Employee engagement and emotional exhaustion of fly‐in‐fly‐out workers: A diary study

Abstract

Objective: Although fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) work practices are widely used, little is known about their impact on the motivation and wellbeing of FIFO workers across the course of their work cycles. Drawing from the job demands-resources model, we aimed to test for the within-person effects of time of work cycle, job demands, and job resources on emotional exhaustion and employee engagement at 3-day intervals. Method: A total of 52 FIFO workers filled out three or more online diary surveys after every 3 days of their on-site work roster. The survey consisted of items drawn from previously validated scales. Bayesian hierarchical modelling of the day-level data was conducted. Results: Workers, on average, showed a decline in engagement and supervisor support, and an increase in emotional demand over the course of the work cycle. The results of the hierarchical modelling showed that day-level autonomy predicted day-level engagement and that day-level workload and emotional demands predicted emotional exhaustion. Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of managing FIFO employees' day-to-day experiences of job demands and job resources because of their influence on employee engagement and emotional exhaustion. To best protect FIFO worker day-level wellbeing, employing organisations should ensure optimal levels of job autonomy, workload, and emotional demands. Practical implications, study limitations and areas for future research are outlined.

Mental Regulators of Shift Employees in Diamond Mining in The Far North

“…The appearance of these properties and unfavorable functional states causes a decrease in labor productivity, efficiency, leads to errors in the workplace of fly-in-fly-out workers (Albrecht & Anglim, 2017;Korneeva & Simonova, 2018;Langdon et al, 2016). The human organism react to negative environmental factors variably, therefore one of the most promising ways to reduce the negative effects of the Far North is an approach that takes into account this diversity not only at the physiological, but also at the psychological level.…”

Differential Analysis of Adaptation Strategies of Fly-In-Fly-Out Personnel

“…Previous studies have established that the professional activities of fly-in-fly-out workers in the Far North and the Arctic require the creation of conditions for physiological, psychological and sociopsychological adaptation (Adams et al, 2019;Albrecht & Anglim, 2018;Khasnulin & Khasnulina, 2012;Korneeva et al, 2017;Korneeva & Simonova, 2018;Mette et al, 2019;Miller et al, 2019;Vojnovic & Bahn, 2015). Activities in extreme conditions impose special requirements on the professional adaptation of workers, which is due to a combination of many adverse environmental factors and the unpredictability of stressful or emergency situations (Velasco Garrido et al, 2018;Mette et al, 2018;Gardner et al, 2018;Rebar et al, 2018;Sibbel et al, 2016).…”

Drivers of Employee Engagement in Global Virtual Teams

“…Meta-analytic evidence shows that motivational processes through job resources such as autonomy, task variety, feedback, training and development, participation in decision-making, co-worker support, and supervisor support are positively related to employee engagement Halbesleben, 2010). There is also meta-analytic evidence which states that job demands such as work overload, role conflict and ambiguity, emotional demands, can adversely impact employee health, wellbeing and performance (Albrecht & Anglim, 2018;Alarcon, 2011).…”