In doing so, I believe they not only risked their own lives, but the lives of people who would have had to come to their rescue had they got into trouble.
It's not the first time we have heard of workers being abused on the job.
Last month, NZME reported abuse of parking officers in Tauranga went through the roof last year with 15 cases of people verbally abusing Tauranga wardens in 2020 alone — more than three times the previous high of four cases in 2017.
In Rotorua parking wardens were assaulted and abused nearly 20 times in the past five years, including one incident in which a person who drove towards a warden - thankfully missing.
It is enough to make you not want to volunteer as a lifeguard or to work as a parking warden. But someone has to.
In the case of the lifeguards, these are experts and they are warning people off for a reason — because there is a clear and present danger.
Often we hear of – or witness – the likes of retail workers being given a hard time for mistakes they didn't make or for human error.
Maybe a store is out of stock, or something has taken longer to ship than expected.
In my view, whatever the reason, there is no excuse to abuse someone verbally or physically, or to treat someone as lesser than ourselves.
Before we think about snapping at someone, we should put ourselves in their shoes or ask if it is really their fault something went wrong.
We're all only human and all deserve respect when doing our jobs, including lifeguards.
