I get to be supervisor...... oh goody!

[Blame_The_Guard]

Our supervisor was fired last week. I was told I would be the new supervisor. I would get to be called "Captain," and wear cool gold bars on my collar. I would leave my comfortable 3 to 11pm shift and get up at 5am every morning to be at work at 7. I would be responsible for all the myriad mistakes and screw-ups my fellow officers blissfully exercised on a moment to moment basis. I would get to make out all the schedules and be available 24 hours a day to cover their shifts when they called in sick on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Bike Week - or when the liquor store had a sale the day before. I would get a $0.80 an hour raise, which would put me just over the line into the next tax bracket which would probably cost me $0.85 an hour. I would be the cool dude boss guy and a highly respected member of the security profession.

I shouldn't have laughed so hard when they told me I would be supervisor but I couldn't help it. From the look on their faces, I don't think they appreciated my declining such an honor. I think I'm in trouble now.

(not) - Captain Johnnie

[Tennsix]

Ah. The burdens of command....

[HotelSecurity]

Our supervisor was fired last week. I was told I would be the new supervisor. I would get to be called "Captain," and wear cool gold bars on my collar. I would leave my comfortable 3 to 11pm shift and get up at 5am every morning to be at work at 7. I would be responsible for all the myriad mistakes and screw-ups my fellow officers blissfully exercised on a moment to moment basis. I would get to make out all the schedules and be available 24 hours a day to cover their shifts when they called in sick on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Bike Week - or when the liquor store had a sale the day before. I would get a $0.80 an hour raise, which would put me just over the line into the next tax bracket which would probably cost me $0.85 an hour. I would be the cool dude boss guy and a highly respected member of the security profession.

I shouldn't have laughed so hard when they told me I would be supervisor but I couldn't help it. From the look on their faces, I don't think they appreciated my declining such an honor. I think I'm in trouble now.

(not) - Captain Johnnie

I did worse! I accepted many years ago, I'm in about the exact same position. Almost the exact same difference in pay between me & a regular schmo. What's worse is that I decided to stay on the 3-11 shift. (There's more action than the day shift in an hotel). ADVICE TO ANY YOUNG READERS: Do ANY shift, including overnights if you plan to have a family life. 3-11 sucks. You are never home for supper, school plays etc etc etc.

[Mr. Security]

Tell them you appreciate the confidence that they have in you, but you would like the sergeant or lieutenant position instead. It's usually better to be the assistant. You get the privileges of rank w/o the ultimate responsibility/blame.

BTW, what did the x-captain get canned for?

[talon]

all to familiar...

The same thing happened to me at one of the first Security Companies I worked for...They thought that the shiny stripes would make me forget all the negative...I told them that I felt I wasn't ready for a supervisor position just yet even though I knew that the supervisors they had were... lets say..."lackluster".

You made the right decision.

[N. A. Corbier]

I fear companies that make a Captain on every site. I noticed that alot of jails and court houses love to do that.

A site is not a Company. A site is a squad, a platoon at best.

No scratch that. A site is a fireteam. At best, a squad.

If your going to play the military rank structure game, then do it right.

Officer -> PFC/Master Patrol Officer -> Corporal -> Sergeant -> Staff

If your big enough to have different sections, then each section should have a section Sergeant, and the supervisor over those sections should be a Master Sergeant. The highest uniformed management should be your commissioned officer ranks.

The public dosen't care what ranks you wear. So, if you choose to use ranks, organize appropriately.

A Corporal from one element or site should be able to seamlessly go to another site, and fit into the chain of command. A MPO should be able to assist any Corporal in their site supervisor duties.

Only when you get up to section supervisors who have different specialized duties (armed vs. unarmed, or a bike unit section) will you get problems in command authority. Mainly cause a guy who's never touched an M4A3 isn't going to do good commanding a team or section that is slated to defend a government facility or some utility where semi-auto rifles are deployed.

[Taser]

Officer -> PFC/Master Patrol Officer -> Corporal -> Sergeant -> Staff

We have...

Officer -> Sergeant -> Lieutenant -> Owners

Each shift has a supervisor (the Sergeant). There is one Lieutenant, he works day shift and is responsible for personnel and vehicle scheduling and other paper pushing tasks. The officers are all on a level playing field and there's not a real chain of command to speak of. Officers can bitch to the sergeant, lieutenant, or the owners...whoever they want.

We're not in the military, so why organize ourselves as such?

[Echos13]

I sometimes have to really try and keep a straight face when I meet these outfits that have Majors and Colonels.

Anyway, good luck with the supervisor stuff.

[Taser]

I sometimes have to really try and keep a straight face when I meet these outfits that have Majors and Cornials.

Anyway, good luck with the supervisor stuff.

Colonels?

*trying to keep a straight face*

[N. A. Corbier]

We have...

Officer -> Sergeant -> Lieutenant -> Owners

Each shift has a supervisor (the Sergeant). There is one Lieutenant, he works day shift and is responsible for personnel and vehicle scheduling and other paper pushing tasks. The officers are all on a level playing field and there's not a real chain of command to speak of. Officers can bitch to the sergeant, lieutenant, or the owners...whoever they want.

We're not in the military, so why organize ourselves as such?

It depends on how large you are, and how much autonomy you require your sites to have.

For example, one employer had "Site Captains," which were a joke. 3 sergeants, 1 lieutenant (whoever worked day) and 1 Captain who reported to management.

The Sergeant who patrolled was over the "Site Captain."

Another employer used OFC->PFC->CPL->SGT->SSGT->LT for uniformed. Corporals were site supervisors, and required to run their posts with support from the patrol/supervisor sergeant. The SSGT was responsible for the patrol sergeants. The LT was the manager in the office.

When you have 100+ employees, your clients want a "management representative" on site (site supervisor they can talk to, not call the office), and you have multiple sections doing different things, you need to establish chain of command down to a site level.

PFCs were usually officers who had five or more years of experience, and were capable of performing the duties of a Field Training Officer and Mentor for probationary officers. It was basically a rank to demonstrate merit, not position.

Corporals were field supervisors at the site level. The company stated that no sergeant could be unarmed, so if you were an unarmed site supervisor, you were a corporal.

[N. A. Corbier]

Colonels?

*trying to keep a straight face*

Amusingly enough, I knew a company who's operations manager held the rank of Major, and the owner held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. This was due less to position and more to rank strucutre. Since there were multiple branches in multiple states, each state was at Battallion strength.

Ie: Each state was a battallion for rank purposes, and each branch a Company. So, you had Captains at each branch managing their Staff and their Sergeants, each post had corporals.

Each state had a collection of branches under the Major, who was responsible for all of the operations of all branches in all states.

Did I mention the owner of the company was a Marine?

[Echos13]

Colonels?

*trying to keep a straight face*

Yep, my reactions were the same too.

[Taser]

Amusingly enough, I knew a company who's operations manager held the rank of Major, and the owner held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. This was due less to position and more to rank strucutre. Since there were multiple branches in multiple states, each state was at Battallion strength.

Ie: Each state was a battallion for rank purposes, and each branch a Company. So, you had Captains at each branch managing their Staff and their Sergeants, each post had corporals.

Each state had a collection of branches under the Major, who was responsible for all of the operations of all branches in all states.

Did I mention the owner of the company was a Marine?

A Marine, eh? Why weren't there any Lance Corporals? Or Master Gunnery Sergeants?

But couldn't a non-military or pseudo-military structure work just as well?

Officer -> Officer (with some type of FTO status) -> Supervisor -> Head Supervisor -> Office Manager -> District Manager -> President

That's just something that comes to mind. You could even make a few levels of "officer" such as O1, O2, O3, etc.

My point is, it's just a title. You could easily have a rank structure that goes like this:

Namby Pamby -> Sugar Plum Fairly -> Sparkly Princess -> and so on...

I understand that the police are paramilitary and therefore may benefit from a paramilitary rank structure. I think a lot of us try to draw a clear line between security and law enforcement and when you copy their rank structure it only makes us look even more like we're trying to be cops.

[EMTGuard]

My point is, it's just a title. You could easily have a rank structure that goes like this:

Namby Pamby -> Sugar Plum Fairly -> Sparkly Princess -> and so on...

.

I want to be a Sparkly Princess one day.

[1stWatch]

I sometimes have to really try and keep a straight face when I meet these outfits that have Majors and Colonels.

Anyway, good luck with the supervisor stuff.

OMG, we have one of those! The guy in charge of my department of the company promoted himself to Colonel a couple of years ago. Before that, he was a Major. What does this guy do? He comes in at noon or 1:00pm, gets on the computer at the office, looks up things like bargains on extension cords or some other form of reading that has nothing to do with the business, then goes through the paperwork for the night and takes 3 hours to sort through it. At 6:00pm, he'll actually hit the street, drive around for a bit, then go home at around 10:00pm if he doesn't feel like following one of us around. It really makes me wonder what purpose this guy's job has.