A good job. That’s supposedly the reason why students pay thousands of dollars a year for college tuition, so when they graduate, those payments will transform into bigger paychecks in “the real world”. But most college students don’t have the luxury of waiting (mostly due to the cost of tuition; it’s a vicious cycle) so the question remains for them; what’s the easiest job on campus?
After asking a lot of students, the answer kept coming back, “Lifeguard at the rec. What do they do?”
“Yeah, (it’s a good job) for sure” laughed sophomore Brittni Hamel.
Perched above the pool at the Student Recreation Center, they wait and watch. And wait, and wait and wait some more. The incident report files at the SRC were unavailable, as one employee said, “Even the police need to subpoena for them because they include medic
al records.” So the assumption that nothing has ever happened there lived on until one of the lifeguards confirmed it.
“Well, we had that kid almost drown” interrupted junior Erin Bertram, fresh from her shift on the chair, “Was that last semester or this semester?” she asked Hamel.
“There was one time, these two kids tried to go across the pool, 50 meters, underwater. And I guess one guy, he didn’t make it. He just went into the fetal position I guess” Bertram explained.
Neither of them were there, but they said the paramedics came and the small-lunged contestant was fine and Bertram said that was the only incident she’s heard of in her three years guarding lives at the SRC.
So if the toughest, most challenging part of being a lifeguard is the danger of having to save someone’s life and the responsibility that comes with it absent from the job, what’s left? The Arizona weather? Watching people lay out all day? Working on your tan? Staving off boredom?
Bertram and Hamel said they didn’t have any specific techniques to stay alert.
“The only time I really watch one person, or anything like that is if I’m worried about them” Hamel said. “Yeah,” Bertram added, “if there’s kids out there, I always watch them.”
Employees at the SRC make $6.80/hour, which means the guy swiping your card when you walk in, is getting paid the same amount as the person that might be responsible for saving your life, should you try and a back-flip into the pool and not quite make it.
One of those guys is sophomore David Robbins.
“The front desk is boring, but I’m getting paid to not do a whole lot,” Robbins said. “But I knew that going in, there wasn’t going to be a whole lot of action” As he paused to swipe someone’s Cat Card through the computer, “You just saw everything that I do.”
Before the minimum campus wage was raised, the lifeguards used to get paid more than the other SRC employees because, as Bartram put it, “we’re ‘lifesavers’”, but not anymore. The lifeguards are going to be receiving a raise in the summer to $9.80/hour and that should carry over to the school year.
While being a lifeguard has the weather, working the entrance has its perks as well.
“It’s nice, you can get a lot of work done but I really don’t. I’m really easily distracted, so I just read the newspaper and do the crossword.” Robbins laughed.
If a lifeguard that has never had to leave her chair says you have an easy job, Robbins must not have any stories at all.
“No, at Bear Down (Gymnasium) I had to deal with a broken nose once, but nothing at the desk. One time the police came in and told me a description of somebody, and to alert them but not to confront them if they came in.” Robbins added they never came in.
Since the job consists of letting people into the gym, and directing people who have a problem upstairs to someone else, Robbins hasn’t had a problem at the desk, ever.
“Well, today someone said to me, ‘Wow, that’s the laziest card swipe I’ve ever seen’” Robbins said.
The only worry the lifeguards had were people acting like morons doing flips and stunts.
“Yeah, all the time. Usually we just yell at them. And they listen.” Hamel said.
Hard work is rarely appreciated.