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The first text Lynn sent to Splash after not being paid for 24 hours.

As summer approaches, students are looking for cool summer jobs. A job that has flexible hours, is accessible without a car, and is also fun can be hard to come by. One company that fulfills these requirements is Splash Pools, a pool management and lifeguarding business around Fort Collins. While Splash is attractive to high school students, there are mixed messages as to how employees are treated.

“I was being mistreated as a guard.” said Kyle, who worked at Splash for a summer and chose to remain anonymous about his experience. “The pay that I was receiving was much less than I should have been receiving. I know for a fact that I wasn’t paid for all of my hours.”

“Overall,” said Kyle. “the quality of Splash as a company is really disorganized and should be looked into further.”

“Splash can be hard to work with.” said Jane, who asked to be anonymous. Jane says she understands the appeal of the job but she felt the company ignored her requests for working locations. Jane is referring to Amy Casady in the following quote, who is in charge of “Staffing, Hiring, & Pool Management” at Splash, which includes hiring and paying lifeguards and swim instructors. “What happened to me was I was able to request a pool to work at, which Amy put me at, so I was super excited. But then about a week later Amy removed me from that pool and put me at a single guard pool thirty minutes away.”

Jane worked at this single guard pool away from her house while her sister who also worked at Splash got her spot at the first pool. Jane applied again this year at Splash with the one request, that she not be at a single guard pool. But was, yet again, placed at one. Jane considered quitting but decided to switch her application to a substitute lifeguard so she could control her hours and location more.

“I’ve heard from other employees that she [Amy Casady] has payed them for less hours than they actually worked.” said Sophie, a senior who asked to be anonymous because she still works at Splash. “It wasn’t little mistakes either. There were employees that reported 15 or more hours missing from their paycheck.”

One example is Lynn. Lynn is a sophomore who worked at Splash as a lifeguard for a season, and decided to not return after she wasn’t given 24 hours of pay. She had to email the company back and forth until they gave her the money.

“When I asked to get this money the company explained I was the one who messed up.” said Lynn. It took me explaining everything I’ve done that month for me to receive this money. I will not go back to Splash because I continued to be cheated on with my money and scheduling issues.”

Splash Pools have several jobs that a high school student can do. The two main ones are substitute and permanent lifeguards. Substitute lifeguards have flexible hours making it an attractive summer job and permanent lifeguards work a minimum of 25 hours per week. These flexible hours make it easy for high school students to still have free time and enjoy their summer.

“I thought I was treated normally.” said Karmen Rieger, a sophomore who worked at Splash for a summer. “Nothing bad but nothing special.” Rieger says that while she was treated well at Splash, she heard stories from coworkers about bad experiences.

“It was definitely a great first job.” said Jake Rowe, who worked at Splash last summer and plans to return this summer. The pay didn’t bother Rowe, who preferred the job experience and something to do during the summer. “It was just like a good ease into working.”

“I think it is an awesome first job experience.” said Olivia Tufte, who is going to be working her fourth summer at Splash this year. “It taught me a lot about how to interact with people who are both a lot younger and a lot older than I am. I love getting to spend my summers outside and in the sun with coworkers and members!”

The organization of Splash Pools is still debatable, but lifeguarding will continue to be a popular summer job for high school students in search of summer jobs in the sun.