How easy is your job?

[Jeremy]

I have been a trainee in the nuclear security field, and am currently working in unarmed contract security. I've been at 3 different sites that our company has contracts for, and the post I am assigned to now has got to be the easiest security job ever. I know most of you guys here have busy jobs that come with alot of responsibility. Some of you are also EMTs, you may have arrest powers or carry weapons, have multiple buildings to patrol several times a shift or you may drive security vehicles.

Our contract is with a pharmaceutical company. They have us under contract to provide security for two buildings on the campus. It is a 5 officer site. Two officers and the site manager on first shift, and two officers on second shift. Each officer is assigned to one of the two buildings, so we don't rotate and we rarely travel to eachother's buildings. I'm on the second shift (3pm to 11pm) and I might talk to the other officer about once a week. There is no graveyard shift, since the main campus security drives around, they are able to respond to alarms in our buildings and watch it during the midnight hours. We have all holidays off (they aren't paid though), and a week off for christmas. There is virtually no overtime here unless an officer quits.

90% of my shift is spent at the security desk in the lobby. The desk is equipped with a printer and computer which has the alarm monitoring software and software to issue and modify access badges. There are two monitors and a joystick pad for the Pan Tilt and Zoom cameras that are in the building and outside. And there is a refridgerator and microwave (that I purchased and added )

Is is very laid back here. Most of the time I just copy and paste the same shift report, but I just change the date. The minimum tours are supposed to be 2 inside, 1 outside. But most of the time I can get away with doing just 1 tour per shift, inside. I usually do the tour at 10:20, and leave to go home early at 10:40. It is a 3 story office building, and I only have to lock about 12 rooms.

From 3 to 6 is when I see the most "action". A few visitors might need to be let out of the lobby (it is a closed lobby with turnstiles) or I may have to sign out a parking pass or two.

When I think about the time I spend doing actual security work, its not that much at all. Probably 30 minutes during a whole shift. Everyone is gone from the building at about 6.

The fountain soda machine in the cafateria is usually on, and the computer at my desk has internet access. I'm typing this post on it right now. So thats what keeps me from getting bored - the internet.

So can anyone top this? Do you have it easier than me?

Edit: The site is located 4.6 miles from my apartment too!

[Mr. Security]

I have been a trainee in the nuclear security field, and am currently working in unarmed contract security. I've been at 3 different sites that our company has contracts for, and the post I am assigned to now has got to be the easiest security job ever. I know most of you guys here have busy jobs that come with alot of responsibility. Some of you are also EMTs, you may have arrest powers or carry weapons, have multiple buildings to patrol several times a shift or you may drive security vehicles.

Our contract is with a pharmaceutical company. They have us under contract to provide security for two buildings on the campus. It is a 5 officer site. Two officers and the site manager on first shift, and two officers on second shift. Each officer is assigned to one of the two buildings, so we don't rotate and we rarely travel to eachother's buildings. I'm on the second shift (3pm to 11pm) and I might talk to the other officer about once a week. There is no graveyard shift, since the main campus security drives around, they are able to respond to alarms in our buildings and watch it during the midnight hours. We have all holidays off (they aren't paid though), and a week off for christmas. There is virtually no overtime here unless an officer quits.

90% of my shift is spent at the security desk in the lobby. The desk is equipped with a printer and computer which has the alarm monitoring software and software to issue and modify access badges. There are two monitors and a joystick pad for the Pan Tilt and Zoom cameras that are in the building and outside. And there is a refridgerator and microwave (that I purchased and added )

Is is very laid back here. Most of the time I just copy and paste the same shift report, but I just change the date. The minimum tours are supposed to be 2 inside, 1 outside. But most of the time I can get away with doing just 1 tour per shift, inside. I usually do the tour at 10:20, and leave to go home early at 10:40. It is a 3 story office building, and I only have to lock about 12 rooms.

From 3 to 6 is when I see the most "action". A few visitors might need to be let out of the lobby (it is a closed lobby with turnstiles) or I may have to sign out a parking pass or two.

When I think about the time I spend doing actual security work, its not that much at all. Probably 30 minutes during a whole shift. Everyone is gone from the building at about 6.

The fountain soda machine in the cafateria is usually on, and the computer at my desk has internet access. I'm typing this post on it right now. So thats what keeps me from getting bored - the internet.

So can anyone top this? Do you have it easier than me?

Edit: The site is located about 8 miles from my apartment too!

That is a concern. I'm surprised that you wouldn't want to at least fulfill the minimum requirements for the job.

[JSam21]

Its stuff like this that kinda ticks me off a bit. "I'm suposed to do 3 patrols, but I can get away with one." Wrong... Do your job!! Its what the client is paying the contract for. If you don't want to walk around all night that's fine but at least do you minimum patrols.

By the way... the cut and paste shift report is going to come bite you in the ass one of these days.

[copelandamuffy]

On your patrols do you do the following?

Do you check the inner
office doors and rattle the door knobs to make sure whose office needs locking, is locked?

Check in offices for someone who may have left a coffee maker on.

If there is a kitchen in the building, check the stove for any burners on

If there is a smoking area. check for any cigarettes that maybe still burning?

Any lights that are left on, can you turn them off?

In the computer room check the temperature

Check the mail room

Check the air-handler rooms

If there is a credit union in the building check and recheck all doors.

Check and recheck all floors for perhaps any visitors who maybe should not be there.

On outside patrols do you recheck all doors.Check for cars in the parking lot.
People and kids loitering in the parking lot.

Do you go down into the basement and utility area and check the furnace for potential gas leaks? Check for trash in this area.

Are exits blocked?

Notice any fire extinquishers that need to be recharged?



Most of the time I just copy and paste the same shift report, but I just change the date. The minimum tours are supposed to be 2 inside, 1 outside. But most of the time I can get away with doing just 1 tour per shift, inside. I usually do the tour at 10:20, and leave to go home early at 10:40.
Since I am an Account Manager and in the positon of hiring and firiing
Your sorry a** would be fired !!

What do you think this is a kid's game we are working so dang hard to make
professional?

You get away with only doing one tour inside. Real nice.
In a week you cheat the client out of five tours, and in a year
250 tours and patrols.

What if you so proudly boast that the 2nd tour your suppose to
be doing a fire ignited on the roof? But your playing of course on the Internet, probably would have not noticed that and felt it that second tour
is not needed.


And you leave at 2240 hours. When you are paid till 2300 hours.
Each day you rob the customer/client out of 20 minutes.
In a week that is 100 minutes.
How would you feel if we docked your pay at about this much time
each and every week?

And you cut and paste. So you mean to tell me nothing happens between
1500-2300? You work at pharmaceutical company. I find that hard to
believe.

You only talk to the other Officer once a week? Ever thought of doing a well being check on one another?Calling each other once every other hour.

Hello Jeremy, this Cope, just checking to make sure your ok. Cold outside tonight, call you at 2100 hours

How do I know you might not have fallen down a flight of stairs at 1930 hours?

And you state this Contract Security? God I hope and pray that you don't work for the same Contract Company I do.

By the way. I am no new kid on the block. I have been doing this for 35 years. I am proud of what I do and I expect all Security Officers to be
professional at all times.

[JSam21]

^^Amen brother, Amen

[JB diligence]

Dido to all, but sounds like Jeremy is kinda new and still learning what the security thing is all about.

Jeremy, try to be more proactive if you can (proceed with caution though), sounds like they need a leader. Read up on the threads here, theres lots to learn and share.

Cheers

JB

[Jeremy]

Well I got to say you've inspired me to work harder. I'll answer some of the questions in your post:

On your patrols do you do the following?

Do you check the inner
office doors and rattle the door knobs to make sure whose office needs locking, is locked?

Weird policy, but we're not supposed to lock any employee offices that are left open. There is one office area that I'm supposed to lock, and I always check it.

Check in offices for someone who may have left a coffee maker on.

There are only 3 coffee makers in the building which I do pass by, one of them is thermos heated.

If there is a kitchen in the building, check the stove for any burners on

There is a kitchen, and I got to admit that i've been slacking when walking through the cafateria.

If there is a smoking area. check for any cigarettes that maybe still burning?

Designated smoking area is located in the back parking lot in a bus-shuttle like enclosure. It's steel, glass and concrete so nothing is flammible, but I guess the wooded area next to it could catch on fire. I usually pay attention to the camera back there so I would catch it. But still - I'll have to include that smoke shelter in my outside tour route.

Any lights that are left on, can you turn them off?

I know which light switches to turn off, and I get them all on the 2220 tour. But I probably should tour the floor with the most offices more often to look for lights on.

In the computer room check the temperature

I do check the data rooms. I probably should check the temperatures (We're not told to, but it should be checked anyway).

Check the mail room

Mailroom is a small closet (real mailroom is in the other building), I do check the doorknob and turn the light out if its on.

Check the air-handler rooms

Don't think we have one of those

If there is a credit union in the building check and recheck all doors.

There is a credit union but not in my assigned post.

Check and recheck all floors for perhaps any visitors who maybe should not be there.

Yeah I look in all the training and conference rooms for people still hanging out.

On outside patrols do you recheck all doors.Check for cars in the parking lot.
People and kids loitering in the parking lot.

The outside doors can be checked from the inside, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to check them outside. I do check cars in the parking lot and I have written parking violations before. No one has loitered in the parking lot yet (location of the campus is pretty far from homes) but I once saw two people making out on my camera, close to my building. But it wasn't company property, so I couldn't heckle them.

Do you go down into the basement and utility area and check the furnace for potential gas leaks? Check for trash in this area.

No basement.

Are exits blocked?

Yeah I check exits.

Notice any fire extinquishers that need to be recharged?

I checked all fire extinguishers a few weeks ago and sent a memo to the manager that they need to be serviced again.

Most of the time I just copy and paste the same shift report, but I just change the date. The minimum tours are supposed to be 2 inside, 1 outside. But most of the time I can get away with doing just 1 tour per shift, inside. I usually do the tour at 10:20, and leave to go home early at 10:40.
Since I am an Account Manager and in the positon of hiring and firiing
Your sorry a** would be fired !!

I didn't include enough info about this practice I add and update the shift report if events happen like incidents, contractors entering, vehicle assistance, property removals, etc. My report probably should include more info though about the specific shift and that in theory is easy to do since I'm typing, not handwriting.

What do you think this is a kid's game we are working so dang hard to make
professional?

This site is just so laid back. I think if I had more supervision, I'd be going above and beyond. But nothing happens here...Its pretty much impossible to mess up. And if there is some type of inspection or special duty, someone else always does it. For example, the recent fire drill. I didn't do anything but stand there and watch the employees leave and come back in. 12 Other guys came over and did everything else. The client has very few demands from us.

I am professional and I have performed as well as you are describing in your post (at my last assigned site), but I just got lazy at this site. Most of my shift the building is like a ghost town!

You get away with only doing one tour inside. Real nice.
In a week you cheat the client out of five tours, and in a year
250 tours and patrols.

Again, nothing out of the ordinary ever happens at the site. It only takes 1 tour to properly secure everything. But point taken. You want to be prepared so when that rare %1 chance thing happens, you're prepared or you can prevent it. But from speaking with the officer who I relieve, nothing has ever happened since the building has been built. All maintenance things are TRIPLE checked by the maintenance department. My building is so taken care of that there just isn't too much that needs to be checked.

But point taken, things should be checked again and again.

What if you so proudly boast that the 2nd tour your suppose to
be doing a fire ignited on the roof? But your playing of course on the Internet, probably would have not noticed that and felt it that second tour
is not needed.

Good question, I believe the alarm system would go off and let me know? I don't have access to the roof, so it is hard for me to prevent fires up there.

And you leave at 2240 hours. When you are paid till 2300 hours.
Each day you rob the customer/client out of 20 minutes.
In a week that is 100 minutes.
How would you feel if we docked your pay at about this much time
each and every week?

I routinely arrive early at 14:20 or 14:30 daily to assume the post. The officer i'm relieving sticks around to talk for a little, but can leave at 1430 if he wants. I should stay until 2300, since there is no relief.

And you cut and paste. So you mean to tell me nothing happens between
1500-2300? You work at pharmaceutical company. I find that hard to
believe.

We have log sheets for door unlocks, issued temp badges, parking passes, visitors, etc. I do include other events in my activity log, but I could include more. Nobody reads them though!!! Since the building was built and 4 years of our contract company here, no activity reports to my knoweldge have been pulled up for review because nothing happens here lol. The worst thing that has happened in my 13 months of working here was a few days ago. An employee wrote in the dust of a car with his fingertip "Go Red Sox" on someone elses car, and that employee got offended. That is ALL! And I even included that in the activity report and wrote a detailed incident report.

You only talk to the other Officer once a week? Ever thought of doing a well being check on one another?Calling each other once every other hour.

Main campus security does radio checks with us (they havent been doing them daily for the last few months though). but I see your point. I think the other officer would probably get annoyed by my calls and he would probably tell me to stop calling him so much. I don't know, I'll talk to him about it on monday.

Hello Jeremy, this Cope, just checking to make sure your ok. Cold outside tonight, call you at 2100 hours

How do I know you might not have fallen down a flight of stairs at 1930 hours?

And you state this Contract Security? God I hope and pray that you don't work for the same Contract Company I do.

By the way. I am no new kid on the block. I have been doing this for 35 years. I am proud of what I do and I expect all Security Officers to be
professional at all times.

Are you with one of the big national contract companies?

Thanks for your advice. I think i'll try to work harder from now on.

[JSam21]

Its the posts where "nothing" happens that you should be the most alert. Because when the doo doo butter hits the fan you won't be mentally prepared to handle the situation. Always think something is going to happen and know what to do.

I will admit that I fell into that habit when working one of our slowest posts on the campus. I was half-assing the night and then the next thing I knew I've got a fight between two drunks in my parking lot. Nearest back up is at least 4 minutes away so it was time to fight.

I could have got hurt if I didn't quickly regain my composure and remeber my training.

[CorpSec]

I don't blame you a whole lot. Granted, you should be doing at least the minimum that the client has contracted for. But, they don't seem all that interested in security there. It is human nature that people will tend to live up (or down) to expectations that are set for them. Your post does show what a lack of supervision tends to lead to.

Personally that job doesn't sound like my cup of tea. It sounds like standard suburban office building fare.

You may want to see if your company has fill in hours available at other sites so that you can be exposed to a little more variety and hopefully find your niche.

Also, have they told you that you can avail yourself to the fountain pop? I know it might seem petty and "only" fountain pop, but if nobody has told you that free pop is part of the gig, you're stealing. Leaving 20 minutes early every night is also a form of stealing as well.

[Lawson]

I think I can top that.

I wont really go into most of our duties, but 90% of my time is spent either in my office on the internet waiting for a call (which are usually far and few between) or sitting on our Evaluation and Treatment floor chatting with the mental health aides (who get paid to sit around and do nothing for most of the night). Sometimes there are movies and video games, it's really relaxed... its hardly like having to go to a job at all.

The S/Os on Dayshift have it a lot tougher, their days are usually very busy, but at night everything dies down to a dull purr.

[JB diligence]

A 4 minute responce time is sweet, wait for backup to arrive then go in! I always wait till I see my backup comming before I/we move in, this way were all right there, and have a show of force which is beter then one alone.

[CorpSec]

Yep, wading into a fight alone is not smart, nor is it in the scope of a lot of security officer's duties. If you have gotten injured, most companies and responding cops would regard it as your fault.

I would call the police and possibly yell at them to quit fighting from a safe distance (this often has worked actually).

The only way that I am physically intervening is if it is a company employee or a cop involved. Otherwise, let the drunks duke it out. They will tire themselves out soon enough.

[JB diligence]

I will admit that I fell into that habit when working one of our slowest posts on the campus. I was half-assing the night and then the next thing I knew I've got a fight between two drunks in my parking lot. Nearest back up is at least 4 minutes away so it was time to fight.

I could have got hurt if I didn't quickly regain my composure and remeber my training.

A 4 minute responce time is nice, but never go in alone!

[integrator97]

The customer may seem like they don't care about security because they feel that's what you're paid for.

As far as no one looking at the log books, well, why should my cameras record. No one ever looks at the recording. Until there's a problem that is. Same with your logbook. And that's when an attorney is going to want to see them, to determine what standard practice is.

As far as "nothing has happened since it was built". Well, most places don't get broken into on a regular basis. There is no "hit list" that says it's ok cause it's new, or it's not ok to rob, since it's older and never has been.

What makes you think maintenance isn't sitting around saying "security does 2 rounds, they'll let us know if there's a problem".

As you said, it's a very easy assignment. Don't take advantage of it, or you might be wandering arond in a 20 degree cold storage freezer dreaming about your last "easy" assignment.

[JB diligence]

Sorry 'bout the double post.