FIFO life.

[Skids]

David once asked me, in another thread, about FIFO life and its effects on family life and life in general. This article, written by the daughter of FIFO worker, in todays West Australian, brought a tear to my eye.... as I sit here in my little box on A Saturday night, 1000k's from home.

I woke up at 0130hr this morning to an alarm at our Waste Water treatment plant... got back to sleep about 0230hr, but then got woken up by my neighbour having a shower at 0320hr (the walls are paper thin, you can hear your neighbour fart). My alarm went off at 0420hr.

I've driven 350k's (to an aboriginal community & back) and worked a 12 hr shift. Got back to my donga, had a beer out the front with a mate, then got a call at 1800hr for a leak under a basin in another blokes room..... I could go on but this article is a better description.

The FIFO life can be hard on both workers and families.

My Dad has been a FIFO worker for the last 16 years.

When I was a teenager he wasn�t really around for birthdays, Christmases, my school graduation or weekends.

It was hard for us but it wasn�t until I was older that I really understood the emotional toll it took on him.

He�d spend most Christmases on the other end of the phone listening while we celebrated only to go back to his empty room in the middle of nowhere, alone.

When some kids at my new school asked me �don�t you have a dad?�, he says it broke his heart

I asked him why he didn�t just quit and go home to his family.

He explained that he made four times the amount working away than he would at home -- that�s if he could even get a job at home.

�Your family gets used to a certain lifestyle and it�s hard to take that away from them ... besides there�s no work for me back home,� he said

https://thewest.com.au/news/health/the-fifo-life-can-be-hard-on-both-workers-and-families-ng-b88510115z

[partypie]

sending good thoughts your way at the back of beyond

[Bruce Gonsalves]

As a fellow plumber, I feel your pain. Plenty of work over East, but living in W.A. it's probably the best way of making a decent quid, but yeah family life is the offset.

I've got an old school mate living on the Vic west coast, fifoing to northern W.A. oil rigs. He actually loves it. Each to his own I suppose.

[David]

Thanks for posting, Skids � it's a good insight and an issue that probably needs to be addressed much more than it has. People doing that kind of work as well as their families could do with more support.

[ronrat]

My brother and a heap of hs mates got retrenched in Borneo because the coal price is too low. He now flys in and out from Borneo to a gold mine in Surinam. His flight schedule is something like. Balikpapan to Batam. $5 minute ferry to Singapore. Singapore to Amsterdam. Ansterdam ti Instanbul. Instanbul to New York. New York to Miami. Miami to Pariboro. 2 hours flight to jungle and then one hour car ride. It takes near 29 hours. By the time he gets home he is frazzled.And the site is alcohol free and they get half a day off Sunday and head to the nearest town for a beer. (sneaking some back of course).That route is not certain because it is cost dependant. It can take longer.

[stui magpie]

^

Phuc Dat.

What's the work schedule? How many days/weeks of work to how long off?

[ronrat]

[stui magpie]

Again, geezuz. Can I assume the 8 weeks on aren't 7 days per week?

Still, that's a single man's caper and even then I'd struggle with it

[ronrat]

6 days and Sundays on call. Most of the loacals go to church. He is the maintainance boss so if a truck breaks down he sends a mechanic, a diesel fitter or a auto elec. Then back to watching tv or whatever. A lot of the maids, domestics and working girls are from Indonesia as they are both ex dutch colonies and are on a working holiday from Holland. . Speaking fluent Indo is a good start. When I last saw him he had been on a bender on the airways. He got me banned from a local club in Thailand.

He reckons they work so they don;t get bored and end up getting too involved and start buying love shacks etc.

[Skids]

I do like the lifestyle, I have been fortunate enough to be on 'family friendly' rosters, as they call them, 8 days on/ 6 days off for the past 6 years.

I can't imagine what it's like for blokes on 4/1 or other long swings. A mate of mine does 4 weeks on/ 2 weeks off out of a copper mine in Mongolia.

Even on my roster there are times when you get down. This year I'm away for nearly all my families birthdays.

I wouldn't do anything other than an even time roster.

[Morrigu]

Or you could try African FIFO - which actually means walk ( a long long seriously long way) set up your flimsy tent on the side of the road - work and then walk miles back to your tent and rinse and repeat!! for months at a time - couple f the guys we stopped to chat to hadn't been home for 9 months!

[ronrat]

[Skids]

A sad reminder of the struggles that come with FIFO.
A girl who had been here for 6 years, in her early 30's, took her own life in her room on Wednesday night.
RIP Louise

[Culprit]

Very sad.

[think positive]

Gees that�s awful, sorry for your loss.