Zarqa Nur

5.00 AM

My alarm goes off and I’m ready to start my day. This time of the day is my 'me time’. I do a quick home workout, drink my first cup of peppermint tea and get ready for the day. Once the kids’ lunchboxes and breakfasts are ready, it’s time to tackle my first hurdle of the day – waking them up! We run through our morning routine and after day-care drop-off I catch the train into the Cor Cordis Melbourne office.

8.00 AM

I am ready to start my day. First stop – the coffee machine! I then start off by checking my emails, and flagging any emails and tasks that need to be attended to in the morning. I update my task list for the day and prioritise the urgent tasks to be completed first.

I get a message from my director and supervisor that we will be having a team catch-up this morning. Our office was appointed to two receiverships yesterday afternoon managed by our team and it’s important for the team to have a strategy meeting right away.

8.30 AM

In our meeting, we discuss the tasks that were completed late yesterday – essential correspondence that is issued on the first day of appointments. The next step for me is to prepare the remainder of the initial correspondence, including letters to appropriate parties, statutory authorities, and secured creditors.

Given the scope of the appointments, preparing the initial correspondence takes the bulk of my morning. Once prepared I send it off to my supervisor for review, and then finally to my director for approval to issue.

11.30 AM

While that happens in the background, I work on a couple of other tasks requested by my manager. I work in the PCO (Personal, Corporate and Other) team in the Melbourne office. Along with corporate insolvency matters, like the receivership mentioned above, our team handles all the personal insolvency matters in the Melbourne office.

I start by analysing copies of a bankrupt’s bank statements to determine if the income disclosed by the bankrupt can be confirmed by the bank statements. Once I’ve completed preparing a schedule of income-like receipts, I complete an income assessment and draft a letter to the bankrupt to notify him of his income contribution liability requirements. I send that, along with supporting documentation of my investigations, to my manager for review.

12.30 PM

Once my director has approved all the correspondence documents, it’s time to issue. Some notices are emailed, others need postage to be arranged, and the ATO notification will get lodged via the ATO Business Portal. Once completed, I diarise dates to expect responses and prepare a tracking spreadsheet to keep track of all party’s correspondence has been issued to and leave room to update with relevant responses. This way, any member of the team, or office, can refer to the spreadsheet for the status of ongoing investigations of the appointment.

2.00 PM

I look at the time and somehow, it’s time for my day in the office to end? I finalise my timesheet for the day and make my way home in time for school pick-up.

4.00 PM

Once home I do a quick email check on my phone to check on any initial correspondence responses, or any other matters, I need to update my director about – and forward it on for actioning tomorrow. The Cor Cordis flexible work hours are helpful in maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

5.00 PM

We cook dinner, run through our evening routine and before we know it its bedtime for the kids. Once they’re down I’m free to curl up on the couch with my last cup of peppermint tea for the day – and my husband!