Emily Blaine

English 2089

Dr. Bailie

November 17, 2019

Three summers ago when I turned 16 my parents told me I had to get a job if I wanted to

have a car and freedom. I wanted to work somewhere fun, non-repitive and with people my age.

My sister told me to lifeguard with her at the Beach Water Park, where she had already worked

for a couple of summers. I was very hesitant to do so; I was scared to take the responsibility of

other people’s lives for my first job. However, with the pressure from my parents to find a job

fast, my love to be outside and it possessing the qualities I wanted in a job, I gave in. To become

a lifeguard, you have to go through multiple days of training, tests and getting certified, which

you have to renew every two years. It was tough work, taking written tests, doing 3 swim tests,

learning how to do CPR and practicing water saves, not everyone passes. It does not end there,

on any random day while you are on stand, they will vat you, a visual attention test, where they

put a dummy in your zone and you have to recognize and rescue it within thirty seconds, you get

fired if you fail this test three times. Being a member of the lifeguards has special

multiliteracies. We have specific radio codes, for example “thirty-three” means there was a

lightning strike and we have to get everyone out of the water. Hand signals such as making a

cross with your arms means that you need first aid, making an “x” with your arms means to close

the slide. We have specific words and nicknames for rides and parts of the park, the wave pool

and the attractions around it are considered to be in the zone called south. There are nine spots on

the lazy river that we have to guard, each spot is numbered, and you have to know which spot is

where. We also have whistle codes; one long loud whistle means someone is hurt and everyone

who is a supervisor or on break has to run to that person and preform whatever task necessary.

Two short whistles means you need attention, after blowing the whistle you must do one of the

hand signals that will get you a supervisor, first aid or it lets a supervisor know you need a

restroom break or water. Only the lifeguards need to understand and memorize these

multiliteracies. These are very important because they allow us to get a supervisor, first-aid, a

restroom break and many other things done in an efficient amount of time. All of these different

multiliteracies can be found in the employee handbook, with detailed explanations and pictures.

Being a lifeguard, we all have the same common set of goals, to make sure everyone is

safe and following the rules. This can be tough to enforce, we serve alcohol, which makes many

adults difficult to handle and get to follow the rules and they end up getting kicked out. There are

also a lot of young kids who like to mess around and break the rules causing trouble. Both of

these groups of people are our nightmares, not only do they have trouble following the rules, but

they also find pleasure in harassing the lifeguards. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard

the phrase “So if I drown that means you have to give me CPR right?” They will splash and

annoy you asking so many dumb questions and make rude remarks to you. You are not allowed

to have drinks in the water, it is an Ohio State Law, and people hate that and try to sneak drinks

into the water, or they get angry when you tell them they cannot have them. Sometimes they will

try to reason with you by promising they will not spill it or tell anyone, it is a difficult situation

because we sell alcohol and people want to have it with them, but it is a rule listed on the signs

and it is a law. We have a limited amount of innertubes for the lazy river and on a busy day you

will hear “you need more tubes or can you get more tubes” about fifty times, there is nothing we

can do about it and when you explain that to the guest they just look disgusted at you like it is

your fault.

Being a part of this discourse, I felt a special bond with the other members, spending all

day, every day with the same people in the same place, they have become some of my best

friends. We all experienced the same struggles and suffering. Any job can be fun and if the

people you work with make it fun. Working with around eighty new people each summer, I have

met so many people, heard many stories, and made so many friends, you cannot say that about

most other jobs. This is one of those jobs. They are some of the best people I know, and they are

what makes this job worth going to. Of course, there was a lot of drama but overall everyone got

a long and had a fun time, we had many employee nights where we rode all the slides after the

park closed. A few nights in the summer groups of people will rent out the park after it closes,

these are the best nights, they are fun and energetic, last year when there was the international

untilimate frisbee tournament in Ohio, they rented it out and there was a couple thousand people

who came and it was very cool to meet people from different countries participating in this

event. This job also provides many ways to make the most money possible, there is no limit to

how many hours you work a week, you could work all day every day. You have to show up

thirty minutes before the shift starts and you have to stay about an extra hour after closing to pick

up trash and get everything stacked and ready for the next day. They also offer a two hour

cleaning shift before opening, if you do this with your friends it does not feel like work, also the

month before it opens in the summer you can come in and help paint and get everything ready

for the season, all while getting paid.

According to Swales discourses have artifacts or documents that are important to each

specific discourse and have meaning and actions are based on these. Artifacts important to this

discourse are the whistle because it is allows us to get help from across the park, not being able

to have a phone or radio, the whistle will get attention of a patron who is running so you can tell

them to stop, or it will get you first aid if there is an accident. The employee handbook is

important because it tells us how to act, what all the hand signals and whistle, radio codes mean,

the rules and what to do and say to the guests. The most important document would be the

rotation sheet. The rotation sheet is the thing that hold everything together. First thing you do

when you get to work is pick your spot on the rotation sheet, the earlier you get there, the better

spot you can choose. These sheets have the names of all the slides and spots to go. We can

always tell how a day is going to go, if each rotation has about 6 spots on it, it will be a good day

with full staff, but if all 30 spots are on one rotation you know that we are understaffed that day

and it will suck. Every thirty minutes we rotate to the spot below where you are currently at and

that rotation sheet tells you where to go. If you are looking for someone that sheet will tell you

where they are at all times, it also tells you when you get a break. Without these sheets and

rotations, we would know when or if we would get a break or where to go. This sheet is what

keeps everyone and everything in order and makes sure everyone can get a break.

Shown below is what the rotation sheet looks like at the end of the summer when

everyone has quit or just does not show up for their shifts. It is separated by two sections, slide

tops and lifeguards, slide tops are people who are not certified to guard water and they just stand

at the tops of slides. Due to them not being certified this adds some problems because they

cannot be put on a more important place such as the wave pool. Everything that is crossed off is

attractions that have to be closed because of not having enough staff. Anyone can see that is a

problem, not only for the guests but for us as well. We have to have a person in the break slot in

order to rotate and let people get breaks. There is not a person in it so that means that everyone

will stand in the same spot for five hours with no break and all the supervisors have to go on

stand, they are usually not supposed to go on stand so they can help lifeguards with whatever

they need, when they are on stand this means no water or help if an accident occurs. For the

guests, they are paying for a full priced ticket not knowing that there will only be a few things

open when they get inside the park. That leaves many people furious and wanting refunds. They

of course will complain, ask questions and often yell at the lifeguards for this. Some people are

understanding that we are struggling and understaffed. Most people do not, and they take it out

on us. Most people do not understand that there is nothing that I specifically can do, they will ask

you to open up a slide really quick so their child can ride it, I often want to, but I am not allowed

to do that. I am not allowed to leave my spot for any reason, it is the most enforced rule that we

cannot leave our spot, if you do for whatever reason you will be fired on the spot. I understand

why they are mad; I would not be too happy if I paid money to go to a water park and to only

have the wave pool and one or two waterslides open. Many people take their children to a fun

cheap way to enjoy waterslides with no lines or crowds, like the other waterparks near us. But

once they arrive and realize nothing is open, they wish they would have just spent the extra

money and deal with the lines and crowds instead of paying for two waterslides. On a day when

enough people show up nothing is crossed off and the slide top rotations get broken up into two

different rotations. The lifeguard rotation gets broken up into five or six rotations depending on

how many people are working that shift. We start at the attraction at the top of the list then move

down a spot every thirty minutes until break then you start back at the top of the rotation. The

shorter the rotations are, the more breaks you get and there is less time in between each break.

On days like this everyone is happy and things go smoothly, the lifeguards and the guests are

both happy.

The Beach has become run down and understaffed over the years, but that should be expected

for any water park that is competing with Kings Island and Great Wolf Lodge. In my three years

of working there it has only gone downhill, but my love for it has only grown. We would be sc

heduled every day, sometimes for the long twelve hour shifts multiple days a week. Standing in

the scorching hot sun for hours, receiving few breaks and rude customers. Only few can withstan

d this extreme, as the summer goes, more and more people quit, at the end the only people

who are left are the people who have done it for multiple summers. The few who can actually

make it to the end of the summer all always say “this is my last summer here” but always

come back next summer. We need a little more than one hundred lifeguards employed, we usually st

art off the summer with that many and around mid-July we are left with about fifty and then aro

und the end of the season there are around twenty of us. That means that some days there are

no breaks, many slides and attractions closed and many unhappy people. The park is actually for

sale right now and will probably not open again and I am heart broken, the thought of never spen

ding all day with my friends out in the warm sun getting tan and getting paid. Out of all the job

s I have had I have never been attached

one the way I am attached to this and I look forward to going back each summe

r. Being a member of the lifeguards has taught me so much about myself, working, communicati

on and interaction. The main part of our job is talking to and helping non-members of this dis

course, it is important to know who you are talking to and what you can say, a non-member

would not understand all of our multiliteracies so we have to explain things in a different way

instead of just using the nicknames for things. We have to smile and be polite and as nice as poss

ible to the g