Lanyards Hold Identification
What do lifeguards and corporate office workers have in common? That’s right they both use a neck lanyard to hold their identification. The corporate office worker uses one to hold an identification badge and the lifeguard use one to hold their whistle. Both are identified by what is attached to the lanyard, but one has a lot more fun with their identification than the other.
Lifeguards get to show their authority by swinging the whistle lanyard around their fingers and walking around the pool making sure that everyone is okay and not in any danger. They also get to use their identification to exert that authority by blowing on the whistle to get a misbehaving swimmers attention and correct them in what they are doing.
An office worker doesn’t have that much fun with their means of identification and instead of being an image of authority it is more an image of conformity and herd-like behavior. Their badges do get them inside the building, but unlike the life guard, everyone has a badge and lanyard and no one without one can get in. The life guard is the opposite. Their lanyard and whistle is a sign of individuality and the image of coolness. They are the only ones with the identification symbols and the give them status and set them apart from the rest of the people instead of bringing them in to conformity.
So maybe they really don’t have anything in common at all other than a lanyard to hold identification. The life guard is free and an image of independence. They get to be outside in the nice summer weather and enjoy their jobs. An office worker gets herded inside every day and their lanyard and badge means they are just another piece of the larger puzzle and not independent at all. Stuck inside they miss most of summer and only re-appear for the commute home. They both use a lanyard to identify themselves, but the life guard really gets the better end of the bargain. How many of those office workers daydreams are of being a life guard while stuck inside on those nice summer days?