How Music Almost Cost Me My Aquatics Staff

In just three days, I nearly lost my entire staff.

Let me explain. As all pool operators know, preparing for the summer season is a challenging, stressful process that takes many hours of planning. But once you have your water balanced, your facility cleaned, your programs in place and your lifeguards hired and trained, there’s nothing more satisfying.

In preparation for the season, I was vacuuming our pool with music playing in the background. It’s a task I find relaxing with music. Our facility uses Neptune Radio, and in thinking about our upcoming season, I decided to look at updating the music. I saw that Kidz Bop now was offered as a genre option. In this brand of music, children sing contemporary popular songs. For obvious reasons, I thought this would be a huge hit with the public. But I also expected the staff to like it.

Little did I know what a problem this would cause.

Our opening weekend took place over the Memorial Day holiday, and our waterpark was busy. Our customers seemed happy; I had zero complaints from them.

However, I did receive complaint after complaint from the staff — entirely about the choice of music. Every employee would come into the staff room and moan about Kidz Bop. They wanted to know who picked that awful music.

I told them I customized the music selection for this facility. That didn’t stop the comments. I heard grumbling for three days straight. I admitted defeat and had the music genre changed.

But to this day, the staff still complains about that Kidz Bop weekend. Basically, Kidz Bop was a terrible music selection for our facility, but it allowed the staff to create a bond — one common bond — over my bad choice.

The Lessons

1. Trust your staff. If you find yourself receiving the same complaint from multiple employees, there’s usually a good reason. Listen to them to find a solution.

2. Remember that your staffers have to live with your choices. While the customer comes first, there is more to the equation. Employees must remain on-site for the duration of their shifts, so a seemingly minor aesthetic choice can make a big difference.

3. Don’t get attached to new ideas. I thought my choice was a brilliant one but learned very quickly that not everyone agreed. Not all ideas work in practice, so we should view change as experiments and recognize when to let go.