Things I wish I had known about the security industry

 

Things I wish I had known about the security industry

I have been working in the private security industry off and on for about two years. It’s a good way to make some fairly easy money on the side and a welcome change of pace at times. While I never plan on making a career out of it, I will probably continue to do odd jobs here and there until the day I retire. It’s not a bad industry. Jobs like concerts and special contracts through organizations like the National Parks Service can be a lot of fun at times, but there are a few things I wish I had known before getting into the security industry.

1.      no one likes security guards

Now on one likes cops either so I expected a fair amount of disrespect, but security guards get a different type of disrespect. As a security guard or a private security contractor people are constantly attacking your work ethic. For example, if it’s pouring rain or your assigned area is just dead quiet
, you’re not going to be patrolling as much because there’s really no point but then people will call you lazy. On the other had if it’s a busier night and you’re patrolling more and doing a little bit more thorough search of your area then suddenly you’re a “try hard” or “Robocop". There’s just no winning. Now to be fair there are some truly lazy people in the security industry and there are also guys that take their job way to seriously, but I would say the vast majority of use are just hard-working professionals trying to do the best job we can. People also like to question the work ethic of police officers to. Every time you go on lunch break your “letting the murders and rapes go” or whatever, but I was not expecting the same kind of treatment in the security industry.

2.      You’re not just Security

In the field of law enforcement, you often hear officers talk about how they feel like they’re doing the job a psychiatrist, or a social worker rather than a police officer. In a way that’s true and I was used to that, and I expected the same to be true in the security industry. What they don’t tell you is that when you do security you instantly become the janitor, customer service, and the human resources department for whatever organization you’re doing security for. To give an example I use to do security for the department of transportation in Fargo. Basically, I’d respond to calls and emergencies at the bus station and on buses. now I expected I’d be dealing with some unsatisfied customers. What I didn’t expect was all the questions about the bus station I would get every time I went there. Every time I would do a walk through of the bus station I would be bombarded by endless questions like when does route 5 leave, or will route 7 take me to the mall? Then what really surprised me was how mad people would get when I didn’t know the answer to these questions. My job had very little to do with the day-to-day operations of the bus station and I have never actually ridden on a public bus before, and yet people would get very mad at me for not being able to answer their questions when there was an actual customer service desk no more than 30 feet from where they were standing. The other surprising situation was when people would complain to me about the bad service they received or a faulty product they had purchased even though I have nothing to do with the service or product that was poorly provided. Honestly, Sometimes I don’t even know what the company I’m doing security for even does, because it doesn’t affect my job at all. If my job is to secure a building and prevent break ins then it really doesn’t matter what’s actually in the building.

3.      When you do private security, you’re nothing but muscle for a company.

Early on I found that if I’m going to do private security then I need to do contracts for the government. Usually when the government hires a private security contractor it’s because they can’t afford to train someone new and pay them a pension, so they hire someone in the private industry who is already trained, and they only have to pay their rate. So, when you do a private security contracts for the government, you’re basically doing the job of a cop or a soldier, so you still get to help people, but when you do security for a company, you’re nothing but muscle to support that companies’ interests. Now I just want to Say I have never don’t anything illegal, immoral, or unethical for a private company, but that doesn’t always make it better. For example, it doesn’t matter if a company totally screwed some guy over and he has every right to be pissed off. You still have to kick him to the curve because the company has the right to not have him on the property. You may empathize with the guy, but you still have to back the company anyway because that is what you’re paid to do. A lot of guys are ok with it, but I just personally don’t like how that feels, so I try to still to government contracts if I can.