You have to be a lifeguard, especially in winter. Tropical temperatures between 25 and 30 degrees, sitting all day long in flip-flops and sunglasses in a viewing chair, from time to time a sauna infusion – and when it gets boring, you blow your whistle and snap at someone: “Don’t jump off the edge of the pool!”
So much for the cliché. The reality is – as so often – different. “You shouldn’t underestimate the job,” says Stefanie Sahrmann, a specialist for pool operations at the AquariUSH thermal baths in Unterschleißheim. Yes, the term “lifeguard” also comes from the vernacular. In contrast to the contempt for her work, the 23-year-old has no problem with her. “You totally get used to it. Nobody knows what the job is really called.” What’s right: the tropical temperatures, the slippers – Crocs, no flip-flops – and the observation chair. Although she rarely sits down at work: “Most of the time I do laps around the pool inside and outside, stopping here and there from time to time,” she says. But she doesn’t have a whistle. “And someone jumping in from the edge of the pool doesn’t happen as often as you might think.”
Sahrmann finds the prejudices associated with her profession amusing. She jokingly calls herself the “poolside sheriff”, and she can only smile at the comparison with “Baywatch”. “I’ve never had to jump into the water and pull someone out. Only give first aid once or twice.” Once with a child with a wasp sting who was allergic, she says, and another time with an adult who underestimated the depth of the pelvis. “He couldn’t swim very well and he panicked. A swimming teacher pulled him out again.”
A job with a variety of tasks
In fact, the job is a bit like working in the laboratory: the shift starts at 6:30 a.m., waiting for water filters and vacuum cleaners, measuring pH and chlorine values, noting meter readings. Loungers have to be set up, saunas have to be switched on. The first visitors arrive at 10 a.m. There is hardly any time to relax or even to swim. “You do swimming mainly in training,” says Sahrmann. She rarely goes to the swimming pool privately, “maybe I’ll swim a few lengths, but that’s it”.
Stefanie Sahrmann has been working at AquariUSH since 2017. “I was at a language school before and wanted to be a foreign language correspondent,” she says. An advertisement in the newspaper brought her to the swimming pool job, and its versatility appealed to her. “We’re actually a bit of everything: mechanics, chemists, lifeguards, animators.” And which of them do you like best? “Well, I didn’t rush to get the job because of chemistry or biology,” laughs Sahrmann.
After completing her training, she did a course to become a sauna master, but she prefers the swimming pool: “That’s sort of my territory.” And finally, there is enough to do without working in the sauna: sports tracks, diving boards, children’s pool, in the summer months a large outdoor climbing and water playground – it’s not that easy to keep track of things. “At some point you get a routine,” says Sahrmann. “You see: Ah, there are three boys coming, they look a bit wild. I better keep an eye on them now.” And of course, friendly customer contact should not be neglected. “We have a lot of regular guests. Older people in particular like to stand by the poolside for ten minutes and gossip about everything, because we see each other twice a week.”
Working where others go on vacation: That sounds tempting – and quite exhausting. “Well, a swimming pool isn’t necessarily a holiday,” says Stefanie Sahrmann with a wink. “Sometimes it’s just two hours of fun in the afternoon.”