Long Read – Its more of a sharing, amusing, and venting of situation. Perhaps you will find it funny as well.
Full disclosure I came to this job due to the lax job requirements and setting. It is an overnight security guard position. In the process of onboarding I had two conditions for the job:
1) May I bring my computer with me and work on it?
2) May I watch the woods for wild life?
The answers were yes. Additionally I would like to point out Security is not glamorous job. Often under paid and the scope of the work isn't always related to security. Im very familiar with this industry from younger years from regular guard to an Operations Manager.
The main meal –
My nightly co-worker has been an officer for 2+ years. His tasks are to provide access control to the community, sign in workers employed by the community (in house and contractors), sweep, mob, reconcile and file paperwork for the end of day ops. Short simple and for our area in the states and security? A very nice paycheck and free health insurance for examples of benefits.
The problem –
Two issues here:
He is consistently late or complaining about the schedule after its posted. In the past 2 years he has received two public write ups. One of them was being late 18 times in 6 months from 15 minutes late to over 2.5 hours late. He also received a write up after a relieved guard asked the boss where his relief was. Upon the boss's arrival in the morning, they found not only was he almost an hour late on this occasion, but he manually edited his clock into his normal start of shift and used white out on the access control sheet to write in the time to match. To which the boss wrote him up again for falsifying records with a threat of termination. He has been late multiple times since this issue. Multiple times a week.
He sleeps 6.5 of those hours. Sure he handles the above tasks but gets into a time crunch for the daily rush of workers and guests. From my understanding this has been a behavior since day 1. First hand experience seeing this prior to my work here and accounts by residents / workers / guests. He finally does a big mistake. He fell asleep one night without shutting the gate. Anyone who knows security knows this is a cardinal sin. He was reported multiple times throughout the night to our boss. The boss takes all statements and decides to put a camera in the guard house. In addition forcing me to stay inside the guardhouse as part of “safety and protocol”. None of these have been enacted since 2016 (again first hand experience).
The cake –
As amusing as this is to me as it has no bearing on me aside from being direct lifeline or baby sitter the problems persist. Now that he is being watched while sleeping he has tried moving the camera and moving out of the camera view. He was directed not to touch the camera and they simply changed camera locations then added more cameras when he tried moving. Rather than watch this futile struggle between employee and boss I suggest terminating him as they only need one guard to fulfill the shift. I don't call in. I am not late. I am willing to assist in this effort to get someone who fits with the position. I have moved mountains to show better workflows, help out, and communicate about work issues as they arise. Note: The manager says to be patient and they are taking care of this issue.
Taking the….cake –
This is week 3 of this and I have just decided – not my chair not my problem. I do everything task wise required and further (example: fixing the path to the garbage by unearthing paver stones, raking leaves and debris away, placing tarp and realigning paver stones.) The time comes for my new employee review. All boxes are ticked as “Meets requirements” except for 3. Apparently, I need improvement on these categories [Professionalism & Dependability] and [Communication]. The [Relationships] category isn't even ticked. I'm disappointed but as this is literally just a job to sit and relax because I have issues sleeping its a giant meh.
Tonight, my co-worker got one of his reviews. His reviews had multiple exceeds expectations. In the categories that I need improvement. Additionally, there was comments that his biggest strengths were communication and dependability.
I am baffled. I have long determined my boss is incompetent at their job. I have long known the boss is only holding on to this employee, so they don't have to work any surprise shifts.
I have seen many horror stories and such but just amazing to see it firsthand still.
Next time the boss says good morning and launches into their rant I figure its time for movie quote:
“Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.”
Have a good day everyone!