Tristan Cornelissen

7:00 AM

I get up at around 7 am every morning. Usually, I’ll ease into the day with a bit of TV while my eyes slowly open. I pack my bag, brush my teeth and have a light stretch, at 7:45 am I grab my bike and cycle into the office.

I get in at 8:15 am and head straight into the basement. The building has great facilities and secure bike storage, so I lock my bike up, re-iron my now crinkled shirt and have a shower. 

8:30 AM

I’m fresh and ready for the day. 

First thing every morning is to go over the emails I’ve received overnight. The team I’m currently in works a lot with the London market so I’ll usually get a fair few emails overnight from them. I save the emails that need a bit of service in a to-do file and get started on the easier tasks first.
After answering a few emails, checking my calendar and planning my day ahead, I dip out with a few colleagues to grab a coffee and have a chat.

10:00 AM

By 10 am everybody is in the office with a coffee in their system, so we’ll usually have a catch up to ensure the team is progressing well and who might have capacity to lend a hand out where needed.
The meeting gives everyone a bit of insight into what’s happening across the board, and allows people to collaborate on difficult risks. 

12:00 PM

A lot of people in the office tend to exercise around lunch time to break up the day a bit, I’ve recently started doing the same. I find that I’m much more productive and energetic in the office if I’ve managed to fit in a good workout, so I’ll try and go every day.

Gallagher has a football team that I’m also a part of. We’re in a local corporate competition and play on Tuesdays between 12 and 1 pm. I’ve never played football before so it’s just a bit of fun for me and another great way of taking the mind off work.

1:30 PM

Around this time I usually like to get more extensive work done with the renewed post-food energy I now have. Lunchtime is always relatively slow with regards to emails and calls so I know I won’t be distracted and I’ll get stuck into the meat of the job. From writing up reports, submissions, and quotes to doing premium calculations, placement maps, and invoicing, this is usually quite a productive time in the office.

3:00 PM

The office starts to liven up again and emails and calls start coming in more frequently. 

A second coffee is usually needed for the last couple hours of work so I’ll make one in the kitchen, answer any emails that have come through and if necessary, jump on a few calls with underwriters to see what we can do to get any risks we’re working on over the line.

The large majority of policies we place renew at 4 pm, so depending on what day of the month it is, this is usually quite a busy time of day. Brokers are finishing up binding policies before they expire, and a lot of the final negotiations are done over the phone, which means the office tends to get quite loud around this time and you can feel a real energy in the atmosphere. If it’s renewal day, you’ll notice a big sigh of relief from those who’ve placed all their policies.

4:00 PM

The last hour of work is usually used for tying up any loose ends from the day. I’ll send through some final emails, process and send out closings and invoices, sort out what takes priority for the rest of the week and have a quick chat with my manager updating them on how the risks I’m working on are progressing. 

If it’s Friday, I usually hang around, maybe play a bit of table tennis, otherwise, I’m back on the bike and home by 5:45 pm.