Lifeguard refuse job back after being fired

Alan L. · Jul 7, 2012

Rford said:
It sounds like he was fired by his immediate supervisor pretty much right after the situation ended. He didn't actually save the guy, he was saved by other swimmers. The kid filled out an incident report which revealed he went outside his area, and I believe the initial reports said it was outside the area that the lifeguard company has responsibilty to monitor. Since he violated company policy, his immediate supervisor fired him. The story does reveal a lot about our modern society, on a number of levels. But the owner of the company did reverse the decision (not much choice given all the fireworks) and tried to apologize.

Clearly the owner of the company had a policy in place that would preclude assisting someone outside their area. That makes it their fault. They only apologized because of the public uproar.

joshuabardwell · Jul 7, 2012

oldnslo said:
Example: Life guard goes outside his designated area to help some one and while doing so a person in his designated area needs help and there is no help. Now who is in trouble?

I think that your logic fails here. What if the lifeguard was saving someone in his designated area, and while it was happening, another person needed help? How is that any different from this situation?

Pixguy · Jul 7, 2012

Let me preface this saying that I think the kid did the right thing and should have never been fired. Iheard he helped pull the man out of the water and then rolled him on his side.

But looking at another angle, what if someone dies right where this man was saved and the lifeguard does nothng, is there a legitimate lawsuit there?

BTW, he's being given the key to the city.
As soon as the city came out in defense of the kid, I knew the management co. was screwed.

dmccarty · Jul 7, 2012

Pixguy said:
Let me preface this saying that I think the kid did the right thing and should have never been fired. Iheard he helped pull the man out of the water and then rolled him on his side. But looking at another angle, what if someone dies right where this man was saved and the lifeguard does nothng, is there a legitimate lawsuit there? BTW, he's being given the key to the city. As soon as the city came out in defense of the kid, I knew the management co. was screwed.

I don't see how. The guy would have to be in two places or be able to see the future to know that he can't rescue person A who is drowning outside his area because person B will be drowning soon. Course you never know with the courts. In this case, other life guards had the area covered. Later, Dan