The Fly-In-Fly-Out Lifestyle is known to add much more pressure on families and couples who live this way. It is a fact that the FIFO life can add strain to couples relationships and cause a number of concerns for both the worker away and the partner at home. There is an increased risk of relationship breakdown, infidelity and suicide. Some families cope extremely well with the work/life/family balance while others do not cope so well.  There are a number of reasons for this; some couples may not have families yet, have a good set of coping skills and understanding between them and communicate well and regularly while others may have family with kids at home, they may have little time for communication due to parenting responsibilities and possibly work themselves, they may have already headed down the road of resentment because there is little communication, intimacy and openness and possibly both possess more dysfunctional coping skills. In a FIFO family couples have to work harder to make their relationship work and make more effort than normal and this can be hard sometimes, especially if each feels resentful already.

I provide Counselling to Couples and Families who may be struggling with the FIFO lifestyle and want to learn appropriate ways to keep communication and intimacy working and also offer telephone Counselling to FIFO workers on site who often don’t have access to services to support them when they are so isolated and may also not want to make it obvious to either their partner or work colleagues that they may be struggling a bit. So through booking a telephone appointment they are free to access Counselling with me via phone privately in their rooms. Whilst working away and depending on the length of the roster, they may experience feelings of isolation, loneliness, feelings of mistrust and resentment towards their partners, fatigue and exhaustion which only heightens those feelings and even suicidal thoughts as well as feeling a bit of a loss of connection or identity when returning home and not needed or loved when they see their presence doesn’t feel required. Workers also miss out often on social engagements with friends and family, special events, birthdays, anniversaries; kid’s school achievements and milestones, Christmas and also miss out on affection and intimacy. The stay at home partner may also experience these feelings in reverse as well as the children missing out on the other parent and the constant feelings if loss when saying goodbye, feeling like a single parent lacking physical and emotional support and also struggling to adapt when their partner is home and the change of routine again. Individual or Couples counselling may help your relationship stay on track, keep communication open, loving and supportive, continue to find ways to keep intimacy alive even when distant, keep working as team and make reuniting together again as a family a pleasant and easy transition each time. The most important thing is to communicate feelings to each other and support one another.