Managing liminal time in the fly-in fly-out work camp

Abstract

Fly-in fly-out (FIFO) work camps are built and organized to ensure that long-distance rotational workers are fed, housed, and mobilized in sync with the pressing yet unpredictable rhythms of resource extraction. Positioned thus ‘betwixt and between’ the complex relations of work and life (Johnsen and Sorensen, 2015), the work camp is a generative yet hitherto neglected example of permanent liminality (Bamber et al., 2017) and its temporalities. But what does this mean for workers? If camp does the liminal work of managing the temporal challenges of the resource-based mobility regime, how do FIFO workers experience and respond to its ‘in between’ time? Drawing on rare qualitative fieldwork in Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sands, we explain the effects of camp time—disorientation, monotony, and entrapment—and examine the temporal tactics workers deploy to manage those effects, from embracing and disrupting internal camp routines to aligning and syncing with outside and future-oriented temporalities. We argue that workers becoming ‘competent liminars’ (Borg and Söderlund, 2015) of camp time is crucial to the latter’s disciplining function. Our findings call for renewed attention to how liminal places and people mediate multiple and conflicting temporalities, especially in contexts where social time is institutionally harnessed in service of production.

Management Consultants Navigating Competing Systems of Engagement

“…I reviewed literature on liminality between work and personal systems where some interpret management consultants showing full time availability at all times and all places as being in a state of permanent liminality suspended between work and personal systems (Johnsen and Sørensen, 2015). Others claim that those who regularly experience extended periods of liminality may experience mental health issues (Dorow and Jean, 2021). However, those studying flexible working for management consultants found they were able to manage the tensions between work and personal systems and construct a work life balance (Canibano, 2019).…”

“…In their study of a work camp based in an oil field, Dorow and Jean (2021) found, much like a consulting engagement, the work camp is a liminal organization with its own internal routines, rhythms, and rules, a temporal liminal space. They found that those required to stay on rotation for two weeks between visits home experienced feelings of monotony, disorientation and entrapment, They also developed an abnormal focus on future goals such as early retirement, and the high pay they received, which they saw as offsetting the sacrifice of family and personal time.…”

“…They found that those required to stay on rotation for two weeks between visits home experienced feelings of monotony, disorientation and entrapment, They also developed an abnormal focus on future goals such as early retirement, and the high pay they received, which they saw as offsetting the sacrifice of family and personal time. Dorow and Jean (2021)…”

“…In their study of a work camp based in an oil field, Dorow and Jean (2021) found those required to work for long periods away from home develop an abnormal focus on future goals such as early retirement, and the high pay they receive, which they saw as offsetting the sacrifice of family and personal time in a revolving door kind of liminality. There are some similarities with management consultants who refer the high rewards they receive to justify and cope with the feeling of loss and sacrifice they experience when spending time away from personal and family life.…”

“…Bernard (Manager, Achieve) acknowledges that he would have to be in a very demanding board level position to earn an equivalent amount and even though he might not be away from home, he would not necessarily have more family time. However, in contrast to Dorow and Jean (2021) more junior management consultants, rather than focusing on high pay or early retirement, justify the long hours and loss of work-life balance they experience as an investment in career and the prospect of promotion to a more senior grade in the future when they will have more control over where and when they work.…”