Warm body vs. nobody?

[Condo Guard]

A philisophical debate, if anybody is up for it. I exclude contract security from this, because they are obligated to provide guards - otherwise, they can't bill the client and lose money. As an in house department, we have a minimum staffing level, which we've had to be on for several times due to COVID, the labor shortage, etc. We are now in a position where we can, for the most part, staff all our shifts properly.

Like all departments, we have a certain amount of dead wood. It may be a fine line, but my take is that if a guard is so lazy or incompetent (or both) that someone else has to do their work too, the lazy guard should be let go. I think certain guards are a liability - the bad guys are watching too, and if they know a guard isn't doing his patrols, or does them in a way that you know exactly where he's going to be, when he's going to be on break, etc. then you are inviting crime rather than deterring it.

I get that it may be better to have a warm body than nobody, but I'd rather work a shift with one less guard and do the extra work, than spend eight hours with dead weight earning a paycheck for breathing.

[The Night Rider]

It's not your money bro.

The majority of my coworkers are slugs. They just are it is what it is. That's one of the reasons that I don't concern myself with what happens on their shift.

I'm not their supervisor. For me to attempt to act as a supervisor would be overstepping my bounds.

We used to have a supervisor. The company phone they issue has has a Tracker in it. Every two weeks she would get an email showing everybody's patrol patterns, when we made our scans and a photo of the lot for each shift with our movement patterns in red. She used to show it to me and at least half of them you could look on the photo and tell they never got out of the company car one time during their shift.

My employer got that report and so did the client. They're absolutely aware the majority of the guards on that site are not doing their jobs and they're not doing a damn thing about it. If they don't care I refuse to.

I show up on time. I do my job to the best of my ability within the limits of company policy and then I leave.

[Condo Guard]

Good points. I worked one contract where security was required by the insurance co. We were just there so the client could get a discount and be in compliance. The entire year I worked that contract I saw a field supervisor three times.

You're right - the higher ups know, and personnel decisions are their job. I just think when you have guards that attract crime you're doing it wrong. But I worked a site a couple of years ago with a lot of copper theft, mostly because the night crew was either asleep or bribed to look the other way. As far as I know, none of them got fired...