FIFO career insights from Louis on debt & sinking ships. Louis went from a chef to a scaffolder here in Australia (Part 2).
Episode Transcript:
– That’s the first way to piss the boys off is um But the problem is, cops they don’t.
– Good day, welcome to Fit4FIFO and our second episode, which is Chef to Scaffy with Louis. If you missed the first part, just check our channel and you can check that out. On this episode Louis shares with us the best way he knows to find out about the next job and tells us some of the common traps for FIFO works. Once again you’ll have to excuse some of the language Louis uses to express himself.
– How do you find the best way to find out about the next job for you these days?
– Mates
– Mates?
– Mates and whispers and everyone’s going somewhere. It’s like a sinking ship. At the moment it’s a sinking ship and you know where the rats are going. The rats will be quicker than your call later on, you know. It’s all about those connections and your buddies. You make the decisions. You might want to have a break. You might want to go to the next job. You might want to stay home and see the missus for awhile. Look it’s all possible. It’s just about you.
– In terms of keeping employees happy, what do you think some things that employers might be lacking?
– Oh, keeping them happy? Yeah definitely in camps, it’s not all, the food’s pretty how you goin’. The food’s not always that good. I know they’ve got to cook to a budget but yeah sometimes it’s pretty miserable. That’s the first way to piss the boys off is with rubbishy food. Then it’s the beer selection. God bless working in the WA you know. They’re only drinking light beers. I do like beers too Bill, so my God I don’t think I’ll be following the rats over to WA dick sweet. Here we are lucky to have full strength beer.
– Nice.
– I think a good gym too.
– Yeah definitely.
– A good gym is really starting to. I’ve noticed this one here’s not much of, not very packed full of good gear.
– With working in this industry, I supposed bloke’s get into a routine, get very, I suppose, into it. What are some things that they often maybe forget that may be important in life.
– Oh really. I think some guys lose their sense of their goal, why they’re here. Now if you’re a little bit weak minded, this is what you know, if you’re a little bit weak minded you can be led astray. There’s a few things that guys can get a little bit led astray on. That’s the booze, the drugs, and the ladies. You really need to stay focused. You’re not out here to suffer mate, you’re here to earn some cash and be smart about it, you know. If you’re a little bit weak mate, I’ve seen it many a time, you know, guys just end up on the gear, too much piss and they blow our numbers and it’s failing drug tests and the next thing you know they’re gone. Some of these guys will be best buds, so. It’s really sad to see them down the road. You need to focus a bit and be your own man. Don’t follow the herd.
– For someone in your situation, what would you say would be, could recommend a timeframe to be in this industry to maybe not affect their mental, physical health for too much.
– Oh, that all depends on your mental strength doesn’t it really and what you’re used to and what you can get away with and what you’re happy with, you know. Gee whiz, I’m a very happy chappy. I couldn’t give you a timeframe of how long I could do this. I’ve been in it quite awhile now, living away from home and living away from Melbourne which is a pretty crankin’ town. You get used to it and like I said I’ve got me toys here, you’ve got a dirty DR650 over there, I’ve got me miter box to think about and we’ve just got fishing rods. It’s about being a bit selfish. Timeframe-wise mate it’s all up to you and if you’re happy and you know it stick to it and if you’re not keen when you get some problems you might have to bail.
– Fair enough. How long do you intend to stay?
– Well, once I get the hours from this job or retrench from this job or pink slip, it’s a bit of a holiday for me, since I’ve been doing it for a little while and a well earned holiday. Once I get back, I’ll apply for it again and if I can’t do that I can go back to working in town, fixing the roads doing whatever. I meet a lot of guys in my gang here and the young fellows and they’re thinking scaffolding’s the deal an end all of everything here. They won’t be able to go back and work for like 500 bucks a week. I’m saying guys you’ve really got to get an apprenticeship. You’ve got to have something to fall back on. Because I can always go back and burn hamburgers or deep fry some pies. I can do that. I know how to do it. But some of the young kids don’t have that apprenticeship behind them. They could be anything. Then they can come and be a scaffy.
– Say your best mate comes up to you at work and he says look mate I’m not coping well with this FIFO stuff. What would your advise to him be?
– Well we’d have to talk about what he’s not coping with. Give me an example of what he couldn’t be coping with.
– Let’s just say, his missus is saying she misses him and he needs to be home for kids, but he’s got himself in too much debt. He feels he can’t get out of it.
– He’s in the shit isn’t he. Yeah, a good example there, gee whiz Mike. See being a man with no kids myself and it would be pretty hard mate. Maybe I could lend him some money. I’m not quite sure what I could do about that. He’d have to have a chin wag with the missus and see what was going on. Because that’s partner, I need to have a talk about it because if they’re deep in debt mate, this is the only way it’s gonna pull them out. Going home might not pull them out of debt, at least there to be together, but then they’ll be wenjun. It’s about that goal again isn’t it. Coming back to that goal, smashing it and you just have to have a chat. It’s all we can do.
– Could that be a common scenario situation in this industry?
– Yeah, certainly is. They get into debt, the young fellows get into debt, they buy these cars. But the problem is, cops they don’t pay cash.
– Yeah okay.
– It’s all right earning this money, but don’t take loans for nothing. Just go in there, you want the flash wheels, go in there with the cash. This getting a loan because I can and I can’t wait, no good. Without debt, without that burden mate, your missus and the kids should be okay. Then you’ve got options. With the debt it’s, I see a lot of people making that mistake with the debt.
– Thanks for your time. I hope you enjoyed that. On our next Fit4FIFO episode, we’ll be taking you for a tour through a bedroom in a FIFO camp. The episode after that, we’ll have chicks in FIFO with Kayla. Cheers.
– Yeah that’s what it’s all about.