Security makes me insecure

[Lady Heather]

Alzheimer's?

The 70ish security guard, has no memory. She has stoped me 3 times, thinking I was a mallrat, hanging out after hours. The first time was the best. I was trying to walk out as she had just locked the door.
Sucky Guard:"You shouldn't be in the mall at this time! It's 10:02 we close at 9:00pm! You kids can't stay after closing! What were you doing here this late!?
Me: (Big fake ) I'm the Asst. Manager at XXX. I was doing the Deposit at the drop box. Would you mind letting me out? I've been here since 10:00am, and would like to go home.

You'd think she'd remember me after that, but no. She's stoped me twice since then.

[AKWalMartCartGuy]

where is your mall? even I could outrun that security LOL

[bean]

Instead of hiring guys who pretend to be cops or couldn't get into the police academy...

My store hires off duty cops in full uniform instead. Granted, they're only there after dark and until about 11:30, but once they leave the front doors are locked. The only way in is banging on the glass and hoping someone hears you (lol yeah right) or knowing the code to the door at the dock. And they just changed the code without telling anybody. We don't seem to have much in the way of obvious shoplifters, our biggest problem is people eating something inside the store then leaving it behind something else. I'm sure we do lose a bit to shoplifters, but we don't have people walking out in trench coats filled with steaks.

[K245five]

A friend of mine once worked for a security company for a little over 3 years. They were contracted out by a huge local factory to provide security services for them.

Well, most of the guards in this case sucked mainly because they weren't so much old or not fluent in English, but just plain STUPID! He said that most of them were just too dumb to do anything else but show up there and sit at a desk or guard shack for eight hours. They would get lost on rounds, not know how to work the phone system, etc.. At this was in spite of the fact that some of them had been there for quite awhile!

The kicker was when one guard accidentally set off an alarm. It went "BONG, BONG, BONG, BONG..." very loudly. What did this guard do? He just sat at the desk for an HOUR, eating while it was "bonging" right in his ear! My friend came back from his round, and was incredulous when the guard told him what was going on.

They also had guards that would call off and no-show repeatedly. They got away with it because the security company didn't have any absenteeism policy to speak of! Thus, my friend would repeatedly have to work double shifts because the guard relieving him would never show up. Plus, he was constantly being called in for additional shifts because of this. Literally everytime he had a day off. This lead to some VERY heated arguments with the supervisor and Head of Security for the site appointed by the company.

Needless to say, he was VERY glad to get out of that company!

[smileyeagle1021]

At least the company that provides our security finally got rid of the old 2nd shift lady... she needed a handicapped parking space... need I say more. Our current second shift guard is a royal jackass as far as I can tell (i almost never talk to him, but he seems like a neonazi), but my God he makes me feel safer than the old lady did. He looks like the type of person that could kill someone with his thumb.

[Rapscallion]

need I say more.

I would advise doing so, unless you want to appear to demonise all handicapped people.

Rapscallion

[crazylegs]

she needed a handicapped parking space... need I say more.

This http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...ixnewstop.html chap would be eligable to use a blue badge. You might want to elaborate slightly.

[Broomjockey]

This http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...ixnewstop.html chap would be eligable to use a blue badge.

Yeowza! Talk about tough. "Yeah doc. Lose the leg. I wanna kick some ass."

Geez, now I feel more than slightly inadequate.

[JustADude]

This http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...ixnewstop.html chap would be eligable to use a blue badge. You might want to elaborate slightly.

Yes, but that is an exception, not the majority of those with physical disability. I think we all know, once we stop with the knee-jerk vilifications, what was intended by the phrase: i.e. The security guard was physically infirm to the point of Handicapped status, the infirmity being such as to render her ineffective as a visible deterrent and likely unable to prosecute any interdictions that may be required of her, and SmileyEagle didn't wish to go into medical details.

I'm quite sure the lady in question is as mentally astute as any other person (perhaps more-so, who knows?), but a significant percentage of a uniformed security officer's job is passive intimidation and reassurance. If they don't have the physical presence to make their charges feel safer and trouble-makers more cautious, then they're not doing their job.

[Jester]

...but a significant percentage of a uniformed security officer's job is passive intimidation and reassurance. If they don't have the physical presence to make their charges feel safer and trouble-makers more cautious, then they're not doing their job.

Well, yes and no. Sometimes it is merely a security guard's job to be a "watchman", to simply keep an eye on things and alert someone if something is amiss.

I forgot all about this, but my friend Mouse did just such a stint for a time while in college. Now, her name is not really Mouse, nor is that her nickname, but because of her very timid nature, it is the name I have given her for the purpose of these boards. While Mouse is in good physical shape and of average size for a woman her age (8 days younger than me), she in no way is intimidating to anyone, and wasn't back in her 20's, either. And yet somehow this quiet, unassuming, timid, shy young woman got a job as....a security guard. Basically, her job was to patrol around a warehouse area, and all she was given was a uniform, a flashlight, and a radio. I laughed about her doing that job then, and I still laugh about it. (She is now a very successful, award-winning planner in the Northeast.)

But your point about the security guard in the post in question not being effective if they have to park in the handicapped spot is still pretty much spot on. Obviously that doesn't apply to EVERYONE who would use that spot, but I don't think that that is what the poster was saying.

[cinema guy]

Yeowza! Talk about tough.

Sound like Henry Paget at Waterloo. When a canonball hit his leg, he said to Wellington, "By God Sir, I've lost my leg."