Gen Z wants balance, but the water demands commitment

A response to the article in “de Ondernemer: ‘Young employees care less about the company’ https://www.deondernemer.nl/personeel/werk-privebalans-jonge-werknemers-werkgevers-onderzoek-ipsos-io~91e02846

📍 by Shiva de Winter – chair of NSWZ, water safety expert and swim school owner

The youngest generations want flexibility. Employers want growth. And in between, there's friction.

This week, the AD ran an article about the generational clash in the labour market. Young people are looking for meaning, freedom and balance. Employers want engagement, commitment and responsibility. The collision is palpable – in our field too: swimming instruction.

And it's precisely there that this collision becomes downright dangerous.

Because while we're all debating job satisfaction and self-development, there's a child in the pool. A child who has to learn how to survive. A child who doesn't yet know the difference between floating and drowning. A child who – however young – is entirely dependent on the skill, sharpness and attention of the person standing in front of the group.

Swimming instruction demands craftsmanship, not convenience

A few weeks ago, I wrote this:

“Being a swimming instructor isn't a side job. Not a gap-year project. Not a bit of flexible work. It's a profession. A profession you learn with wet feet, open eyes and complete focus on the child in the water.”

And yet the broader social trend – where the younger generation has to ‘feel’, balance and pace everything – seems to be seeping into swimming instruction too. We see it in stripped-down training courses, in placements that fit systems rather than children, and in a flow of young instructors who never truly learned the trade.

And I do understand it. The call for work-life balance, mental space and a sense of purpose is genuine. But in some professions, it isn't about you. It's about the other person.

In swimming lessons, that is quite literally a matter of life and death.

What happens when the sense of responsibility evaporates?

De Ondernemer rightly points out that younger employees seem to ‘care less about the company’ – at least in the eyes of their employers. In swimming instruction, that isn't an HR problem, but a risk to society.

If we keep treating young instructors as though swimming lessons are a box-ticking exercise – something you do on the side until your ‘real work’ begins – then we're digging a hole that no professional will step into anymore. Then children in the water will be supervised by students working a side job who'd rather be online than truly present, for whom overtime or extra effort quickly becomes a bridge too far. Then the very essence of our profession disappears: teaching for safety.

The child comes first – not the format, not the generation

What do we need?

Training courses that focus on practice, not on PowerPoints and online meetings.

Because swimming lessons aren't about generational differences. Swimming lessons are about children. And children couldn't care less about work-life balance or meaningful work. They need to become safe. Full stop.

So, to all young job seekers, trainers and policymakers:

If you truly want to make an impact, choose a profession where you change lives every single day. Where you're not working for likes or a ‘meaningful work experience’, but because your presence makes the difference between fear and trust, between helplessness and survival.

After 29 years of teaching swimming – 14 of them as a lifeguard at a forest lake – I've seen it all pass by. I stood by the water when the first signs of complacency appeared: young people who'd rather hang on the fence than really pay attention, for whom looking good and sunbathing mattered more than safety. That's when the rot began to set in. And now it threatens to take hold.

What I always say: 👉 Either you can teach, or you can't. You don't learn that from a book. It's in your attitude, your instinct, your sense of responsibility. In the ability to think ahead rather than wait and see.

You don't become a swimming instructor for yourself. You do it for the other person. For the child who needs you completely in that moment. For the parents who place their trust in you. For a society that has to stay safe in a country full of water.

Because swimming lessons aren't a trend. They're a necessity. And that calls for people with a heart for the profession – not a schedule that suits your stage of life, but a calling that's bigger than you are.