I have a theory.Leaving your job can be a pretty hard decision for most remote workers. It's more than just a decision about what job you do. It's also about where you live. Who you spend time with. The daily challenges you enjoy or feel energised by. The new (often strange) experiences you've had.
Everyone knows that life in remote communities is hard, and there is a high turnover of staff. I think since many people could not contemplate making the life decision to move out here and work, it's easy to conjecture that people leave because they don't want to be so isolated anymore.
I could be wrong. But after many years of seeing workers come and go, and leaving once myself, I have often reflected the reason for leaving may be different.
My theory is that people leave more often because of the challenges of working within their particular organisation. It is a reality that very few of the organisations in remote communities, if larger than the community itself, do not really understand or accommodate the needs of remote workers.
Similarly, life in remote communities brings a certain luminous focus to the quality of relationships within the organisation. Having a supportive boss is essential for day to day sanity, as mainstream assumptions and preconceptions clash with daily life. Alternatively, or worse in addition, working with other colleagues in the organisation who do not understand your situation makes life endlessly frustrating.
And sometimes there is just the challenge of dealing with big personalities in a small space. The experience of dealing with challenging people at work cannot be easily absorbed into other quality work relationships. This is because the impact of that one person will be far greater by virtue of (usually) being the main person you have to deal with in that organisation.
I could be wrong. In fact, I'm fascinated to know if I am indeed wrong. This subject is probably worthy of a PhD, but in lieu of spending a few years tracking down ex-remote workers (let's just say, of the Central Desert region), and writing thousands of words on the topic, I'd be interested in hearing from you here.
Here's the opportunity for the exit interview you probably never had...
(Anonymous comments also welcome from those who would prefer to remain so)
6 comments:
As complex as the question is, so too, can be the answer. In my particular circumstances I left my first remote job due to the larger than life personality of my employer, who had taken a shine to me, which I knew was transient and came from an underlying insecurity in her. I intuitively knew it wouldn't last, so when another offer came along, I grabbed it with both hands. And it was a better deal anyway, so basically, a no brainer. That job ticked along relatively well, and due to my work location, I was able to mostly avoid the petty politicking and personality clashes that inevitably emerge in such situations. And I was working for an Aboriginal Corporation, that afforded me a range of benefits that made remote living more tolerable, and recognised the need to leave the community regularly for a 'fix' of all that is not available when one is so isolated. And then the governance changes occurred that changed the name of my employer. Sure, I had a choice to stay or go at that stage, but there was a promise of better things, despite the removal of all the benefits I had previously enjoyed. As it turned out, the only real benefit was the salary package I had mindfully negotiated for myself, but money is not my over-riding motivator. It did, however, somewhat alleviate the pain of being employed by this mob. But it got to me in the end. The decision to leave was multi-facetted. The lack of understanding as to what it means to place yourself so remotely and have longevity in that role and place; the lack of respect for the value and comlexity of the work being undertaken on a daily basis; the personalities and manipulations of the revolving-door workers who came and stayed three months, created havoc, and left. I could go on. Beckoning in Alice Springs was the ability to have a social life, meet new people, put down some roots, live in a house of my choosing, have ready access to services and fresh food. All taken for granted by urban dwellers, but a logistical nightmare when living remote. So it is the entire range of all you have described in your post that has influenced my decision to leave the remote jobs I have occupied. It does, I believe, come down to the organisation and what they offer, their level of understanding and flexibility that either assists or frustrates our capacity to continue. So, thanks for the exit interview, Soph.
The reason I left my two last remote jobs was a mix of professional and personal. There's the thinking that you're living your life for your job ie. if it wasn't for your job you wouldn't be living in that community. They're the thoughts that go through one's mind when sitting home alone at night and all through the weekend bored shitless. The job is good, but the nights and weekends suck.
Another reason is definitely a lack of support from the partner organisation. I did not have any of the basic requirements that enabled me to work effectively anywhere, let alone in a remote location. When you express this to management and you don't get "that is completely unacceptable, we'll fix that right away" makes you question why you're there busting your arse to make these people look good.
The final reason, and it has occurred in both jobs, is there's always at least one nasty, sometimes sociopathic white person that has it in for you. The trouble they cause and the lies they create make work life really crap. You're in a remote location, without support, under-resourced, run off your feet and there's a white person hell-bent on ruining your reputation. Not because they necessarily know you, or because of anything you've done to them, it's that they hate your position, it could be anyone in that job and they'd hate them too!
So out of the three, I'd have to say that the stress the sociopathic white person causes is the most stressful part of the situation and is the one that makes me finally leave. That's their aim in the end isn't it?
On second thoughts, it's actually the lack of support from the partner organsiation in this situation that is the stressful part. If the support coming from the organisation was better and the trouble-maker wasn't being given any credibility, then it wouldn't really be a major problem would it?? The community members usually hate these people, so they're on your side, the main stress comes from trying to defend your reputation to your employing agency.
So I guess in the end it is the lack of support from the partner organisation that causes me to leave (it must account for about 75% of it). When you are being targetted and you tell management this, and they believe the other person over you, on top of everything else that you're battling makes the situation unbearable. Unless you've worked remote, it's hard to believe that there are people like that.
It's interesting as I / we live in a small town now, coming from remote communtys after three and a half years. For us / me we reflect on our time on the lands. To me you can take the remote lifestyle out of the people, but you carnt take the remote lifestyle away from the people! We had no choice due to medical reasons. We found that the challenges we face were based on health issues, due to being non-indigenous. Once again the locals in every community we resided in always welcome us with open arms and support. We found that it was the buracratic politics of power games within white organizations that cause the racsism of divided support within these and properly most remote communities.
It defiantly takes a certain type of character to remain or work remote. In my opinion, when I first traveled to the Gibson then Victorian desert communities. I was Amazed on the vegetation, history and so much more. I found that what I had read and learnt in fact at university and school was a illusion. I feel people who have not encountered remote living are very eluded as to the reality of how it is truly. Your in the hands of mother nature everyday with no aid should anything happen you can just simply perish, yet you can get the wow factor with the amazment of the land, the local people and there art and music.
I would like to add at this point, that living remote can be quite an empty feeling of helplessness. A one shop with bowser and if your lucky a roadhouse, just can be a frustration for variety and once again it's the dictation of power games from organizations on what communities gets what!! With high freight charges and food stock sometimes out of date. Mostly I did my shopping online it was much cheaper, but it's how social networking is operating now, regardless if you live remote. As mention above it was health issues that caused us to leave diabetes, a slipped disc, back issues etc you go to the local medical centre and are refused medical attention because your non- indigenous!! Unless! your dying or it's a emergency, then the racism of the buractical wall created, is then when you will be non- indigenous. The education system also needs alot to be desired on a clear curriculum. On leaving the thoughts, reflections of my time working and living remote I cherish! And have no regrets but hope I can return one day! My final thoughts is there are schools, police stations, a community store, commutiy offices, mining, medical centres, roadhouses, builders, electricians etc, so who's land is it really? and where is the social networking, support and profit going to provide a more sustainable future for all concerned in remote working communities and who really is benifiting from all this?
well, my exit interviews from my two times in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands would have been to request a financial, ethical and cultural practice audit of all the government and philanthropic investments in the region. love your blogs...
Working in the Ngaanyatjarra lands was both the most challenging and yet most rewarding 4 years of my life. As you said Sophie, the isolation was a real factor in choosing to leave. I was torn in my decision to leave. The choice of moving closer to friends and family and working in a different field.... or.... staying in the community, doing what I love but gradually losing connections with others and the lack of social life was very difficult, The friendships I made in those comunities Are something I will cherish forever. No... the departments don't support their remote workers and it can wear you down after a while. I do miss it terribly!
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