yes , but more than likely they are working there full time OR they are training athletes (helps fund their training ?) , or doing sports management at college / uni etc..
the amount of paperwork / money on training having to be spent wouldn't justify it , unless they were doing it full time or long term.
you have to jump thru hoops with certain jobs these days , as opposed to when we were younger.
you might find some insurers have a lower age limit for employee's of 18 perhaps. thats why you see so many on Yahoo answers that want to work in certain places and can't due to health / safety and the liability insurance. If you work lates a lot, getting an early means more.
you might find the life guards, although look young maybe 18+ and if not, doing some sort of apprenticeship perhaps.
I can't comment on sports centres overly , as due to the councils they are different everywhere pretty much, down to the councils.. perhaps ask the management why they aren't open so late.. I'm sure they'd give you more exact reasons.
money being the main one no doubt (and that includes training more staff).
the simple answer is to turn up earlier.. = solved , if it's that important to attend.. the make time for it.. they are open a LOT of the time. I have more issue with banks not being open later ;)
much like I'm rather miffed my library wasn't open 11pm on a sunday night for me to return a book .. WHY O WHY ? lol
sport centres are open till 10pm in the week, not like the staff deserve to go home early at the weekend or anything, maybe 11pm+ when they get in the door.
I'm sorry but these arguments seem a bit of a stretch.
well if you know a bit of how much paper chasing is done in the public sector.. not really :) . You see things time again thwarted due to regulations / rules that weren't in place years ago. there are x amount of reasons why it's closed at that time, only 1 person can give ya the exact answer.
maybe the sport centre staff also have family.. who they might want to spend a bit of quality time with at least ONE day of the week.
see the hassle you caused by not going on time ;-) . If you take the chance to not check the published opening times, hardly their fault.. go earlier.. thats the problem I see, they are open a *LOT* of the week as it is.
why don't you ask the management there (but avoid calling them clueless or numpties ;) ) .. I bet they will give you the reasons WHY they close / want to go home.. (who knows, they might even have a life outside of work...) . you might find they work till 9pm -10pm 1 to 5? days a week , ya know when your spending quality time with your family.
I managed to get to the post office for 5:30pm tonight.. thats down to me.. should I complain they should be open till 6pm just for me , at a whim ?
the local supermarket shuts at 5-6pm , but sadly the out of town one shut at 4pm .. I missed it, and went back next day.. maybe you didn't see that thread :p . it's something over nothing.. you just need to turn up on time IF you wanna go, or maybe that concept is too simplistic.
maybe the sport centre staff also have family.. who they might want to spend a bit of quality time with at least ONE day of the week.
Im not asking each and every member to work 7 days a week, but I'm sure there are plenty of teenagers that would be glad of the work, or people who might like to have a weekday off instead.
why don't you ask the management there (but avoid calling them clueless or numpties ;) ) .. I bet they will give you the reasons WHY they close / want to go home.. (who knows, they might even have a life outside of work...) . you might find they work till 9pm -10pm 1 to 5? days a week , ya know when your spending quality time with your family..
I would not expect centre managers to work 7 days a week either. They don't either, usually there during the day mon to frid and occasionally working late, on other days they delegate.
see the hassle you caused by not going on time ;-) . If you take the chance to not check the published opening times, hardly their fault.. go earlier.. thats the problem I see, they are open a *LOT* of the week as it is.
Me and the many others that would like to use it at that time. I don't care if the opening times are published, they are still poor.
well if you know a bit of how much paper chasing is done in the public sector.. not really :) . You see things time again thwarted due to regulations / rules that weren't in place years ago. there are x amount of reasons why it's closed at that time, only 1 person can give ya the exact answer.
Paper chasing, is an organisational problem, if you have filled in the requisite forms, performed the necessary checks and balances for weekday and weekend opening, then an extra 3 hours of a Saturday or Sunday night is not really going to impact things much.
you might find some insurers have a lower age limit for employee's of 18 perhaps. thats why you see so many on Yahoo answers that want to work in certain places and can't due to health / safety and the liability insurance. If you work lates a lot, getting an early means more.
you might find the life guards, although look young maybe 18+ and if not, doing some sort of apprenticeship perhaps.
Many centres I've known often employ >= 16 years from the Swimming Club. A way to earn a little extra money before they go off to college or uni.
Me and the many others that would like to use it at that time. I don't care if the opening times are published, they are still poor.
I was referring to the STAFF in general being there, at least 1 person is on "duty" of sorts.. not just the management. ask em about their hours..
either start a petition , contact your local MP .. or bother to turn up on time .. ya know.. the other 3+ hours ? earlier they were actually open, that you didn't bother to go.
it was in your control to turn up on time (as my time keeping is shocking sometimes) , thats the whole point.. the pool IS open 7 days a week..
and as I stated before, it's not just as simple as hiring a bunch of teens , go ask a HR person / hirer in any company, esp if it's public and a CRB check etc is need.. anything regarding the public and public liability insurance is VERY restrictive on whats allowed / not .
ask them what training / qualifications they need to do the job.. you'll find it's a tad more than just being a good swimmer and I'm sure as a parent you wouldn't want staff that was "under par" regarding their training in such places.
I am finding it amusing you can't turn up on time.. yet if I don't turn up somewhere.. I either go "oh well" or know better for next time.
in 84.. the dog ate my homework... oddly I don't own a dog.. I guess it's down to me the blame was ;)
isn't there things like toddlers swimming classes etc ? that might be of interest to you also.. when the place isn't full of older kids running about.
I was referring to the STAFF in general being there, at least 1 person is on "duty" of sorts.. not just the management. ask em about their hours..
either start a petition , contact your local MP .. or bother to turn up on time .. ya know.. the other 3+ hours ? earlier they were actually open, that you didn't bother to go.
it was in your control to turn up on time, thats the whole point.. the pool IS open 7 days a week..
and as I stated before, it's not just as simple as hiring a bunch of teens , go ask a HR person / hirer in any company, esp if it's public and a CRB check etc is need.. anything regarding the public and public liability insurance is VERY restrictive on whats allowed / not .
ask them what training / qualifications they need to do the job.. you'll find it's a tad more than just being a good swimmer and I'm sure as a parent you wouldn't want staff that was "under par" regarding their training in such places.
in 84.. the dog ate my homework... oddly I don't own a dog.. I guess it's down to me the blame was ;)
I have a busy day with wife and my son, then want to round it off with a couple of hours swimming in the evening, I really don't think that is too much to ask of a Sports centre.
I really do think you are over reacting in your opposition to my opinion.
i think you should both put your energies to petition your local councils to have 'no wanking' put on the do's and don't of the posters you see. :-P
wouldn't it just be easier to get a copy of the posters from your local pool instead ? hehe
Scottie, x amount of other people live busy lives also.. I can give you specific examples inc. 1 woman I know who is a single mum ,and is a workaholic BUT her kid goes to after school things 3-4 nights a week.I think others take their kids to swimming , football etc. if there was such a big issue, they'd all be posting the same
and do a lot of hours (someone I work with does 14 hour days and takes their kids footy at weekend, will even adjust their shifts to if his wife can't go) .
when I was 9 and my dad used to take me swimming, (he can't swim) he was doing 12 hours days, for 5 days and saturday / sunday sometimes doing another 6 hours per day (selling down the market, not peckham ;) ) , are you doing them sorta crazy hours ? .. he made time to take me to a lesson at 12 or 1pm.. so that's why I got miffed with your comments. you just need to set a time, stick to it and go and everything / one else can "get lost".. thats "your time". whats wrong with the rest of sunday , but earlier?
a friend changed his job so he could see his kids grow up, it's less money but he's far happier , you can tell in his voice.
wouldn't it just be easier to get a copy of the posters from your local pool instead ? hehe
Scottie, x amount of other people live busy lives also.. I can give you specific examples inc. 1 woman I know who is a single mum ,and is a workaholic BUT her kid goes to after school things 3-4 nights a week.I think others take their kids to swimming , football etc. if there was such a big issue, they'd all be posting the same
and do a lot of hours (someone I work with does 14 hour days and takes their kids footy at weekend, will even adjust their shifts to if his wife can't go) .
when I was 9 and my dad used to take me swimming, (he can't swim) he was doing 12 hours days, for 5 days and saturday / sunday sometimes doing another 6 hours per day (selling down the market, not peckham ;) ) , are you doing them sorta crazy hours ? .. he made time to take me to a lesson at 12 or 1pm.. so that's why I got miffed with your comments. you just need to set a time, stick to it and go and everything / one else can "get lost".. thats "your time". whats wrong with the rest of sunday , but earlier?
a friend changed his job so he could see his kids grow up, it's less money but he's far happier , you can tell in his voice.
George is only 18 months, so between 12 - 2pm he sleeps. For us the best times to go are between 5 and 7, if we go earlier the Swimming has to be the focus of the whole day, when we like to do many other things too. I really don't think that's something to get worked up about, how ever organised your father was. Sadly, my father never took me swimmng, only my mum, my dad never did any sporty things with me. Oh look at us both lamenting our lost childhoods.
It is a shame that we can't always do what we want when we want but I'm not sure debating it on a Speccy forum will change anything - did you get any joy from the council/managers etc as to why they don't stay open in the end?
Now....onto more pressing topics, such as why do pubs always close when I want just one more drink?
Scottie have you tried swimming classes, there's plenty round our way, usually sat mornings or so.
You have to pay of course.
I can swim you know, quite far too in almost any stroke. However, dispite having the ability to swim 30-40 lengths of a 50mtr pool in 2 hours, my breathing technique is poor, I often run out of breath before my muscles tire. Also, one thing I can't dive, I was never shown how and as I grew older became afraid of making a tit of myself trying, especially now when you see kids <10 diving so gracefully.
That is a health & safety thing that bugs me. Back in my youth, Wellingborough pool had a 1m and 3m board which you could use whenever it wasn't too crowded. Now all the diving boards, up and down the country, are gone. Southampton has a set of staged ones from 1m up to 10m in a separate (variable depth) pool, but the public can't use any of them, or even go anywhere near the pool at its deepest. The only way is to join the diving club for one hour a week, which is inevitably full of those 10-year-old mummy's-olympic-wannabees and certainly no place for a casual member.
and the sinister sports coaches with their favourites (usually the favourites are female).
Ah yes, Mr. Dunitt (real name and very fitting).
He would make us line up before football/rugby and tell us to hold out the waist band of our shorts, he had this rule that were were not allowed to wear underpants under our shorts (and we didn't have cups back then). He'd walk down the line making sure and if someone had them on they'd be sent back to the changing rooms to remove them.
Shower time always involved him watching us and shouting things like "make sure you wash everywhere lads".
At the time we just thought it was funny and weird. In later years I wondered if he ever took it any further :(
PE was the biggest and still is the biggest waste of school time there is.
if you want kids to be healthy stop serving chips for their dinner for a start.
as for getting fit, just look at the playground at lunch time, kids playing football, girls skipping. kids naturally learn how to play team sports, you dont need a teacher there to tell them to split into teams to play football.
We had a dumb thug, a psychotic scots midget and one OK but growly guy as PE teachers. But you're right, it does take a complete idiot to turn a kick-about or run-around with your mates into the most dreaded part of the timetable.
I'm not one for namby-pamby 'events' where there's no competition, but it wouldn't have killed them to have run a couple of concurrent but distinct activities so you had a choice of something to better suit your abilities.
The whole picking your team thing always involved the two best players being the ones to pick their teams and people like mile were always left to the last, poor bastards.
That is a health & safety thing that bugs me. Back in my youth, Wellingborough pool had a 1m and 3m board which you could use whenever it wasn't too crowded. Now all the diving boards, up and down the country, are gone. Southampton has a set of staged ones from 1m up to 10m in a separate (variable depth) pool, but the public can't use any of them, or even go anywhere near the pool at its deepest. The only way is to join the diving club for one hour a week, which is inevitably full of those 10-year-old mummy's-olympic-wannabees and certainly no place for a casual member.
bollox. Like Winston said earlier in this thread, just rubbish spouted to avoid extra effort.
Our local centre still has 3 diving boards including a 10m one and the public are perfectly free to use it during public session times.
They do frown upon people swimming underneath the boards though :-o:-?;)
The whole picking your team thing always involved the two best players being the ones to pick their teams and people like mile were always left to the last, poor bastards.
bollox. Like Winston said earlier in this thread, just rubbish spouted to avoid extra effort. Our local centre still has 3 diving boards including a 10m one and the public are perfectly free to use it during public session times.
What extra effort? Driving all the way to Essex? No thanks. Or did you perhaps attain this right through some concerted effort of mass civil protest that myself and my neighbours are lacking the courage to persue? And what are you blathering on about anyway? Winston hasn't even posted in this thread.
The whole picking your team thing always involved the two best players being the ones to pick their teams and people like mile were always left to the last, poor bastards.
not at all, i enjoyed pe, but seeing what happened in your class im sure i didn't enjoy it as much as you.
What extra effort? Driving all the way to Essex? No thanks. Or did you perhaps attain this right through some concerted effort of mass civil protest that myself and my neighbours are lacking the courage to persue? And what are you blathering on about anyway? Winston hasn't even posted in this thread.
I meant extra effort on the part of the centre
And i got mixed up with a post Winton made in another thread.
In any case your claim there are no public diving boards left in the country is not true :-P
Comments
I'm sorry but these arguments seem a bit of a stretch.
maybe the sport centre staff also have family.. who they might want to spend a bit of quality time with at least ONE day of the week.
see the hassle you caused by not going on time ;-) . If you take the chance to not check the published opening times, hardly their fault.. go earlier.. thats the problem I see, they are open a *LOT* of the week as it is.
why don't you ask the management there (but avoid calling them clueless or numpties ;) ) .. I bet they will give you the reasons WHY they close / want to go home.. (who knows, they might even have a life outside of work...) . you might find they work till 9pm -10pm 1 to 5? days a week , ya know when your spending quality time with your family.
I managed to get to the post office for 5:30pm tonight.. thats down to me.. should I complain they should be open till 6pm just for me , at a whim ?
the local supermarket shuts at 5-6pm , but sadly the out of town one shut at 4pm .. I missed it, and went back next day.. maybe you didn't see that thread :p . it's something over nothing.. you just need to turn up on time IF you wanna go, or maybe that concept is too simplistic.
Im not asking each and every member to work 7 days a week, but I'm sure there are plenty of teenagers that would be glad of the work, or people who might like to have a weekday off instead.
I would not expect centre managers to work 7 days a week either. They don't either, usually there during the day mon to frid and occasionally working late, on other days they delegate.
Me and the many others that would like to use it at that time. I don't care if the opening times are published, they are still poor.
Paper chasing, is an organisational problem, if you have filled in the requisite forms, performed the necessary checks and balances for weekday and weekend opening, then an extra 3 hours of a Saturday or Sunday night is not really going to impact things much.
Many centres I've known often employ >= 16 years from the Swimming Club. A way to earn a little extra money before they go off to college or uni.
It takes an hour or two to get fit in a pool. In a library it takes 10 mins to find a book that you can take home and enjoy. Not a good comparison.
Its one and the same problem, not being open when people want to use it.
I was referring to the STAFF in general being there, at least 1 person is on "duty" of sorts.. not just the management. ask em about their hours..
either start a petition , contact your local MP .. or bother to turn up on time .. ya know.. the other 3+ hours ? earlier they were actually open, that you didn't bother to go.
it was in your control to turn up on time (as my time keeping is shocking sometimes) , thats the whole point.. the pool IS open 7 days a week..
and as I stated before, it's not just as simple as hiring a bunch of teens , go ask a HR person / hirer in any company, esp if it's public and a CRB check etc is need.. anything regarding the public and public liability insurance is VERY restrictive on whats allowed / not .
ask them what training / qualifications they need to do the job.. you'll find it's a tad more than just being a good swimmer and I'm sure as a parent you wouldn't want staff that was "under par" regarding their training in such places.
I am finding it amusing you can't turn up on time.. yet if I don't turn up somewhere.. I either go "oh well" or know better for next time.
in 84.. the dog ate my homework... oddly I don't own a dog.. I guess it's down to me the blame was ;)
isn't there things like toddlers swimming classes etc ? that might be of interest to you also.. when the place isn't full of older kids running about.
I have a busy day with wife and my son, then want to round it off with a couple of hours swimming in the evening, I really don't think that is too much to ask of a Sports centre.
I really do think you are over reacting in your opposition to my opinion.
wouldn't it just be easier to get a copy of the posters from your local pool instead ? hehe
Scottie, x amount of other people live busy lives also.. I can give you specific examples inc. 1 woman I know who is a single mum ,and is a workaholic BUT her kid goes to after school things 3-4 nights a week.I think others take their kids to swimming , football etc. if there was such a big issue, they'd all be posting the same
and do a lot of hours (someone I work with does 14 hour days and takes their kids footy at weekend, will even adjust their shifts to if his wife can't go) .
when I was 9 and my dad used to take me swimming, (he can't swim) he was doing 12 hours days, for 5 days and saturday / sunday sometimes doing another 6 hours per day (selling down the market, not peckham ;) ) , are you doing them sorta crazy hours ? .. he made time to take me to a lesson at 12 or 1pm.. so that's why I got miffed with your comments. you just need to set a time, stick to it and go and everything / one else can "get lost".. thats "your time". whats wrong with the rest of sunday , but earlier?
a friend changed his job so he could see his kids grow up, it's less money but he's far happier , you can tell in his voice.
George is only 18 months, so between 12 - 2pm he sleeps. For us the best times to go are between 5 and 7, if we go earlier the Swimming has to be the focus of the whole day, when we like to do many other things too. I really don't think that's something to get worked up about, how ever organised your father was. Sadly, my father never took me swimmng, only my mum, my dad never did any sporty things with me. Oh look at us both lamenting our lost childhoods.
It is a shame that we can't always do what we want when we want but I'm not sure debating it on a Speccy forum will change anything - did you get any joy from the council/managers etc as to why they don't stay open in the end?
Now....onto more pressing topics, such as why do pubs always close when I want just one more drink?
You have to pay of course.
I can swim you know, quite far too in almost any stroke. However, dispite having the ability to swim 30-40 lengths of a 50mtr pool in 2 hours, my breathing technique is poor, I often run out of breath before my muscles tire. Also, one thing I can't dive, I was never shown how and as I grew older became afraid of making a tit of myself trying, especially now when you see kids <10 diving so gracefully.
He goes on Mondays mid day.
(cue "in the old days I was down the pit by that age", "down the pit? You were lucky! etc etc zzzzzzzzzzzzz)
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Don't forget the pushy dog eat dog dad's, and the sinister sports coaches with their favourites (usually the favourites are female).
Ah yes, Mr. Dunitt (real name and very fitting).
He would make us line up before football/rugby and tell us to hold out the waist band of our shorts, he had this rule that were were not allowed to wear underpants under our shorts (and we didn't have cups back then). He'd walk down the line making sure and if someone had them on they'd be sent back to the changing rooms to remove them.
Shower time always involved him watching us and shouting things like "make sure you wash everywhere lads".
At the time we just thought it was funny and weird. In later years I wondered if he ever took it any further :(
if you want kids to be healthy stop serving chips for their dinner for a start.
as for getting fit, just look at the playground at lunch time, kids playing football, girls skipping. kids naturally learn how to play team sports, you dont need a teacher there to tell them to split into teams to play football.
I'm not one for namby-pamby 'events' where there's no competition, but it wouldn't have killed them to have run a couple of concurrent but distinct activities so you had a choice of something to better suit your abilities.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
The whole picking your team thing always involved the two best players being the ones to pick their teams and people like mile were always left to the last, poor bastards.
bollox. Like Winston said earlier in this thread, just rubbish spouted to avoid extra effort.
Our local centre still has 3 diving boards including a 10m one and the public are perfectly free to use it during public session times.
They do frown upon people swimming underneath the boards though :-o:-?;)
ah poor mile :p
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
not at all, i enjoyed pe, but seeing what happened in your class im sure i didn't enjoy it as much as you.
Ha harrrr!
I meant extra effort on the part of the centre
And i got mixed up with a post Winton made in another thread.
In any case your claim there are no public diving boards left in the country is not true :-P
I didn't know Mr. Tangerine skin was a WOSser? :lol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WJIfykRoWo&feature=related