And it doesn't look a bit good:

http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/262661/19/Fired-Florida-lifeguards-wont-take-jobs-back

I just wonder if they would have been offered their jobs back if there was not not such a media outcry.

If that poor soul had drowned, his family would had sued the city and Ellis. If they saw the life guard and he did not attempt a rescue and if he said, "well he was outside of our area of responsibility, the family would be fit to be tie," and I would not blame them. Ellis decide to rehire him due to all of the poor PR that it caused but the life guard decided to not go back.

This is a crock of poop! Maybe a decent company will hire him - with better wages too!

Great example of how corporate "rules & regulations" can fly right in the face of common sense (not to mention, human decency) if applied without considering the context. As soon as I saw this story on the news yesterday, you just knew that this was going to end up being a PR nightmare for them...and rightfully so!

There is something seriously wrong with our society's general mentailty when getting sued is more important than a human life.

Especially when the company involved claims to be in the lifesaving business, then apparently fires someone for doing just that, but outside the contractual boundaries.

I'm baffled how poorly this was managed, but is one of the risk areas when we privatize some services - if this was a city guard v county guard border would it even have been an issue?

As forr the company, Imagine the positive reaction the following press release could have garnered - Lifeguard Saves Drowning Man, despite being outside the on duty area, a Jeff Ellis guard reacted quickly and saved a man at the xyz beach yesterday. While responding, he also ensured his area of the beach was covered by other guards on his team keeping everyone safe.

Much more on this:

http://kdvr.com/2012/07/05/florida-lifeguard-fired-after-saving-drowning-man/