HR on 'The Ice': in the extreme conditions of Antarctica, there is no place for weak HR practices

HR Magazine, June, 2004 by Ann Pomeroy

Dixon says most employees voluntarily work far more than 54 hours a week, "because it takes an amazing amount of work to keep this place running in the cold and to get everything done. We all volunteer to do dishes, power plant watches, cleaning, carting 'freshies' (fresh fruits and vegetables) or mail, and many other things that we might not normally do in the real world."

RELATED ARTICLE: Like Night and Day

The difference between the summer and winter seasons in Antarctica is, literally, the difference between night and day. During austral summer (October to February), it's daylight around the clock. Your senses may tell you it's high noon, but the clock says 2 a.m. As a result, sleep problems are common, especially at the beginning of the season. To combat this, windows in employee dorms are blacked out at night.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bella Patel, HR project lead at McMurdo Station during the past summer season, doesn't mind the light, and she likes the fast pace and the opportunity to spend more time outside during the summer season.

Clarissa Weir, SPHR, prefers the winter season at McMurdo. During the long, dark days of winter, a light room is available for light therapy, and some people bring light boxes.

Most outside construction is done in the summer, leaving the inside work to be performed during the winter. There is more communication between McMurdo and South Pole Station, as well as with other Antarctic bases, during the summer. New Zealand's Scott Base is only about a mile from McMurdo, so there is lots of interaction with the New Zealanders (known as "Kiwis").

With about 1,100 people on station, plus tourists coming and going, McMurdo gets crowded during the summer.

Weir likes the stable population and the slower pace after the summer people go home, although slow may be a misnomer. The first year there, she says, she worked from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day putting new processes and procedures in place. Still, she came back. "This was too much fun to only do it once," she says.

McMurdo's 1,000-plus inhabitants dwarf the smallest and most remote location in Antarctica, South Pole Station. The population at Pole doubled this winter, from about 40 people to about 75. The extra hands are needed to build a new station that will house employees and science labs in one building.

Pole's senior HR generalist, Andrea Dixon, will spend 13 months at the station. Fortunately, she "loves the cold and the dark."

The unique location tends to attract a certain type of high-performing employee, says Dixon. "They all seem to have an incredible innate drive to push themselves to the limit."

One example of that desire to push the envelope is a South Pole tradition, says Dixon, "which I will most definitely not be joining." Joining the 300 Club "entails employees jacking the sauna up to 200 degrees when it's minus 100 degrees outside and then leaving the sauna and running out to the geographical South Pole and back again."

RELATED ARTICLE: Home Is'a Storage Shed in Spokane'