FIFO Stereotypes
Photo by Matthew Lister
FIFO workers get a lot of bad press. Do you fit the “bogan, boozy, brash” stereotype?
Most FIFO workers don’t! You’re probably just an ordinary person trying to get a job done.
Impressions of FIFO workers are often based on what people read in the newspaper or see on TV, not what the reality actually is.
People who don’t know any FIFO workers can assume they are “all the same” as those they see in the media. Most FIFO workers don’t fit these images. Onsite you can see that FIFO workers are like the rest of the population: made up of different people, doing different roles, with different ideas and behaviours.
They are all ordinary and diverse people in the community, despite the common fluro clothing and steel cap boots. Stereotypes capture some characteristics of a group, but they can also be misleading.
Some stereotypes of other groups:
- People with disabilities using wheelchairs (when many disabilities are not visible and many people with disability do not use wheelchairs)
- Older people as having poor memories (when many older people are fit and healthy with their memory intact)
- People with mental illness being unusual (when 1 in 5 Australians has a mental illness)
- Women wearing hijab as downtrodden and oppressed when many independent, strong women choose to cover their heads for personal or religious reasons, like some Catholic nuns)
- Gay people as either butch or effeminate (when many lesbians are not butch and many gay men are not effeminate)
Learn more by reading this article on being a FIFO bachelor or by watching these videos:
TED Talks:
Stella Young talks about having a disability and what it means to her
Yoruba Richen talks about being gay and black:
Comedian Maysoon Zayid talks about living with cerebal palsy: