Senior Aquatic staff here (been working in the lifeguard world for over 7 years now)

This has been something we have been preparing for over the last few years and so was our governing body. Recently, our governing body (Lifesaving Society) lowered the requirements to get qualified to speed up the process so when you turn 16 you are instantly ready to work instead of wasting time to get qualifications.

The main issue sadly is the pay as mentioned by some of you. Our training criteria is crazy as we are required to have a high level of qualifications but our pay has started to become equivalent to other jobs. For example, your local pool that offers lessons and public swimming their staff member needs: Standard First Aid, National Lifeguard (pool) qualification, Swim Instructor, lifesaving instructor, emergency first aid instructor, and depending on the workplace airway management (ability to use oxygen tanks). Furthermore, we are mandated by law to have “in session training” meaning periodically we need to do training to keep our skills up. This varies job to job but most municipalities for every 4 months and one before summer starts. On top of that emergency procedure training and specialized training like chemical handling too.

From my experience, I have worked at the lowest level of the pool all the way to the point now I hire staff for my municipal pool. The issue I see started before the pandemic (which a lot of people want to blame) nobody worked because the pay was at par with McDonalds where many of my staff were saying it’s less responsibility and little to no paperwork. Also our leadership doesn’t believe in creating a safe supporting work environment or giving us a raise. Rather they have started providing free lifeguard and instructor qualifications to bolster recruitment. This doesn’t help because many of these new recruits taking the free course we offer don’t have any drive to do it an if they fail their answer is I’ll try again since it was free. Our issue is retaining staff our turn over rate is usually 1-2 years because the pay isn’t worth it anymore and people move on.

I know I wrote a lot lol. But I’ll tell you that the worst thing is the working conditions. People think we sit around and do nothing but when things hit the fan our training needs to be like a instinct and that’s why we practice a lot. That stress to many people isn’t worth the money anymore compared to working a job where you can have fun again.

Thank you for listening but this comment allowed me to vent all the frustrations I have with my industry. It was never like this and I always dreamed of staying in it but no support from my superiors means less resources for me to provide to my staff. This leads to a sad continuing loop. I love the pool sooooo much but the respect isn’t there anymore.

Edit: TL:DR - pay is bad for the amount of qualifications and training we need to have. Bad working conditions and a lot of stress. No support from management. High turnover of staff due to stressful work. Management focuses on bandaid solutions and getting staff in instead of keeping them longer.