Josephine Richardson,
Britomart People.

Yes I am. I grew up in Takapuna, then lived overseas for a while, and now live in Devonport.

It’s 12 minutes on the ferry. It’s a lovely way to switch gears between home and work, and then work and home.

I do human resources at Westpac. 

I always wanted to be in business, but I didn’t want to do the numbers – I wanted to be involved in the people. While I was at Uni, I was working for the company that previously owned Northern Steamship and and I said to my boss, “You need an HR manager and it should be me.” And he said, “Okay.”

I honestly think it does work. I mean, my situation was that I’d worked with them for years and we had a level of trust, but the hiring manager is a vulnerable position because you want the best, and you don’t know what that is necessarily, so sometimes it can be reassuring to be told. 

Westpac has lots of lovely people. And they do lots of things over and above what might be expected. What I like about Britomart is that it always feels like it’s growing. I feel like New Zealand can look around aesthetically and be very proud of what this place looks like, because it’s cared for and it feels collective. It’s a tiny little transient-but-secure community.

Amano. I love it. 

I really love going to the Waitakere Ranges, and the west coast beaches. I would love to live out there. I went to Anawhata for the first time recently. It was like being on the set of The Piano. There were no houses where I was… it probably looked exactly the same 100 years ago. I thought it was a very cool place.

I have very strong opinions on this! Transport. And I know that’s a boring topic, but building more and more roads is not sustainable. We have a harbour that could service so many other people in terms of their commute. Like, Devonport shouldn’t be one of the only viable places to live to get to work by water. There should be way more up the harbour, they should do the bays. And then give me more trains. Get it across the harbour bridge. To the airport. Get it working. It doesn’t have to be like this. I’m so passionate about it because I know I’m not the only person who’s had these ideas, yet something keeps standing in the way, and it’s so frustrating. Almost everyone I work with spends an hour getting to work every day, and an hour getting home, in their car. It’s bad for the environment, it’s bad for their well-being. It’s bad for their connectedness with other people. 

Variety. Friends and family. Invest in that, and fun happens. I need to invest and instigate more stuff, and then things happen. 

Marie Kondo’ing my wardrobe. It gives me such a great sense of achievement. And I like planning things that I’ll never get around to doing. I never execute them, but I do like to plan them.

I’d like to work for the United Nations on some kind of project that brings countries or people within countries together to work on global initiatives. I’m not even bothered about what the initiative is. It’s the planning and the bringing people together. That’s what I like.

Clothes and dining. 

So many things. Working here is particularly good-slash-bad for that. I love buying clothes, they bring me joy. And bright lipstick. I love Trelise Cooper’s shop Coop. They have a brand in there called Holy Chic and it’s all one size, and fun and affordable. And there’s new stuff all the time. The whole shop is my answer.

I get enormous satisfaction from connecting people, work-wise, project-wise. 

All the people who work at World. I love going in there. There’s a lady with pink and purple hair who always has excellent outfits on. And there are these two elderly people who do Tai Chi in the Britomart building every morning. They’re adorable.

Connectedness. That’s what I think anyway. That’s what the meaning of my life is.