Category Archives: FIFO Newspaper articles

Porn and the impact on relationships

I’ve read and heard quite a bit about porn usage and fifo workers over the past two years of my research. In fifo forums across the country and chat rooms put up by the good people at fifofamilies questions are being raised about the issues associated with the use and sometimes the over use of pornography. One executive of a large mining company told me that some men change jobs and sites because there is no or limited access to online material. This he suggested was an issue of access to porn!

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My research work of late has led me to investigate the impact that the new era of porn is having on families and our children. Of course this issue is not unique to fifo families but the difficulties of separation and distance make the issue of sexuality and how to manage it potentially more problematic for fifo families.

Here’s an article about the issue that might be of interest to some.

http://thehartcentre.com.au/sex/watching-porn-how-normal-is-it-when-is-porn-an-addiction/

Do you have a story to share about this issue?

 

 

Retention Rates new Research out of University of Queensland

The Centre for the Social Responsibility in Mining has recently published the findings of a research project undertaken by the University of Queensland. The study surveyed 286 FIFO workers employed in the Resources sector. 40% of the respondents were women, 70% had university degrees and of this small, well educated cohort a whopping 70% said they would probably change jobs in the next 12 month period!

What is most interesting about the findings is that the majority of the respondents reported that they were happy with their work environment and their roles. They were on the main happy with their accommodation and in general the roster or swing that they currently worked. So why then would 70% change jobs within the next 12 months?

They mentioned – More privacy for after hours down time, Better internet and telephone access, career advancement, better or shorter rosters and for some more money – as the main reasons why they would change jobs within the next year.

These findings echo a newspaper report only last week that suggested the privacy, down time space and an ability to communicate with loved ones ALONE was the biggest issue for most FIFO workers.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-08/fifo-quiet-time/5009744

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Surely with the national broadband network weaving its way around the country we could make these FIFO work sites more fully internet and or phone accessible. Or perhaps, resources companies could do their part to make this small thing (access to home base) easier for the FIFO workers and in doing so save themselves and the industry millions of dollars that is currently spent on facilitating job changes.

The extensive report

Factors Linked to the well-being of Fly-In-Fly-Out (FIFO) workers

is a welcome addition to the research on and about FIFO workers in Australia.

http://www.csrm.uq.edu.au/publications/476-factors-linked-to-the-well-being-of-fly-in-fly-out-fifo-workers

Have you changed FIFO work lately? What are the factors that drove your change? What do you think are the main issues for FIFO workers and their families? Let me know so I can continue to explore these important issues. Thanks

 

Victorian FIFO workers are growing in numbers

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On Tuesday 17th September the Age Newspaper in Victoria ran the story below entitled “Mobile workers in full flight ” in which they highlight the shift toward mobility in the Victorian workforce. As per the report around 14,000 Victorian workers are now FIFO and this number is on the increase daily.

Simon Johanson the reporter from the Age called me to discuss the issues faced by FIFO families and to clarify some details about the issue before he wrote this article. The week before Simon called I sent a feature article I’d written about FIFO Family issues to the Age and although they did not publish my article I am encouraged and grateful that Simon was willing to not only call me to discuss the issues associated with FIFO work but chose to include a discussion about supporting FIFO families in an article that is fundamentally about changes to the commuter traffic in and out of Essendon Airport. Well done Simon!

Mobile Workers in full flight – The Age Newpaper September 17th 2013

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/mobile-workers-in-full-flight-20130916-2tveh.html

Simon Johanson

Ballarat worker Leigh Brown’s shift starts as soon as he steps on a plane.

When the former construction worker lands at Newcrest’s Telfer mine in the Pilbara, Western Australia , four hours after boarding a small jet at Essendon Airport, he’s well into his two-week stint.

Now an exploration drilling supervisor , Mr Brown is one of an expanding group of fly in, fly out (FIFO) workers who represent a social shift towards an increasingly mobile workforce in Australia’s eastern cities, despite the resources downturn.

Mining companies Newcrest and OZ Minerals began the charter shuttle service out of Melbourne 18 months ago to ferry workers three days a week direct to the mines. The flights avoid bottlenecks at Perth’s airport and save the mines significant sums, cutting down employee travel times – for which most are paid – and using skilled workers in the eastern states.

‘‘ It’s an untapped resource,’’ says Scott McMillan, the managing director of the listed Alliance Airlines whose 31 aircraft fly 300 mining-related flights a week across the country.

‘‘ The mining growth has settled down but it’s not going to go away,’’ said Essendon Airport’s operations manager, Graham Weir.

When Alliance’s 70-seat Fokker jet arrives in Essendon, it is twothirds full of miners headed for Telfer’s Pilbara goldfields , having departed from Brisbane and stopped to pick up in Orange, NSW.

Most of the 1500-strong workforce who fly into OZ Minerals’ Prominent Hill open-pit and underground copper mines come from South Australia, where it is located, spokeswoman Rachel Eaves said. But about 20 per cent live on the east coast of Australia.

Melbourne-based Prominent Hill project engineer Leidy Alvarado is one. ‘‘ I can leave work at three o’clock and be home having dinner with my husband by 6.30,’’ Ms Alvarado said. ‘‘ This gives me much more quality time with my family,’’

About 5 per cent of Melbourne’s 14,000 long-distance commuters head for the country’s nine main mining regions, the Minerals Council of Australia estimates.

The long-distance lifestyle can have a negative emotional impact on families of mining or corporate commuters left at home.

Change specialist and FIFO documentary maker Linette Etheredge said: ‘‘ It’s a social and cultural phenomenon we have to actively address.’’

Staying in touch with an absent partner was one of the most difficult aspects of the FIFO lifestyle, said Fairfield mother of two Emily Van Roo, who recently set up a FIFO Families support group.

Some 213,733 Australians commute long distances to work, half of them in resource-related jobs.

‘‘ It’s a hard way to make a living,’’ Mr Brown says. But the rigours are somewhat offset by free meals, a golf driving range, indoor cricket, pool, bowls, squash court and gym at Telfer’s mine site.

‘‘ You always look forward to having a real meal at home,’’ he said.

sjohanson@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Copyright © 2013 Fairfax Media

Are you flying in and out of a smaller regional airport? Has this shift away from a large domestic airport in one of our capital cities helped to cut down your travel time? How has this impacted your time with your family? What do you look forward to most when you get home?

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An innovative approach – prostate cancer and Dr’s check up

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Liz Jelley works in the mining industry and she knows better than anyone that men make up the majority of the mining workforce.  Liz Jelley also knows that simple conversations can change behaviour and that out of family tragedy something innovative, practical and powerful can happened.

Liz’s father Lance lost his fight with Prostate cancer in May this year. Before her father Lance died, he teamed up with a group of men to come up with a slogan that might encourage other men to get to the Doctors and have a check up long before he did.

Lance came up with the slogan “Be a man and Get a check up”. Now his daughter has worked to get this message out there and in a practical and effective way this message will start to make a difference in several work sites across Queensland as it appears on the ever present high vis work wear. A new range of visibility work shirts will carry the slogan “be a man and get a check up” and will soon be released by Barcoo Workwear and the Prostate Awareness Research Foundation across mining sites in Queensland.

http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/beamanandgetacheckup-fifoworkertalksprostatecancer

Liz and Lance’s idea is a great way of getting the message out there in a simple and clear way. Great that it was designed and developed by a man who knew the issue so intimately but sad that this process came from a man who did not/would not go to the Doctors because he was “well” and perhaps left his visit too late. What an enormous act of courage and generosity from Lance who knew his fight was over but wanted to make a difference. What a brave and generous act of courage from a daughter who will always grieve for the loss of her dad but has used this loss and his own words to make a difference to other men.

Finally, on a subject that affects all of us FIFO, Non FIFO, men, women and children I share a blog about one man’s journey with prostate cancer. This man was 49 when diagnosed. At 52 he has turned to writing as his innovative approach to a life threatening illness that the medical profession have now said they can no longer help him with. For his own sake and for the sake of helping others this courageous man, much like Lance, is giving back the best way he knows how. He is sharing his heart, his experience and his pain and his realisations in the hope that his words help at least one other person.

http://philblog100.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/how-did-this-all-start/

What is your innovative approach to an issue you or your family have experienced? Do you have any ideas that could be used to get a conversation going in an innovative way? What message do you want to send out into the world and why?

FIFO Footballers?

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Last week the article below appeared in a North Queensland paper. FIFO Footballers is the story of one player, David Glossop’s decision to fly in to play a game of footy at Mt Isa on Saturday morning and then fly back out again on Sunday to be home for work the next day.

In fact what the article is about the opposite of what FIFO workers are doing. While David is flying in and out for the love of the game most FIFO workers are doing FIFO in order to keep bread on the table and their families afloat. But there are some ideas here that I think are interesting.

http://www.northweststar.com.au/story/1724501/fifo-footballers/?cs=191

This article and the ideas presented within it raises a question about labels and how we as a culture use labels to help us understand things. FIFO is clearly a label that is helping many industries describe the increasing need for mobility in their workforce.  Where as in David’s case the journalist is using FIFO as a way of describing how one player chooses to travel to and from the game he loves. In the past would David’s actions have been described differently or not at all? Haven’t footballers been flying to and from interstate games for years without them being labeled as FIFO?

This leads me to ask the question does the use of the phrase FIFO help us to understand that for people like David the decision to FIFO to and from his football commitments is done so with a duel sense of necessity and a little trepidation at having to travel so far in order to do what he feels he needs to do/loves to do while at the same time leaving behind his family who he also loves and wants to be with?

I became interested in FIFO and its impact on the family because as an idea it helps to focus a broad discussion and attach some inferred meaning around the issues of work, family, relationships and children that no other label thus far has done quite so succinctly.

Through exploring FIFO and its impact on the Family a range of common family, relationship, work/life balance, management of the children, dealing with stress, women doing too much, depression and male suicide issues can be explored. For me and the work I am doing as a researcher, writer and documentary film maker the FIFO label is a helpful umbrella from which to explore issues around support for the FIFO family and the family in general.

Discussion around practical family support and the important work of raising the children and managing the domestic life is almost non existent in this country. There is also limited discussion about the enormous economic and social impact of this invisible work and,  except for in the FIFO debate, it is not a topic of discussion anywhere.

In fact the family management issue both inside and outside FIFO workers’ lives is one that needs urgent recognition, further research and open discussion that will facilitate a willingness to share ideas, solutions and potentially make our  jobs and our lives as men and women much easier. As more and more families have two parents working full time jobs, where does the support for families come from if it is not even acknowledged nor discussed as an issue?

The idea that admitting we need help to develop ideas around processes and policies to ensure that all workers, FIFO, domestic, or otherwise feel supported, valued and acknowledged should be our aim. If labeling something helps us to acknowledge a need for conversations, ideas and potentially solutions at an individual, community and government level then bring on the labels.

When no longer needed perhaps we can dispense with using such label but in the mean time if they help us understand the complexity of our modern work and family lives then why not use them?
What labels have helped you? Is the issue of family management something you are working on in your household? What ideas and suggestions have your family come up with to ensure that all members of the family, workers, children and carers are supported and nurtured?

Can vulnerability help us to be strong?

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This week yet another man who lived in my community took his own life. I am still reeling from the tragic story of a man who could not / would not face the world any longer and left it in the most sudden and horrid way possible. This tragic tale which I heard on the weekend still shocks me to the core – more so -because this occurrence is now not unusual and in fact death by suicide is the number one killer of men under 44 in our country.

How have we as a nation got to a state of such male silence and despair? How is it that our men have become so afraid to speak about their fears, their loss, their pain that so many feel only able to hide in death? What do we tell the children? What will the young children whose father is now gone think/do with their feelings of loss, sadness and despair?

How does this relate to FIFO you may be asking? As reported several weeks ago in the post RUOK? the issue of depression and suicide in FIFO communities is of great concern and a new campaign RUOK? has been launched to address this epidemic amongst Australian FIFO men. For something immediate I offer up today two TED Talks about the issue of vulnerability and shame which in my mind address the issues of why men and women to a lessor degree remain silent. Could it be possible that vulnerability is the key to strength in human beings?

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame.html

To end on a positive note this week another study has been announced that will try in its own way to address the health issues both physical and emotional of FIFO workers and FIFO family members.  Curtain University’s Dr Hoath said ” Mandurah and Busselton in WA were chosen to be the focus of the research for their high volume of FIFO workers and because both areas had submitted reports on the issue to a Federal Commission.”  He also emphasized that it is not only the adults who are suffering. Saying that  “children of FIFO families were more likely to suffer from depression or anxiety and often missed out on schooling to spend time with a returning parent or guardian.” See the report at:

http://www.mandurahmail.com.au/story/1677013/new-study-airs-health-fears-for-mandurah-fifo-workers/

With such a large number of studies being conducted things will change. With growing support organisations like FIFO families opening up more support groups across the country and men beginning to take up the challenge of talking about the issues that they face we can make a difference to not only the lives of our men, our children and ourselves but also our whole community. Let’s do our bit to change the conversation in our homes, our communities and our work place by asking a man or a boy each day – are you ok and waiting silently til they speak.

I’m thinking of getting some bumper stickers made up promoting the new conversation I made up around this issue.

“Aussie men talk about their feelings – that’s a good thing for them and their families.”

What do you think? Do you think it could make a difference? Can you get your man to start talking? Can you make it part of your work place culture for men to talk and potentially then see the link between vulnerability and strength? Let me know if you are already working on this issue in your home, your company or your community.

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What is happening with the House of Reps recommendations for FIFO?

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Is this picture an accurate image of what might be happening in the offices of those government officials who should be looking into the 21 Recommendations handed down by the Standing committee on the impact of FIFO on Regional Australia?

The very unhappy national member for  Riverina, NSW, Michael Mc Cormack might suggest so. In an article in the Whitsunday Times this week he is so disillusioned with the response to the recommendations that he is reported as saying “we compiled a great report, with really serious problems addressed, and it’s probably sitting on a shelf in some government office gathering dust.” Mr Mc Cormack is clearly frustrated and annoyed at the lack of action that the report’s recommendations have received. As I read this quote I hear some sadness in his words too.

In preparation for this week’s post I re-read the 21 recommendations and in truth felt a wave of sadness as I realized that there are only 3 of 21 recommendations that focus on the impact of FIFO on the family. Given that FIFO workers all have families and therefore the impact on the FIFO worker and the FIFO family is significant to not only them but the industry as a whole – it saddens me to know that the first and only government report on FIFO has spent so much time and attention on fringe benefit tax issues, zoning issues and data numbers NOT the people who make FIFO happen.

Why is the focus of this report so lightly touching on the essential issue of the humans who work the whole industry? What does this lack of human interest say about our government and our culture? How can the people who make this workplace practice a reality day to day be so sidelined and invisible in the whole discussion? I don’t have any answers but the good news part of this post is that a lot is happening in response to the 3 recommendations that focus on FIFO workers and their families.

I’m happy to report that although no public data has been released about government commissioned research on the effects of FIFO on children and families the university sector has taken up the call.  Recommendation 8 & 10 appear to be the focus of a growing number of research projects being conducted across the University sector; they are listed here in no particular order and I’m sure I’ve missed a few but here’s a start;

Dr Cassandra Dittman at University of Queensland, The Working Parents Research Project;

http://www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=26142

Natalia Brunetti at Australian Catholic University;

http://www.fifofamilies.com.au/_blog/Blog/post/research-request-fifo-wives-partners/

This study seeks to examine the impact of work-related absence (FIFO) on mental health outcomes of homebound partners, and the individual factors that contribute or hinder adaption into a FIFO lifestyle. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/56GQ7PT

3 Current surveys being conducted by Murdoch University;

http://www.fiforesearch.com/

Dr Greg Willson at Edith Cowan University is investigating the holiday/leisure behaviour of FIFO workers and their families;

http://www.fifofamilies.com.au/_blog/Blog/post/fly-in-fly-out-to-bali—research-request-ecu/

Do you know of any other surveys, research or work that is being done in this space? Have you participated in any of the research and if so what has been your experience? Please let me know by commenting today.

Positive steps start with simple acknowledgement

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When the impact of FIFO is affecting a community to such an extent that the community is acting and educating itself to help manage that impact then two really positive and important things are happening.

1. Individuals and their issues are being acknowledge, considered and taken seriously.

2. A collective of individuals and or groups have worked together to address and create a program that deals with identified issues or problems.

When some FIFO kids started to miss out on school every third Tuesday members of the FIFO support community and an innovative school principal from WA’s Comet Bay got together to work out a solution. Support organization FIFO families worked with Principal Matt Osbourne to develop and deliver a program that address issues seen in the FIFO families at Comet Bay Primary School. In a school of 1,000 kids the numbers of FIFO kids is today around 300.

The wife of a fly-in, fly-out worker Anne MacKay with daughter Lucy, 10, talks to Comet Bay Primary School principal Matt Osborne about the new link the school has made with the FIFO Families WA network.Anne MacKay with daughter Lucy, 10, talks to Comet Bay Primary School principal Matt Osborne.

This pilot program was launched last month and is destined to be the first of many workshops that address the very serious issues faced by partners who stays at home to care for their children and run the household while the FIFO worker is away.

As this vital yet largely invisible army of unpaid workers (mostly women) gets the acknowledgment, recognition, support and education they need – to stay physically and emotionally well, do the job of managing children/household and support the FIFO worker all at the same time, – things will improve for all, the stay at home partners, the children, FIFO workers, the family, the community and the industries who employ FIFO workers.

When recognition, support and education is given on an ongoing basis we can all do a better job.  When we extend that notion outside the workplace to include our schools and most importantly our family home all individuals become empowered.

Principal Osborne said something that has a deep lesson for all of us and resonates with last week’s post about asking are you ok?  He said;

“There are lots of challenges that people don’t talk about, those challenges are what isolation and stress do to people, and mental health is the cornerstone to all of this — if mum is not right, the kids aren’t right,” he said.

“You cannot deal with education in isolation. The FIFO lifestyle affects a fair proportion of the community and I think as a school we want to get a greater understanding of where people are coming from and the challenges that they have.”

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/article/17694720//

When we acknowledge and support someone we are all acknowledged and supported in some small way. Acknowledge, Consider, Create, Communicate.

Who can you acknowledge and support today? Has giving free, empowering acknowledgement and support helped you in your life? How?

RUOK- “Aussie men talk about their feelings – that’s a good thing for them and their families”.

Are you OK? It’s a question that is so simple but is often so difficult to say. If I think deeply about the resistance surrounding this phrase it becomes clear to me that the question is almost always a direct reaction to something that is seen within the face of anther person. Some thing we see compels us to ask and poke our nose into the private world of someone else who is suffering on some level such that we can see it!

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If I see someone and that someone looks distressed, distant, anxious or fearful I will pick up on that body language and sometimes ask the question. I do this knowing that I may get the brush off but at times I don’t. When I don’t get the brush off from the question Are you ok? (My interpretation is usually ..Is everything ok?) I sort of brace myself for what’s to come.

I know that often being asked the question R U OK ?  is the first time the person has had to address whatever is troubling them, or perhaps it is the first time the person has been challenged to admit that something really is troubling them, or perhaps it is the first time they have felt a genuine interest and a moment of trust that allows them to reveal whatever it is that is troubling them.

Regardless of the reasons for the question the direct communication itself is a life line for so many.  For me it has helped me get through tough days when loaded down with little children and the responsibility of juggling all the balls was overwhelming me and no-one in my immediate world seemed to see my state of confusion, trouble or exhaustion.

Usually, it’s someone slightly removed from my inner circle that asks the question and I’ve found that the courage of that question has on a given day helped me get through a tough time. In addition many good and ongoing friendships have started from a known but sort of outsider who had the courage to ask Are you ok?

I’m thinking about this today off the back of a new campaign launched last week by Wendall Sailor, Rugby player, suicide prevention campaigner for men and ambassador for the R U OK? Foundation which is intent on making this question normal amongst men and encouraging them to talk to each other about what is troubling them, how they feel and hopefully to help prevent suicide in FIFO workers.

http://www.roxbydownssun.com.au/story/1661353/rugby-star-encourages-workmates-to-ask-r-u-ok/?cs=1503

The troubling reality is that as reported on the LIFELINE website today stats indicate that suicide is the LEADING CAUSE of death in Australia for men under 44 and women under 34.  In addition, men in Australia are four times more likely to die by suicide than women.

This is a crisis not only for FIFO workers but for all Australians men and women.

http://www.lifeline.org.au/Get-Help/

R U OK? is running a national R U OK? day on THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 21 to raise awareness around issues of men speaking out and suicide prevention. What can we do to change the conversation and get men talking about what is important to them? Can you organize a something, a coffee, an event, a talk fest, a free lunch, a comic look at the issue for R U OK? day?

https://www.ruokday.com/

Perhaps we can all commit to ask someone each day are you OK? Perhaps we can change a conversation in Australia around men and self expression – from one that looks something like “Australian men don’t talk about their feelings, issues or problems”  and create a new one that looks something like…

“Aussie men talk about their feelings – that’s a good thing for them and their families”.

Men who begin to talk are often afraid of feelings they are unfamiliar with. They need lots of support, time, love and care but with time men who express their feelings become more fulfilled as individuals, as partners, as fathers, as workers and as friends.

Have you begun to ask R U OK? Can you get the conversation started in your family, community, workplace or industry that shifts a story men have accepted for generations and helps to create a new, kind of Aussie man who talks freely about what is important to him? Let me know what has worked for you and your nearest and dearest.

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When are industry standards going to extend to FIFO?

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We have industry standards for so many things so when will government and industry get together and mandate for some industry standards in the workplaces where mobility is essential? Will mandating for industry standards actually assist FIFO workers and their families to discuss and plan for the tricky issues that crop up in all families but that seem to be exacerbated in the FIFO/DIDO family relationships?  Can industry and government work with stake holders and FIFO support organisations like FIFOfamilies to design, educate and manage the changes that introduction of such standards would demand?

As FIFO becomes the work practice of more Australian’s across more sectors the need for these industry standards becomes more urgent. In 2010 Dr Anne Sibbel made the recommendations listed below in the findings section of her PHD thesis at Edith Cowan University WA. This important research is one of only a few resent research projects looking at FIFO and relationships. It dispels a lot of myths constantly being repeated in the media about FIFO workers and their families.

Living FIFO:
The Experiences and Psychosocial Well being of Western Australian
Fly-in/fly-out Employees and Partners . Dr Anne Sibbel.

In chapter 8 future directions and final words she notes the following:

“However, there are no whole-of-industry standards
that guide or mandate the extent to which individual companies implement such support
practices. As discussed in the previous chapter, the degree of support provided by
companies to the FIFO employees and their families is dependent on various company
related factors such as size, profitability and location of the mine, individual
manager/supervisor practices and each company’s philosophy and commitment to work
practices relating to the work/family interface. Many Australian families will continue to
choose the FIFO lifestyle, thus it is recommended that the resources sector representative
bodies, for example the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), develop a set of best
practice guidelines that individual companies can use as a benchmark to guide and evaluate
the development and implementation of practices and policies that best support the
well being of their FIFO employees and their families. Similar guidelines have been
successfully developed to direct resource companies’ best practice in areas such as the
employment of women (CMEWA, 2008b) and Indigenous workers in the sector (Centre
for Social Responsibility in Mining [CSRM], 2006), and thus set a precedence for
developing a similar benchmark for FIFO employment. Companies could then use these
best practice guidelines to provide regular training for supervisors and managers on the
effectively managing and working with FIFO workforces.”

Earlier discussions in her findings suggest these desired guidelines would ensure that all new FIFO employees and their families are given information that acknowledges the issues that are associated with the FIFO lifestyle. This information can then be used to assist and or support families  to successfully incorporate the changes in their relationship, family, parenting and home life that the FIFO work practice necessitates.

What has been your experience of the support/standards/guidelines provided by your company to FIFO workers and their families? Has there been any and if so did they help?

This issue relates to the focus of the moment which is FIFO and relationships. Abby Chapman’s research survey once again hit the news this week calling for more participants to talk about FIFO and their relationship.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-22/survey-probes-fifo-impacts-on-families/4834512?section=qld