Inservices

We had our first weekend of in-services this past weekend. Everything looks pretty good. Got fewer behavioral issues than I expected with that size group. Apparently some of the other managers were getting behavioral issues with their groups, because my boss came and gave each group a "pep talk" about how you're supposed to behave toward your management staff. We rotated 4 stations most of the day, so I had the same groups come to me at some point. Not sure if they were better behaved with me, or I'm just not as sensitive as the other girls. I think there's a certain amount of individuality we have to come to expect from the age group that we're dealing with. This job is not anything like being a manager somewhere else... everywhere else, either you have more older people to start with or your young people start to get older. In lifeguarding, when you get older you go get another job or you finish college and get a real job. There are very few old lifeguards out there, those of us who choose not to go get another job end up in management. I can't think of another place where you have a continually self-refreshing crew of 18 and unders. (Maybe dance troupes, but I think they have more discipline by default.) You, as the supervisor, have to adjust to them, not the other way around. We're going to do some more getting to know you activities, and I'm going to tell lots of stories (because I like telling stories, and because they tell me they like "story time"). I think that once they understand where I'm coming from and why I say the things I say, they'll be easy to work with. I still have a battle of the wits going on with that handicap lift. I got the lateral stability arms out when we were a the pool deck, but there was one more group that I thought wasn't going to come to me (Stacey told me to clean up cuz we were running late) so we put it away. When the other group came, I took them to the storage area and tried to demonstrate it there, and neither of the two arms would come out of the socket. I told them that if that happened "in real life" to come get someone and not use the lift. If they come get me, though, I'm not sure if I'd be much help! I've got the most experience playing with it and such, but I don't think it likes me. Mari and I have finished our selection of who goes where. However, I have very specialized programs on my side that need certain people... I've talked to one so far, I need to talk to another three or so before I release the information. If the people we picked out can't do the things we're assigning to them (some of them don't have availability forms in, so I can't just tell them they're doing it, I have to make sure they're not in summer school or something) then I have to draft new people and give those first picked to Mari's staff. Fun stuff, I tell you. I'm also working on a photo album for work that's almost done. I got all the pictures from the shared drive, I still have to print some pictures that just got taken this weekend. Some of them are really good, most of the staff is quite photogenic. =P