How to deal with unruly guests alone:

Spoiler alert: whether you’re as young as 16, or you’re 25, controlling guests is going to be very hard to do alone. Patrons know that you are unable to remove them from pool areas, or call someone to remove them for you if they refuse to leave. They will use this to their advantage. If 20 people are jumping in the pool and ignoring you, there is very little you can do alone. At times trying to enforce these rules can become threatening and dangerous for you, and with patrons doing things out of spite, their risk of injury also increases drastically. When you can’t maintain a safe pool environment— you have to close the pool, but what if you can’t get them to exit the water? 

There’s no guarantee that a security guard, or a supervisor, or a manager would be readily at most of the single guard pools. When guests refuse to leave, it’s not safe and oftentimes a guards last line of control is something drastic— police enforcement. Its an extreme, but to control the situation and keep people safe, a single guard may have to make a very scary phone call to police to protect themself and their guests. Many young guards would be unwilling to make this call out of fear of “blowing it out of proportion,” and getting fired for involving the police. So what is a single guard to do when guests are unruly and there’s no one to help them gain control or make a call when they need to? With 2 guards, there is at least a consensus that someone has your back and you have help if something happens.