He used common sense but was fired.WHY. Because the company he worked for
said "you must follow our guidelines or be fired"
Reminds me of the WBTS "you must follow our guidelines or be DF"
Lifeguard Lopez fired
by bobld 46 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
-
JeffT
A very flawed comparison.
Company policy and procedure gets written for a purpose, I produced lots of them over the years. "Common sense" may tell you to do something contrary to policy that will create a week's worth of extra work for somebody else. That might even be some one you've never met or had any interaction with. In my case, accounting, the finances have to be handled consistently for reports to make sense. And organizations like the IRS or the SEC have rules that make sense to them for reasons only they understand. Break those rules at your peril.
The problem comes in with the nature of disfellowshipping. Even if I fire you for failing to follow procedure I have no right to tell everyone else that works for me that they cannot talk to you.
-
LouBelle
This made news in SA too - Was in the morning newspaper.
-
irondork
Yeah, this was a pretty stupid PR move for this company... firing the kid (lifeguard) for saving a human life outside the boundries of their contracted service area.
I don't care who writes these policies or how much sense they may seem to make at the time of writing. Just a thimble full of common sense tells you not to sacrifice a human life because of company policy. The boy did good. The company is a colossal FAIL!
-
jamesmahon
hmm. Only just read about this and not sure. As I understand it (and I could have the facts wrong) there was one part of the beach that was marked safe for swimming. I am guessing this is because it had a lifeguard presence and possibly because other parts had strong currents rocks etc. I live by the beach and we have similarly marked safe swimming areas here because of rocks.
Anyway, it appears he didn't jump in and save the guy but rather stayed with him until paramedics arrived. So not sure he was giving CPR or not. In a way though it is irrelevant. The guy who had swam there did so knowing that it was at his own risk. By the lifeguards actions leaving the 'safe' part unattended he put people's lives at risk who had made their own choice to swim in what they believed to be a monitored area. What would have happened if while he was doing this a child started to drown in the safe area? And here is the rub I suppose. If a child had died because of this then the story would all be very different and who would we be blaming? I'm sorry - the guy's responsibilities were to the people on the section of beach he was responsible for. There safety comes before the plight of someone who knowingly put themselves in danger. He could have asked someone else to stay with this guy and if he couldn't - well, he was on the beach and the paramedics were on their way. He made the choice to put other people's lives at risk who were his responsibility by trying to save someone who was not his responsibility and had knowingly swam in an area at their own risk. Being a lifeguard is an immense responsibility when you think about it and in my opinion he showed poor judgement. Should he be sacked? Probably not but I think he did the wrong thing and the guy who swam in the dangerous area is the most culpable in all of this. He could also have killed the guys who jumped in to try to save him.
-
Quendi
The company which fired this man has taken a beating in the media. They relented yesterday and offered the man his job back. No word yet on whether he will return to work for them.
Quendi
-
RubaDub
What would have happened if while he was doing this a child started to drown in the safe area? And here is the rub I suppose. If a child had died because of this then the story would all be very different and who would we be blaming? I'm sorry - the guy's responsibilities were to the people on the section of beach he was responsible for.
jamesmahon ....
That is some of the most idiotic logic (or lack of logic) that I have ever heard.
If a police is driving down a street and only one side of the street is his "official" area and sees a crime being committed, he should just drive by and keep protecting the other side of the street ???
If a fire truck is driving down a street and only one side of the street is its "official" area and a house is on fire with the possibility of people trapped inside, it should just drive by and keep protecting the other side of the street ???
Please stay off the bottle.
Rub a Dub
-
Berengaria
Fired Florida Lifeguard's Coworkers Out After Admitting They'd Save Man Outside Zone
Six Florida lifeguards have lost their jobs for backing a coworker's decision to save a man struggling in the surf but outside their jurisdiction.
Tomas Lopez , 21, was fired Monday for vacating his lifeguarding zone to save a man drowning in unprotected waters 1,500 feet south of his post on Hallandale Beach, Fla.
"I knew I broke the rules," said Lopez, who ran past the buoy marking the boundary of his patrol zone to help the man. "I told the manager, I'm fired aren't I?"
Lopez said he jumped into the water and "I double underhooked him…I was worried about the guy and his health. He was blue."
Six of Lopez's coworkers said they would have done the same thing. And now, they've been fired too.
"I can listen to the rule and tell them that I wouldn't help someone who was distressed, but I knew if the incident ever came up I would go," said 19-year-old Brian Ritchie, who was fired today for saying he too would rescue someone outside his patrol zone."What we're basically supposed to do is watch them die," said 16-year-old Zoard Janko, who also backed Lopez's decision.
A spokesman for Jeff Ellis and Associates, the aquatic safety contractor that fired Lopez, said in a statement that "We have liability issues and can't go out of the protected area."
"Usually when the municipalities hire someone to [lifeguard], those organizations are not only taking on the responsibility of the job, but a lot of the liability," said Tom Gill, a spokesman for the United States Lifesaving Association. But, he added, "It seems unfortunate that a guard would do what he's trained to do and be fired for it."
By the time Lopez arrived on the scene, other beachgoers had dragged the unconscious man ashore and started CPR. He is recovering at Aventura Hospital, according to the Sun Sentinel.
Lopez said he didn't think about the consequences of his instinctive run "until after it was said and done."
"[We] should have jurisdiction to help someone without worrying about losing our jobs," he said.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/fired-florida-lifeguards-coworkers-exit/story?id=16711655
-
Berengaria
Good for these kids. The money over human decency mentality hasn't caught them yet.
More of the same.
Man Drowns in SF Bay While Firefighters, Police Watch
Budget cuts kept Raymond Zack from being rescued
http://www.newser.com/story/119849/man-dies-in-sf-bay-while-firefighters-police-watch.html
Tennessee Family's Home Burns to the Ground as Firefighters Stand and Watch