A Day In The Life Of A Female Lifeguard
Every day I see men slightly evolving and treating women with the respect they deserve. It’s not enough. They still brush us off like we have no idea what we are doing, even if we have more experience than them. This is a trend I have particularly noticed with men older than 45 years old.
When I’m not at school I’m at work. My job is pretty simple as a lifeguard: I sit on the stand and enforce safety rules. I have authority over individuals at the pool deck if they are doing something that can put their safety at risk. It’s simple.
I used to be the sole female lifeguard on an all-male team, who many swimmers saw almost every day for two years until this past summer. Many of the lap swimmers who come to the pool are regulars now and follow the rules. They understand that I don’t play around when it comes to safety.
However, summer brings an influx of new members who don’t know these rules, so I explain it to them. Many of them are okay with it and it never becomes a problem. Recently, I heard from the other guards about a member who was doing front flips into the pool. The pool is already shallow, but this particular spot is three feet deep.
Naturally, I was concerned about him potentially miscalculating the flip and hitting his head. I spoke to my boss and he said he had seen the guy, but he wanted a guard to address it first in order to not break the chain of command.
So, I waited.
Finally, the gentleman showed up and, as expected, did a flip. I approached him and told him that he couldn’t do a front flip because the water was too shallow and he could get injured.
What he said next really grinded my gears: “I’ve been doing it for years, sweetie. Don’t worry, I appreciate your concern.”
First of all, I don’t care that he had been doing it for “years.” I, the lifeguard on duty, was telling him he couldn’t do it. It’s kind of like if a patient has lung cancer and the doctor tells them to stop smoking. Clearly, you should listen to the doctor.
Second of all, why did he call me sweetie? Why would any man feel the need to call a woman sweetie or patronize her for simply doing her job? I have a name and if he didn’t know it, he could’ve simply called me lifeguard, as many people do. He could’ve even called me miss or ma’am.
To top it all off, the gentleman then told me that I didn’t know how to do my job after I closed the pool because of lightning and asked him to leave. Give me a break. I have three years of lifeguarding experience and have been in the swimming world for almost my whole life. He eventually filed a complaint against me for being rude.
Had I been a male lifeguard, I doubt he would’ve been as smug and impolite. And that’s the saddest part of all. Instead of respecting me, he took offense to me doing my job.
In a society that has come so far, it’s unfortunate that many men still can’t respect and treat women the same way they treat their counterparts.
