Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are hiring a seasonal, on-call “beach water person” based in Kauai, Hawaii, where the family owns a sprawling compound, according to a new job listing on Greenhouse associated with West 10, the Zuckerberg family office.
This is an interesting choice for a job title, because according to the job description, the primary duties of this “beach water person” include serving as a “beach lifeguard” and “pool lifeguard.” In other words, being a lifeguard.
The job listing also mentions serving as a “boat deckhand” and names a few additional duties, such as instructing “stand-up paddleboarding (SUP), canoe paddling, snorkeling, and other ocean-based activities.” These, however, come after the water safety responsibilities in the job description.
This position easily could have been called “pool/beach lifeguard” or simply “lifeguard.” For the sake of comprehensiveness, “pool/beach lifeguard and boat deckhand” would have also worked. Alternatively, the Zuckerbergs could have chosen “beach/pool attendant,” a job title roughly synonymous with lifeguard that could reasonably be interpreted as encompassing extra duties associated with leisure, such as tending to a boat or teaching people how to paddleboard.
Arguably, any of these options would have provided more clarity than “beach water person,” which does not appear to correspond with a job title anywhere else in the English-speaking world.
WIRED did not immediately hear back from representatives of the Zuckerberg family. Lacking a human to speak with, we decided to ask Meta’s AI chatbot, “What is a ‘beach water person’?”
“Beach water person’ would just mean someone who loves being in/near the ocean,” the chatbot said. “The word for that is thalassophile—‘a person who loves the seas and oceans.’” OK!
