A FIFO worker has revealed the hidden costs of working in WA\u2019s mining industry, issuing a strong warning to those considering working in the industry.<\/p>\n
Perth-based scaffolder Jake Shermand claims the industry places \u201cgolden handcuffs\u201d on fly-in-fly-out workers, with people not knowing what they\u2019re getting themselves into until it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n
He shared the warning on TikTok video captioned \u201cFIFO is a scam?\u201d, explaining how workers get addicted to high salaries and are unable to quit when they realise they won\u2019t find a job that pays a similar wage with the skills they possess.<\/p>\n
\u201cFIFO is a trap that a lot of people fall into \u2013 that I fell into,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve never really made decent money in your life and then you get your first FIFO job, you are going to be over the f****** moon.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are making bank and happy, but the slippery slope with that is once you get used to that money nowhere is going to pay you the same money when you\u2019ve got no skills.\u201d<\/p>\n
The British expat, who moved from the UK in search of a better quality of life more than three years ago, urged fly-in-fly-out workers to diversify their skillset, before its too late.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy advice to you, if you\u2019re looking to get into the FIFO industry to make money, use it to make some money and upskill yourself,\u201d he encouraged.<\/p>\n
\u201cRetrain, diversify into something else \u2014 because so many people come into the FIFO industry, never making decent money, then they start making decent money and now they can\u2019t leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old went on to suggest that the real cost of the job only becomes apparent when people leave the industry and are forced to take a lower paying job that can\u2019t sustain the life of luxury they\u2019ve built on a FIFO wage.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo they bought the jet ski and the house \u2013 now you\u2019re stuck working on these s***** mine sites for the rest of your days.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t get caught in the trap. Make the decent money and do something smart with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But not everyone agrees, with the video that\u2019s been viewed over 250,000 times garnering a mixed response in the comments.<\/p>\n
One user was quick to back up his arguments, commenting: \u201cCompletely agree with you mate. Have a goal before you get in, once you\u2019ve reached that goal get out. It is a miserable existence long term doing FIFO\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another user said: \u201cThis is absolutely correct. FIFO is a place to build your starting capital, by working long and dangerous days away from everything you love in your life\u201d.<\/p>\n
Others disagreed, with one person saying: \u201cIt\u2019s not a trap. I worked construction all my life, 5 1\/2 days a week. I now work 6 months a year making bank and loving life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSounds like every other normal working job in the world,\u201d another comment read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A FIFO worker has revealed the hidden costs of working in WA\u2019s mining industry, issuing a strong warning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[323,2908,152,335,464],"class_list":["post-62279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-business","tag-mining","tag-news","tag-perth","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}