Confessions of a FIFO Worker

With all the current negative reports about the practice of the fly-in, fly-out workforce in the resource sector lately, I thought it was time to tell the positive side of the story. It may be hard for the general non-resource employed population to imagine but some people actually not only enjoy working FIFO – but thrive on it. I’m one of those people!

My family is a FIFO family through and through. My husband of 20 years (but now my ex-husband) has worked FIFO in the minerals sector most of his adult life – 35 years. I have worked FIFO for most of the past 17 years (after being a stay-at-home mum for several years) and our eldest son has been working FIFO in the coal seam gas industry since he was 17 years old, which now has him seeing 10 years in the industry.

Now I know what you are all thinking: “ Yeah but it destroyed your marriage – you are just another of the grim statistics”. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Marriage break-ups happen for lots of different reasons with the general population most probably having an equal average of relationship problems. Statistics can easily be biased to suit whoever is trying to prove a point so I never pay notice to them – no-one has ever polled me on my relationship status yet sources seem to state categorically an exact statistical number of divorce rates amongst certain populations. Only when they do a census on every single person on the planet could they get an accurate figure for statistics on any subject. But instead, statisticians only seem to poll people who they know will skew the numbers in their favour to prove a point.

I started working FIFO in the Australian minerals industry when my youngest of three children started school. My husband at the time was on a rare couple of years working on a job where he was home every night so it was his turn to look after the kids for a change. As you can guess, I found I had two weeks worth of cleaning and washing to catch up on when I got home after each hitch away and I spent the five days I was at home pre-cooking meals for the freezer and forward planning the kids school activities so my time at work soon turned into my holiday time. I learned to love my travel days where I didn’t have to be a mum and housekeeper nor did I have to be a geologist. For one day every fortnight it was pure “me” time. The Qantas lounge became my health spa, an escape from reality. I could relax and read magazines, watch TV without interruptions, eat food that I didn’t have to prepare, cook or clean up after.

For many years before that my husband worked a 12-weeks on, 2-weeks off roster working on drilling rigs in the deserts of WA and the Northern Territory (which was standard for the industry in the 1980’s before the phrase “Fly-In, Fly-Out was even coined). When I first started working FIFO I was on a 2-weeks on, 1-week off roster but I also had a day of travel each side of that which meant I only had five days at home every three weeks. I remember showing my husband my roster with the work days shaded and the “home” days clear and he made the comment: “Gee, you’re not home much”. I’m pretty sure I didn’t even bother replying lol. There is no greater equalizer than making the father look after the kids for two weeks at a time.

My time on that first FIFO contract lasted for an incredible 4-1/2 years at a North Qld minesite and I loved it. After being a mum for several years I was finally being recognized (and paid!) for my intellectual knowledge and dedication to the job. The mental stimulation of the job and the financial reward on payday were drivers that would be a constant force in my life from then on.

So what about the kids? Well of course as any mother will tell you, nothing detracts from your maternal instincts. I would ring the kids every night and keep tabs on what they were doing and what happened each day at school. I have to admit though, after working a 12-hour shift and a workout in the gym after work I was sometimes happy to keep the conversations brief, so I learned that if I wanted to get off the phone quickly then it was best to call home during their favourite TV program. That way whoever answered the phone would give a quick “love you Mum; Home and Away is on so I can’t talk – Chris or Alex do you want to say hi to Mum?” In the background I would hear: “No, tell her I love her”. It seems our lives had all settled into a new “normal”.

After a couple of years of this my husband started working FIFO again so it became a bit more difficult to continue the 2/1 roster I was on. I was able to negotiate a change to a 2-week on, 2-week off roster and for the periods when both me and my husband were away at work we would pay a friend to live in our home and look after the kids. It was a much more manageable roster for me to maintain and I now had lots of time at home with the kids. I had all day, every day, for two weeks at a time to spend with the kids. I purposely never got involved with extra-curricula activities so my time was totally free for the kids when I was home. Of course there is no doubt the kids would have preferred it if I was home all the time but guess what – they don’t need your full attention for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are plenty of kids whose parents live at home all the time but they are disadvantaged in some way. The love you show them whether you are in the same room or not is what matters – not having permanent face-to-face time. Kids are adaptable. Life shouldn’t be rigid.

When the kids were all small and their father worked away for three months at a time, we still managed to make birthdays and Christmas special. The mineral drilling industry always had a lay-off period over Christmas and New Year – mainly due to the wet season in Northern Australia – so Dad was always home over the Christmas holidays. And as for their birthdays well, kids don’t know how to follow a calendar so we just celebrated their birthdays on Dad’s break closest to their actual birthday. It’s easy to call the relatives and ask them to hold off calling with their birthday wishes until a certain day. Why is everyone so hung up on a number on a calendar anyway? If an occasion is so important why is it essential to celebrate it on a specific day just because the calendar says: “this is the day!” Have peoples lives become so inflexible that if you can’t make a celebration on the EXACT day then our lives fall apart and no one loves us or cares about us? Kids couldn’t care less what day you celebrate their birthday on – so long as you do it ONE day! As they get older the date is more substantiated but by this age all they really care about is the presents and attention so they’re happy if they get them, no matter what day it is. It’s only adult influence that forces them into being conscious of it not falling on the exact day it is supposed to. When the kids are preschool age they wouldn’t have a clue if you’re celebrating their birthday on the actual day or a couple of weeks later so why make a big deal of it?

Of course my lifestyle wasn’t without its critics. Many people assume that if you aren’t home with your kids then you’re a bad mother. Judgmental people are only a problem if you let them be – I didn’t.

The main benefit of being a total FIFO family is that our home was never associated with work. There were never the crazy weekday morning stresses of getting kids off to school and getting to work on time only to have to go through the whole stressful process again for the afternoon pick-up and battling traffic to get home then have to prepare dinner, do homework, dishes, washing, and prepare for the next day before trying to get to bed early enough to be able to get up and do it all again the next day. Kids in day care early in the morning till late in the afternoon, road rage in the crazy city traffic, feeling like you’re on a crazy treadmill day in, day out. 

Life wasn’t like that for us. We didn’t have to get to work each morning so it was only the kids that mattered each day. And now that the kids are all grown up and looking after themselves, my home is like a holiday home; there is no routine or racing around on breaks, it’s like going home to my own retreat where my time is my own. No battling traffic each morning, just chilling out and enjoying the fruits of my labour.

For the past 15 years I have worked a mainly even-time roster, which means I have as much time at home as I do at work. Two weeks on, two weeks off or up to four weeks on, four weeks off – that’s six months of the year holidays on an income about twice as much as the average city worker earns by having to work the Monday to Friday grind for 11 months of the year. It is even considerably higher than a geologist who works from a home-based job. And they only get weekends off. I get weeks off at a time – every time!

The real issue is that many people are just not suited to working the FIFO lifestyle. There is no doubt that it doesn’t suit everyone. Society has been conditioned to believe that we should only live at home and work Monday to Friday and have weekends off. Well guess what – that may have been the case fifty years ago but the world is changing. Many people now have flexible working hours, thanks to computers, and can work from home without having to go to an office. That also presents it’s own unique social challenges. The workplace is a stimulating environment so suddenly finding yourself at home seven days a week with no academic or social interaction can also present a stimulus for mental health disorders. My point here is don’t blame the job. Certain people will have a predisposition for mental disorders so they should make sure they are in harmony with their work situation. 

I saw a man in Perth airport on one of my trips to work wearing a T-shirt with the slogan: “FIFO – Fit In or F*#k Off”. Now while I agree it was a bit harsh a statement to make it’s probably making a very valid point. If you don’t enjoy the lifestyle then you shouldn’t be doing it. And that goes for any form of employment.

My 27-year-old son and I were discussing this subject recently and he mentioned how one of his old school mates (who is not involved in FIFO work) mentioned the recent media attention to suicides in the FIFO community. He enthusiastically told me how he answered his comment by saying that he loves working at the mining camps. He told his mate that it’s like being back at school with the lads and laughing over a smorgasbord dinner about the events of the day and then hitting the gym together and pushing each other in their workouts before hitting the sack in the camp room that’s been cleaned for you while you’ve been out all day. It’s clearly what you make of it.

For me, a mother of three kids, it’s like a holiday camp. Now working in the offshore oil and gas industry, I have three cooked buffet meals a day, fridges full of desserts, bowls of fruit, soft drink and ice cream available for the taking. There’s no cooking or dishes to wash up. When I go back to my room the bed has been made and the room and ensuite bathroom cleaned. Before I go to bed I place my dirty work clothes from that day in a laundry bag on the floor outside my door and when I wake up in the morning the same clothes are washed, folded and placed back in front of my door ready to wear again. I’ll spell that out for all of you mothers out there – NO COOKING, CLEANING OR LAUNDRY…EVER!! No having to worry about what I’m going to cook for tea when I get home from work – imagine that!

And to top it off I’m helping make decisions that will hopefully contribute to the successful drilling of a well that could be worth over one hundred million dollars in some cases. And if you are on a successful well then you get the added bonus of seeing a stock market press release announcing the results of a drilling program that can ultimately influence the company’s share price. Seeing the share price of the company you have been working for jump by $2 after announcing the successful results of a well you have been involved in drilling is a fantastic feeling. It’s like the icing on the cake. It makes that free beer in the Qantas lounge on the way home even more rewarding!

I’m seventeen years into my FIFO journey now and couldn’t have a more harmonious family. I love my life as a single, financially independent female. My ex-husband is my best friend and we have a mutual respect and admiration for each other’s careers. The kids are all independent, well-travelled, well-adjusted and adventurous young adults who know that life is only limited by your own imagination. They know that if you don’t like the job you are in then you change it. If you can’t find your dream job where you live then you move. I’m proud of them and they are proud of me. We recognize that our family is not the “norm” but none of us would want it any other way. We all know that “being stuck in a rut” is never going to apply to us because as soon as we start to think that then we know it’s time for another change.

“Change” is exciting, not something to be feared. Being scared stiff and excited all at the same time is what makes “change” so addictive. Putting yourself on the line and knowing you either have to either sink or swim is what gives you the courage to take that leap of faith and go after your dreams. Challenging the conventional workforce structure is our way of breaking free from the treadmill of traditional jobs.

Just because FIFO isn’t “normal” doesn’t mean it has to be wrong. I know it’s right for me and I’m happy with the direction my career and life has headed and wouldn’t want it any other way.

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Amanda Barlow is a wellsite geologist in the oil and gas industry and also a published author of "Offshore Oil and Gas PEOPLE - Overview of Offshore Drilling Operations"and “An Inconvenient Life – My Unconventional Career as a Wellsite Geologist”. You can connect with Amanda through LinkedIn: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/amanda-barlow-wsg