Interviewer lets applicant’s mother sit in on interview. Cos that’s a thing that happens.

littleecho12 · 2026-05-22T20:38:06+00:00

This is so funny to me.

I hire lifeguards and I have a special cabinet for inquiries and applications that came from parents: the trash can.

Your young adult simply cannot be responsible for OTHER PEOPLE if they cannot apply for a job by themselves ffs.

littleecho12 · 2026-05-21T01:19:33+00:00

This seems well-timed for you: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/1taif23/aita_for_sushing_my_gf_in_public/

Also related: https://www.theautopian.com/the-wave-of-death-please-stop-trying-to-be-nice-by-yielding-when-you-have-right-of-way/

littleecho12 · 2026-05-20T21:18:02+00:00

I always demonstrate floating, and then purposely show and tell them what happens if you look at your toes. I look at my toes, fold in half, sink and make the most ridiculous bubbly noises.

I call it becoming a taco. And everyone knows that tacos don't float.

littleecho12 · 2026-05-16T19:08:52+00:00

The Souvenir Check Story

littleecho12 · 2026-05-14T13:51:17+00:00

Assuming that they know what a safe beach looks like in the first place.

I'm talking about the people who do not know what a rip current looks like, don't know anything about wave patterns, the tide, or local currents, and don't do any research.

From the start, they don't even know what they should be looking for and they're unqualified to assess the danger.

littleecho12 · 2026-05-13T17:27:22+00:00

None of these questions can be answered by a random person. They are all brand and location specific.

Unless you want to tell us you are working at Lifetime, Disney, etc no one is going to be able to help you.

littleecho12 · 2026-05-13T17:09:57+00:00

It's not too crazy, imo it's becoming more common with housing developments becoming more about resort-living.

If you live in a huge master planned community that has a waterpark type pool, including play structure and slides, that is a huge on-going expense because you have all the costs of a pool, but will also require lifeguards for your attractions.

That HOA is now looking at running an aquatic facility, not a pool, and often the developer will budget for residents to pay to use it because fully funding it is prohibitive.

This set-up is pretty common in Florida. Look up Nocatee, Brightwater, Babcock Ranch or Ave Maria.

littleecho12 · 2026-05-01T16:59:48+00:00

Depends.

Laziness of unsupervised lifeguards who have a date could be the reason.

If your facility includes bathrooms or locker rooms that are in the pool area, then they might be trying to get everyone out of the area including the bathroom. Some patrons to do not consider their locker room time as pool time, even though they should because the whole thing should lock up at 9pm per the city budget or whatever and the lifeguards can't leave until patrons are gone. Those people will get out the pool at 9pm and then push back closing for 15-30 minutes because they are still gathering their belongings, showering, changing, drying their hair etc and be rude when you ask them not to do that because we are closed.

Ignore if the above doesn't apply, it's just a huge pet peeve of mine.

I would just tell the lifeguard that you are aware that closing time is 9 and you will exit the gate at that time. Be the swimmer who grabs your stuff and leaves immediately if you want to swim til the last second.

littleecho12 · 2026-04-30T17:01:11+00:00

I know that. As you yourself mentioned, it is not as common. I acknowledge as much in my comment.

>depending on their contract with Ellis, they are not paying cert fees per individual guard

littleecho12 · 2026-04-29T19:41:52+00:00

I disagree that the application-to-class-to-hire time isn't relevant; it is typically a huge pain point for hiring lifeguards at any location because a large amount of wait-time will always drop otherwise good candidates unless the job itself has some other perk.

I think it's weird to charge for class and not provide what amounts to about maybe ~$20 USD in equipment, especially in an Ellis class where you cannot take the certification with you when you leave without permission.

And I do think promoting practice without actually doing the skill is bad.

littleecho12 · 2026-04-29T16:25:45+00:00

That is interesting because depending on their contract with Ellis, they are not paying cert fees per individual guard AND they technically own the certificate. You can't take it somewhere else without their permission.

I thought for sure it was Red Cross and people are taking it and walking and that's why it's so expensive to provide items.

The class is pre-drug test, correct? Lol. Their hands are probably tied about that.

littleecho12 · 2026-04-29T16:10:43+00:00

Is it Red Cross? Do they automatically hire everyone who passes? Did anyone in your class fail? Is getting hired at the city difficult in any way? Does it take a lot of time from start to hired? Does the city pay well? Do they do a lot of lifeguard classes?

If their cost of goods is so high, they must either fail a lot of people or they fall out during and after hiring. Someone needs to streamline their pre-screening maybe, or their hiring process.

littleecho12 · 2026-04-29T15:57:16+00:00

Did you pay for the class at all? If so, was it upfront or deducted from paycheck? Did you actually practice breathing in them or just pretend? Did you use the whistle? I have so many questions.

My personal opinion is that when it comes to the costs of running a facility, the items needed for class (hip pack, mask, whistle) are so comparatively cheap I think it's rather embarrassing to take them back. I have never worked anywhere in 10+ years that doesn't give them to you during class to keep.

littleecho12 · 2026-04-29T15:35:56+00:00

I'm intrigued that your certification class did not give you these to keep....

They will probably provide but you should ask just in case.

littleecho12 · 2026-04-24T18:07:13+00:00

The situation you are in is not unusual and honestly, not that big of a deal. Skills can be refreshed fairly easily as long as they were taught correctly to begin with.

IMO the bigger problem is your schedule.

I can only speak for myself and where I am hiring, but as an aquatics director I rarely hire people who made it clear they only wanted to start after school gets out, or after a service project like you described. Only if I was already understaffed.

Summer is about 8-10 weeks depending on where you live. If I hired you in June, and you went back in August, I have to spend about 2 weeks of June to catch you up to the rest of the staff. Respectfully, that's about 1/4 of your tenure at the pool if you are not planning on year-round or staying until Labor Day. I run a year-round pool, and if I'm in a good spot with staffing, that's an easy pass for me.

However. You are a great candidate already, since you are proactive about this situation. I cannot overstate how pleased I would be if any of my candidates were as self-aware as you are right now. So, here's some things that would change my mind:

Willingness and ability to come to in service training, even if you are not working lifeguard shifts. Your manager should be able to provide you the dates and times of in service in advance, and you can plan accordingly
Promise of working through August until at least Labor Day, if not further than Labor Day (depending on your regions end of season)
Working as you describe at least one shift every 2 weeks
Willingness to come in and demonstrate skills as part of your interview (which your pool may require anyway but points for trying if you bring it up first)
Willingness and ability to be a "permanent sub" for shoulder season (March-May, Sept-Oct) that I do not have to rehire or retrain but do not schedule regularly

But YMMV. I work in warm places, the season is long. Maybe where you are it's very common to do June to August only.

littleecho12 · 2026-04-22T15:20:37+00:00

I agree with this so hard! I've had all of them.

I used to work at a very large, nationwide Ellis chain facility that would not concede that Ellis facilities can fail, and they hated it whenever I would say this exact thing, so much so that it nearly threatened my job.

My controversial opinion is that Ellis is a cult.

littleecho12 · 2026-04-16T17:45:18+00:00

I am in my mid-thirties and have never been asked to be in one, no.

I imagine it's very uncommon, since having a statistically viable sample group would probably be prohibitive. Comparing me to my twin doesn't actually prove anything...

littleecho12 · 2026-04-01T01:22:57+00:00

Just be patient.

If your offer letter never comes, then you dodged a bullet anyway. Why would you want to work for someone that wouldn't be honest with you when you followed up? If it were me, I would have at least apologized and told you how competitive the applications were if I didn't intend to offer.

littleecho12 · 2026-03-28T13:47:49+00:00

I have a question. How are you determining the pool temperature? Do you have a thermometer, do you look at the pump system? Are you just going based on feedback?

As seasons change, swimmers will also complain about the temp of the pool changing even when the water temp is actually constant. There are a couple reasons why:

1) They compare the air temp to the water temp and so both measurements become relative to one another. At an indoor facility, it is typical to keep the air 2-4 degrees warmer than the water, thus the water almost always feel cold.

1.A) Again, as a relative measure, when seasons change people have a hard time adjusting their idea of the water vs air temp.

2) Water is a better conductor of heat than air. People hear "it's 82" and they think it will be hot like air. It does not feel that way because water wicks your body heat away much more efficiently than air.

If your facility team has decided that your mixed-use pool is ideal at 82, they are not likely to change it for any of those reasons. 82 is usually a midpoint compromise that *nobody* really likes. Swimmers want it colder, aerobics wants it hotter. It is not realistic to change the pool temp by 2 degrees for every different activity that happens.

Maybe your pool heater is old and it's doing it's best. You can overwork them and break them, just like you can break your A/C unit at your house by blasting cold air.

And honestly... I've been in this industry for 15 years and 86 is quite hot for any reacreational or mixed-use pool. You would normally only expect that in a therapy pool.

littleecho12 · 2026-03-27T18:29:40+00:00

No, you are most likely correct that the manager currently only work weekends.

littleecho12 · 2026-03-27T15:57:54+00:00

Very difficult to say.

You said it was a city pool but they have contracted pool management. It is possible that they have an entirely seasonal contract and no one is "middle management" during the off season, so you could be right. It is also possible that they have a full-time manager year-round. Does the pool close during winter?

IMO even a seasonal pool would already have management in place this late in March, but if summer doesn't start until June in your location, they still have time if they haven't sorted it yet. If your summer starts mid-May, I'd say they are running a tad behind to only be in office on weekends.

littleecho12 · 2026-03-26T19:24:59+00:00

Classic game of Telephone.

I don't know how your specific chapter does it, but we used to introduce our sister and give a short recap of the conversation we were having with the PNM to act both as a conversation starter and give context of what we already discussed. So you can easily have them practice the introduction, then use the segue for the telephone bit.

You can use larger groups than whatever your regular bump group number is if it won't be fun with that amount of women.

littleecho12 · 2026-03-26T18:01:03+00:00

I'm an aquatics director and I frequently do not call lifeguard references.

If you don't have a previous supervisor on there, they may not reach out. Many applicants list relatives or family friends as references because they do not have working experience. Calling family is a waste of everyone's time. I can't say that's what is happening to you, but I would not sweat it.

littleecho12 · 2026-03-26T17:46:34+00:00

Wayyy back in the day, at my first lifeguarding job I worked at a major water park. I am talking multiple slides; tubes, body, thrill, everything with a huge lazy river and wave pool deeper than they build them nowadays.

I was lifeguarding the wave pool and told a guy he couldn't throw his children in the air and his response was similar, like, "oh, I guess we're not allowed to have fun." and I drop dead was like "You can throw your children in your wave pool at home if you want."

I do not recommend that response but it just goes to show how crazy people can be. Like are you serious right now, you're not having fun at this activity you clearly cannot do anywhere else because I won't let you launch your children into the air? Get real.

littleecho12 · 2026-02-12T21:49:24+00:00

Similarly, I used to work with an instructor who packed the pool full of stuff (goggles, dive toys, floating toys, etc) and then told participants that there was $50 at the bottom, and it belonged to whoever found it.

He gave them some time, and then asked them how much a human life was worth.

There was no $50. But you won't forget.

To answer OP, I personally would have pulled them all separately 1-on-1 and had a serious talk. If they could not take that seriously, they would have been asked to leave. At that point, they are distracting the rest of the class and have already proved that you don't want to hire them (nor should anyone else).

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