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| If Roy Lester worked for this website he would be fired. Even Lisa has to wear a brief on the job with us. |
I know people are scared to wear the brief. You have to be pretty comfortable with your manhood. I get it. I swam with my high school kids during practice yesterday at a rival team pool (because we are still in renovations) and I wore my brief; big old belly hanging over it and all. Awkward. Intimidating. Creepy. Whatever. I am being true to myself.
The cool part about yesterday is that the son of one of our high school principals is trying swim team for the first time this year, and I got to send an email to his mom that said "You had no idea how good I am at this coaching thing. I got him wearing a speedo in less than two weeks." He didn't try out last year because he didn't want to wear one and all he had worn so far this year was board shorts. Ha!
I love the brief, and as you can probably tell by the comments on the "Rivalry Gone Too Far" post that I don't like to see people fired from a job over unreasonable circumstances. The OU t-shirt thing set me off... so you can imagine how conflicted I was over this link on Adolph Kiefer's facebook page, with the story of a 61 year-old beach lifeguard who was fired after 40 years for refusing to wear a brief on the job!
From an article in the NY Daily News:
Lester sued the state, claiming age discrimination, arguing the Speedo is for the washboard stomach set, not aging dads like him.
"I wore a Speedo when I was in my 20s," Lester said. "But come on. There should be a law prohibiting anyone over the age of 50 from wearing a Speedo."
Lester believes the Speedo edict was an attempt to rid Jones Beach of its aging lifeguards. The former lifeguard union head estimates that more than 80% of Jones Beach lifeguards are older than 40.
"This was not right," said Lester, a bankruptcy lawyer who is representing himself in the age discrimination claim. "They were just trying to get rid of the older guys. To me the whole key to being a good lifeguard is experience. An older guy sees a save before anyone else. You know the water."
On the one hand I am thinking "I don't care how old or out of shape I am I can wear a damn brief if I want to." On the other hand I am thinking, "Stick it to the man, Roy! They fired you on unreasonable grounds! Don't give up the fight!"
Adolph Kiefer seems to feel the same way as on facebook he posted "Cut the guy a break!" and "But I think it's okay to still wear the brief past 50. And I do!" Of course you do Adolph. Because you are awesome.
According to the poll on the article, it seems like 88% think Roy Lester shouldn't be forced to wear the speedo on the job if it doesn't interfere with his performance. Apparently, the guards have to test out by swimming 100 yards under 1:15 and Lester said he could do it in Dungarees. The article points out that he is an accomplished triathlete. Judging from the picture, I am pretty sure I would hire him even if he wanted to wear a bikini. The kids at our pool just behave better when at least one of the lifeguards is older than them and could beat them in a race.
I am anxious to see how this one pans out.
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Lester said. "But come on. There should be a law prohibiting anyone over the age of 50 from wearing a Speedo."
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a personal hang up to me. If he really wants the job and they require him to wear briefs during the swim test, they wear the goddam brief and quit your bitching. It doesn't sound like he's required to wear the brief during the job. But even if he was, if that's the uniform requirement, than that's the requirement. Don't take the job if you don't want to wear the uniform, but it doesn't appear he's required to wear it on the job, only the during the test.
Also the NY Daily News is hardly a bastion of journalistic integrity, in fact, it's a hack tabloid. Just like the NY Post.
yeah, but we all voted on the team uniform thing as soon as we brought Lisa on board. Sorry Lisa, three against one. You lose.
ReplyDeleteActually he wasn't fired for refusing to wear a brief on the job. Roy refused to not wear his jammer during the time portion of his Lifeguard Certification Test. He was given three options of swim attire none of which was the jammer. No one asked him to wear a speedo on duty on the beach. In my eyes it would be like me showing to up to a US Masters Swim meet in my old tech suit, not be allowed to race in the suit then sue for age discrimination cuz' I got some love handles.
ReplyDeleteWow. That was the first time anything I've posted has been described as "calmly and thoughtfully" on any topic. And as for the rule it is "Male lifeguards must wear 'boxer[s], briefs or board shorts' during a 100-yard swim they must finish in 75 seconds, according to state standards." But I gotta admit boxers to me mean jammers. I mean boxers but not g-strings? Back to "calmly and thoughtfully" I am just guessing to think that someone mistook his jammer for the banned swim tech suits. It's a dumb judgement call. Can't wait to see Roy submit his legal briefs.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, Joel. Go post some Wham videos for me and quit making so much sense.
ReplyDeleteAs for the rest of you I'm suing you all. I don't know for what yet but I'll figure it out.