import to the SAS model. I really enjoy doing this kind of work as it requires abstract thinking, brainstorming, and working with others, and is very rewarding when you manage to find a way to do it effectively.
There are times though when this can get a bit much and I need to move from this task to another and let my brain rest or keep processing in the background. I might go for a walk with another team member to get a coffee, or progress on other work. Such as updating the model for the next month, as states can resubmit their estimates a number of times throughout the year, so we make a copy of the model for each calendar month that we get updated estimates.
I have also been asked to do some additional projects that the team doesn’t get much time to do, this includes making a BAU calendar to help estimate workloads and corporate needs. And a trend analysis of the different State and Territory estimates this way we can more easily see if they estimate numbers that are higher or lower than anticipated and work with the jurisdiction to correct anything before it affects payment.
9:30 AM - Meals
In terms of timing for the day, due to the flexible ways of working it is all up to me. Depending on if I have managed to make it to the gym, I will eat breakfast around 9:30 am, as I don’t often get hungry until then.
1.00 PM
I will then also eat lunch around 1 pm, every office has its own lunch/break room, at the offices I am currently at there is a full kitchen, including an oven and stovetop, as well as two microwaves.
We all sit at a big table, and there are additional couches, so people tend to eat lunch around the same time and meet in the break room, where we can all talk and catch up about outside of work things.
2.00 PM - Afternoon
There are occasional meetings to discuss the progress of the work with different levels of staff, this is more to ensure that the work is following the best path to a useable output rather than me spending a lot of time creating and working towards something that won’t be helpful, efficient, or achieve it’s desired effect. At the NHFB these often take place in the afternoon, so when I know they are coming up I can ensure that they are in a format that I am able to share them in.
In the role, I am currently in I manage most of my day and spend the majority of it working towards completing projects throughout the week rather, this works best for me as I am able to spend 2-3 hours working closely on something to ensure that it is done properly, and means that I can work around breaks, meetings, and training.
4.15 PM - End of day
Towards the end of my workday, which is usually around 4:15 pm (8 hours after I start), I will ensure that everything is saved, that I have replied to any emails or calls as required and pack up my desk. I then leave and walk back to the bus stop, and am generally home by 5 pm.
This is good because this gives me plenty of time in the afternoon to clean the house, cook (which I really enjoy), spend time with my partner, read or otherwise relax. And some nights during the week I have plenty of time to play sport, we have an indoor soccer team amongst the graduates, go for a walk, or make it to the gym/do some stretching at home if I am sore or didn’t get time in the morning. I typically go to bed around 10 pm and will read for a bit longer in bed as a final wind down to the day.
Weekly
In my current rotation we have team meetings twice a week, once on Monday in the office, and once on Friday. The Monday one discusses anything big happening that week, and if there are any improvements that we should look at incorporating. At the Friday meeting, we walk to the local coffee shop, have a bit of a debrief and wind down from the week.
In addition to this, we also have branch meetings on Tuesdays to find out what the other teams might be doing. Ad-hoc catch ups with the CEO or other members of the team to discuss different models and adaptations that we are trying to do or any discrepancies in outputs.