what's a typical day like?

[Just_Some_Guy]

After submitting my application back in May, I'm being interviewed for an LP position at Nordstrom in the near future. What can I expect to be doing - watching cameras, working the floor in plainclothes, or what? Will this be like most all of my previous security gigs with a lot of downtime (ie. homework time), or will I be active for the whole shift?

etc any other questions you can answer

[Nauticus]

Most loss prevention I've done is plainclothes floorwalking. You'll have to be good with video surveillance, because it's a good tool, but you'll be floorwalking. No downtime at all.

[NRM_Oz]

As my old McDonalds School Trainer said "you got time to lean, you got time to clean". There is no downtime with LP as it is like painting our Sydney Harbour Bridge - it takes 5 years and sometimes you have to paint the spots who need a touch up but once you complete the job it is time to start all over again. A pro-active LPO is an LPO who succeeds. An LPO who shines who sits back and does little is just an expense to the company.

[Ganymede]

A member by the name of [email protected] just posted this on another thread so I wanted to link it because I find this footage to be accurate to daily occurrences at my store.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZq-A4Pkh1s

I only wish I had 2-3 people working with me to make these apprehensions.

[lzrman]

that video gave me a good chuckle

[NRM_Oz]

You do need humour in LP to make it through some days

[bosley]

Typical day for me would be...

You'll have to be good with video surveillance, because it's a good tool, but you'll be floorwalking.

You're right video surveillance is a good tool and like any good tool you would have to be pretty good at using it.

Typical day? Floorwalking - just don't get emersed in the products. (My bad experience)

[NRM_Oz]

I recall a CPP job for a famous rock group in Australia for autograph signing that was done around 5.00pm. It was crap because after 15 minutes the small crowd of 12 went and we waited until 1800 before we were told to do some LP duties to finish off our time. I shopped for Xmas and made 1 arrest as my partner smiled at us being armed and doing LP work as he bought Xmas gifts for his kids with our discount offer.

[bpdblue]

Doing homework on company time?

Just a word of advice about the homework. Unless someone WAY up the supervision ranks in the store told you it was fine to do your homework while on duty, I think you should not even consider it.

In fact even if said same way up there supervisor told you it was ok to do homework while on the clock, I would thank them for the offer, but I would still not do homework there.

[LPAjh9558]

typical day

I'd like to say that for us (me), at our company it's usually divided almost equally between CCTV & floor surveillance. And while I agree that it's just as important to have the experience in CCTV, it should be just the same for floor surveillance. We do all of our floor work in plain clothing also.

[liteyouup]

I find empty packages every morning

I find empty packages every morning, but I never see who's doing it. It's frustrating because the store is sort of slow lately, and I'm watching as much as I can. Today, we found two portable DVD players gone.

[LPAjh9558]

frustrating

I find empty packages every morning, but I never see who's doing it. It's frustrating because the store is sort of slow lately, and I'm watching as much as I can. Today, we found two portable DVD players gone.

We often find empty packages while we're floorwalking, doing dept. checks and/or even doing our "shrink" plans. Most of the time it's the other associates that bring them to us though and it does get upseting at times. I don't know that you can ever see everything but we do our best. It's just that sometimes it doesn't feel like we're doing enough.

[Lynch Mob]

We often find empty packages while we're floorwalking, doing dept. checks and/or even doing our "shrink" plans. Most of the time it's the other associates that bring them to us though and it does get upseting at times. I don't know that you can ever see everything but we do our best. It's just that sometimes it doesn't feel like we're doing enough.

Shoplift agents never can do enough. It is not your fault. The whole system of catching shoplifters is flawed. As long as a company takes the position that they are going to rely upon catching shoplifters to put a stop to shoplifting, you will always find a lot of empty packages.

You can only do what you can do. You can't make up for a flawed strategy.

[liteyouup]

Yeah I just want to get a few people. I have been turning up goose eggs, and the LPM has been there for a month (he's been with the company for years at other stores) and hasn't gotten one either. The DM is like, "how am I supposed to justify your paycheck?"

[LPAjh9558]

Not doing enough

Yeah I just want to get a few people. I have been turning up goose eggs, and the LPM has been there for a month (he's been with the company for years at other stores) and hasn't gotten one either. The DM is like, "how am I supposed to justify your paycheck?"

Shoplift agents never can do enough. It is not your fault. The whole system of catching shoplifters is flawed. As long as a company takes the position that they are going to rely upon catching shoplifters to put a stop to shoplifting, you will always find a lot of empty packages.

You can only do what you can do. You can't make up for a flawed strategy.

Our former LPM was the worst when it came to getting "stats." He was always of the opinion that if we weren't catching people...and added to that the fact that we would be finding those pesky empty packages...well, he figured that we weren't doing our jobs. When the truth was he wasn't catching any more than we were. I agree completely that the system is flawed. It's either that we never have enough LPA's, no coverage, or new "policies" change everything Our paychecks are justified because we're out there doing what we can (our best), and sometimes even getting hurt doing it.....Hang in there