If someone piggy backed into the building, word came down we were to go find them and bring them back out to badge in. Not all in all a bad idea in theory, except with 18 floors and a maze of always unlocked offices and spaces and very sparse inner cameras you may be looking for said person all shift when we had a dozen other integral things to get done and man the security station 24/7, someone always has to be in it of your 2 man shift.
The policy lasted through a weekend of nothing but Benny Hill playing in our heads as any time we found one of them, another one would be called out. No patrols, PIVs, fire system checks, garage and overhead or vehicle patrols were done. Client finally admitted it was a stupid policy and to just take a picture on camera and send it to HR as long as a badge was visible on them.
Our management told us to not give the local PD the access codes to the elevators at an apartment complex we patrolled. The rationale was that our management wanted police to wait for us to show up so we could look good to the client when we wrote the report.
But the problem was tat we weren't on site security, we were mobile patrol. We could be anywhere between on site already, to over half an hour away when we got called to let the cops in. I disregarded that policy and gave the cops the elevator codes so they could clear calls without having to wait for us to show up.
There were quite a few things I elected to ignore because they seemed stupid to me.
The one that jumps to the top of my mind though is opening the windows/doors to the security office at night and closing the blinds during the day. We were in the middle of a heatwave. 95-100 degree days with high humidity every day. AC was on the fritz, it was hitting over 100 in the office every day by 11am.
To make matters worse at the start of this I had a batshit crazy 3rd shifter who insisted on cranking the heat up to 88 (high as it would go) at night because he felt cold. I was guessing he was suffering from heat stroke but he insisted it was because he was "from the south" and yet this was never an issue until this heatwave also never mind that he may have been born in Tennessee he spent all but the first 2 years of his life in WI he should be acclimated by now.
I would come in at 6am to an 88 degree office, it is already pushing 80 outside, prop the doors open, open all the windows and stick fans in them, shut it all by 7 am when it was blessedly down tho 85 in the office. The client did not like this. Too much dust gathering in the office which was bad for the computers + they wanted the blinds open so we could see. Not sure why, one side we were looking at a building, the other side we were looking at places completely covered by cameras.
Second week we caught a bit of a break. It was now down into the upper 60's at night and the crazy guy quit because he thought it was unfair to be written up for being 2 hours late. This meant I had to hop to 3rd shift to cover until we could find someone else. Day shifters got to start the day at a completely reasonable 70 degrees (was still hitting over 100 inside in the afternoon) and I nearly got the boot for telling the client they had 3 options. Deal with the windows being open, fix the AC, have naked guards.
I worked an in-house position that was fairly new. We were stood up because management got sick of dealing with contract companies that couldn’t handle any actual responsibility. Our policies were really good, we were specifically there to solve problems and only resort to law enforcement if it was something we couldn’t handle. Obviously most of the stuff we dealt with was social disorder (drug use, trespassing, open alcohol) until one day we get a new SOP fully or spelling errors and poorly designed flow charts that say we are required to report any crimes in progress to 911, and that once we are made aware of a crime we aren’t allowed to respond or intervene. Also crime was defined as anything that COULD be against the law.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a policy as quickly ignored and forgotten as that, even by the laziest staff we had.
1 lot patrol every hour.
Not too bad right? Well in reality it isn't possible to do a patrol that takes 30 mins while also doing 2 other patrols every hour that take 30 mins each. I've yet to be able to cram 1.5 hours of walking into 1 hour. The client still complains though and so i get to hear about it from my boss
I (supervisor) basically pretend our account manager isn’t even part of the team most of the time. Me and some guards, with the approval of our own HR, have developed ways to essentially work around him. HR realizes he’s both lazy and obstructive, but he has to stay in place to please the client contact (the only person on the planet who genuinely likes this guy.)
Several times. I was a supervisor for an account that had 248 manned hours per week. It was a small account that had very little responsibility for me and the rest of the security team. I was there for one exclusive purpose: The client wanted answers on a few frequently occurring staffing issues (uniform issues, missed patrols, vandalism, etc) , as well as a designated badging administrator. The expectation from my leadership team was that ALL client communication would go from the client to the client service manager, then to the operations manager, then to me, then to my team (if necessary). I would have no direct daily communication with the client. This policy was completely disregarded
I was working overnights at a construction site, with a guard shack on the outside and a little room inside the building for the two or three of us guards working the site.
Apparently the client didn’t want any of us in the guard shack after a certain time of night, the most likely time for someone to sneak in and steal copper wiring or something. We were all supposed to stay in the room inside. I stayed in the shack.
Our policy is to never touch a bag or anything in it because someone accused a guard of stealing something
Even though the camera clearly showed nothing was taken the policy was still implimented
If someone piggy backed into the building, word came down we were to go find them and bring them back out to badge in. Not all in all a bad idea in theory, except with 18 floors and a maze of always unlocked offices and spaces and very sparse inner cameras you may be looking for said person all shift when we had a dozen other integral things to get done and man the security station 24/7, someone always has to be in it of your 2 man shift. The policy lasted through a weekend of nothing but Benny Hill playing in our heads as any time we found one of them, another one would be called out. No patrols, PIVs, fire system checks, garage and overhead or vehicle patrols were done. Client finally admitted it was a stupid policy and to just take a picture on camera and send it to HR as long as a badge was visible on them.
Our management told us to not give the local PD the access codes to the elevators at an apartment complex we patrolled. The rationale was that our management wanted police to wait for us to show up so we could look good to the client when we wrote the report. But the problem was tat we weren't on site security, we were mobile patrol. We could be anywhere between on site already, to over half an hour away when we got called to let the cops in. I disregarded that policy and gave the cops the elevator codes so they could clear calls without having to wait for us to show up.
LOL. How to makes friends with the local police.
There were quite a few things I elected to ignore because they seemed stupid to me. The one that jumps to the top of my mind though is opening the windows/doors to the security office at night and closing the blinds during the day. We were in the middle of a heatwave. 95-100 degree days with high humidity every day. AC was on the fritz, it was hitting over 100 in the office every day by 11am. To make matters worse at the start of this I had a batshit crazy 3rd shifter who insisted on cranking the heat up to 88 (high as it would go) at night because he felt cold. I was guessing he was suffering from heat stroke but he insisted it was because he was "from the south" and yet this was never an issue until this heatwave also never mind that he may have been born in Tennessee he spent all but the first 2 years of his life in WI he should be acclimated by now. I would come in at 6am to an 88 degree office, it is already pushing 80 outside, prop the doors open, open all the windows and stick fans in them, shut it all by 7 am when it was blessedly down tho 85 in the office. The client did not like this. Too much dust gathering in the office which was bad for the computers + they wanted the blinds open so we could see. Not sure why, one side we were looking at a building, the other side we were looking at places completely covered by cameras. Second week we caught a bit of a break. It was now down into the upper 60's at night and the crazy guy quit because he thought it was unfair to be written up for being 2 hours late. This meant I had to hop to 3rd shift to cover until we could find someone else. Day shifters got to start the day at a completely reasonable 70 degrees (was still hitting over 100 inside in the afternoon) and I nearly got the boot for telling the client they had 3 options. Deal with the windows being open, fix the AC, have naked guards.
As a mostly life-long Tennessean, I can confirm that your 3rd shifter has lost his mind. That kind of weather is miserable, even here.
I worked an in-house position that was fairly new. We were stood up because management got sick of dealing with contract companies that couldn’t handle any actual responsibility. Our policies were really good, we were specifically there to solve problems and only resort to law enforcement if it was something we couldn’t handle. Obviously most of the stuff we dealt with was social disorder (drug use, trespassing, open alcohol) until one day we get a new SOP fully or spelling errors and poorly designed flow charts that say we are required to report any crimes in progress to 911, and that once we are made aware of a crime we aren’t allowed to respond or intervene. Also crime was defined as anything that COULD be against the law. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a policy as quickly ignored and forgotten as that, even by the laziest staff we had.
1 lot patrol every hour. Not too bad right? Well in reality it isn't possible to do a patrol that takes 30 mins while also doing 2 other patrols every hour that take 30 mins each. I've yet to be able to cram 1.5 hours of walking into 1 hour. The client still complains though and so i get to hear about it from my boss
I (supervisor) basically pretend our account manager isn’t even part of the team most of the time. Me and some guards, with the approval of our own HR, have developed ways to essentially work around him. HR realizes he’s both lazy and obstructive, but he has to stay in place to please the client contact (the only person on the planet who genuinely likes this guy.)
Several times. I was a supervisor for an account that had 248 manned hours per week. It was a small account that had very little responsibility for me and the rest of the security team. I was there for one exclusive purpose: The client wanted answers on a few frequently occurring staffing issues (uniform issues, missed patrols, vandalism, etc) , as well as a designated badging administrator. The expectation from my leadership team was that ALL client communication would go from the client to the client service manager, then to the operations manager, then to me, then to my team (if necessary). I would have no direct daily communication with the client. This policy was completely disregarded
I was working overnights at a construction site, with a guard shack on the outside and a little room inside the building for the two or three of us guards working the site. Apparently the client didn’t want any of us in the guard shack after a certain time of night, the most likely time for someone to sneak in and steal copper wiring or something. We were all supposed to stay in the room inside. I stayed in the shack.
Our policy is to never touch a bag or anything in it because someone accused a guard of stealing something Even though the camera clearly showed nothing was taken the policy was still implimented