Over the past two decades, the Fly-In/Fly-Out (FIFO) workforce within Australia has consistently grown fuelled mainly by the resources and healthcare sectors. Today a lot of people would personally know a family member or social acquaintance who is employed in a FIFO role.
Without any doubt, missing milestones in your children’s lives because you are away as a FIFO worker is a punch to the guts. The school awards, sports finals, Christmas lunches or the opportunity to play tooth fairy are events sometimes missed. However, for many a FIFO family, these are the agreed trades made for achieving financial outcomes.
Australia’s FIFO Workforce
Workforce estimates put Australia’s FIFO workforce at approximately 100,000 people, with most employed at sites in Queensland and Western Australia. Whilst the age groups of people working in FIFO roles are broad, typically younger tradespersons and professionals enter this work arrangement.
Researchers from Central Queensland University and the University of Queensland have explored the experiences and support needs of parents and partners of FIFO workers in a recent research paper.
FIFO Effects on Children
Overall, parents in this study voiced that their children were coping well with the FIFO adjustment. Child resilience and their development of life skills were identified. One parent noted,
“it’s made them more self-sufficient and able to look after themselves”.
Some parents noted behavioural changes which coincided with the FIFO parents’ departure date, and in also in the days after arrival home. Emotions of irritability, moodiness and clinginess were observed in some children.
FIFO Effects on Family Relationships
A mixture of positive and negative attributes was described by participants in relation to how FIFO schedules impacted on family relationships.
A key positive was the block of time at home when on ‘days off’ that afforded FIFO workers the opportunity to spend with their children.
FIFO workers would also attend domestic and school activities and assist more with the children. As one FIFO worker said,
“…previously when I haven’t worked away from home, I’ve probably taken my children for granted more so, where I wouldn’t spend as much time as I probably should have on weekends. Whereas now, my main focus is spending more time with them. So that is going to their sporting events or spending more time with them in the backyard and playing with them, or even the PlayStation and things like that. So, making more of an effort to spend more time with the kids. Yeah, I prioritise that a lot more now”’.
However, almost two-thirds of parents stated that being away made it harder to build a good relationship with their children.
Some couples reported that being physically reunited had the positive effect of increasing feelings of togetherness. As one partner remarked,
“It has been a struggle. But it’s made us stronger as partners because we’ve had to deal with a lot of stuff”.
FIFO Effects on Parenting
Discipline– the development of parental consistency regarding discipline and managing rules and expectations with the children was identified as a difficult aspect of having a FIFO lifestyle.
Some at-home parents noted that the FIFO parent could be more lenient and not as strict with household rules and guidelines. One parent remarked,
“He is a lot more lenient on them than I am… he probably feels guilty or something that he’s not home all the time”. However, some parents noted the opposite, “well, you haven’t been at home you don’t know what they’ve been through this week, stop being so hard on them”.
Other parents in this study reflected on the need to promote consistency with parenting the children,
“We learnt after a while that the rules of the house are her rules and they’re the rules. If we stick with them, she won’t have problems when I leave”.
Routine- similar to the discussion on maintaining rules and discipline; keeping ongoing household routines was also vocalised by parents. One parent explained,
“I sort of said to him, “I love that you’re home, but I have the kids 24/7 so I have a routine and I have a system. You, kind of just, have to walk through the door and slot back into it for me”
Single parenting- for the at-home parent, solo or single parenting was raised as a major topic.
Some parents spoke of the emotional and psychological toll of juggling parental responsibilities with both work and study needs with limited support. These situations were heightened if a child was sick, or a health crisis arose.
Managing Transitions
Preparation for when the FIFO parent returned home was seen as a priority. Many families would ensure that no additional household tasks be required as they were aware the FIFO parent needed to rest and unwind in the initial days back home.
The at-home parents were sometimes comfortable and pleased to ‘hand-over’ domestic and child-related tasks to the FIFO parent when home. This seems to be a more than acceptable arrangement by both parents in order to facilitate a time to refresh and have a break.
Communicating with children about when leave and return dates was common and was seen as a safe way to manage the FIFO transition for children. As one father noted,
“I have to make a big deal of it, you know? You have to let them know the day before. You can’t just spring it on them and say I’m leaving today. They wouldn’t handle that at all”.
Managing Separations
Maintaining contact between partners and children was a high-priority with telephone and video-calls used by all parents.
Maintenance of home routines was seen by half the parents as key to helping the family unit adjust and cope with the separation. One mother said,
“Tea, bath, books, bed. That’s how I’ve worked it since they’ve been two. If you don’t have a routine you’re stuffed.”
Social support from family and friends was seen by some as critical to coping when their partner was away. For those parents who didn’t have strong social supports- the home-life difficulties seemed to compound,
“I think, as I said, the hardest thing is not having family around. That’s the hardest for me anyway”.
Real Men’s Health Takeaway
Most parents in this study reported that their children adapted positively to the effects of FIFO separation. Children were observed as developing resilience and self-confidence.
Honouring the schedules and routines of the at-home parent was seen as vital to ensuring continuity of boundaries in respect to children.
