LGB employees and their experiences of fly-in/fly-out employment in Western Australia

The challenges associated with working in the mining industry are both physically and psychologically demanding, impacting work and life satisfaction, job performance, relationships, and general daily life. While there have been studies dedicated to analysing the growth and impact of FIFO employment across various disciplines, from psychology to social sciences, and public inquiries that have addressed fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) practices on workers, their families and local communities, these have solely focused on detailing the experiences of traditional two-parent heterosexual FIFO families. There has been an absence of research on the experiences and well-being of FIFO employees from minority sexuality groups, such as those from LGB backgrounds. Employee sexual orientation in the mining industry has generally been an area overlooked in academic literature due in part to the implied assumption that mining is primarily based around heterosexual male employment. This paper addresses the views and experiences of these individuals and provides an additional layer to previous literature by examining an area of research that is in need of further examination. It highlights the role of sexual orientation in employees' experiences of working in the mining industry under FIFO employment, where employees spend a fixed number of days working in geographically isolated environments followed by a fixed number of days at home. The research reported here is based on a larger study of FIFO work experiences across self-identified LGB and heterosexual workers.