"White man wouldn't give me no job", and other stories...

The sort of idiocy I used to witness as a police officer has once again come to the fore, this time with a different accent.

There's a large amount of indigenous people who frequent the casino. Most of them get on with the business of losing money in vast quantities, which is why most people goto a casino. Some, however, lacking such qualities as personal hygeine, manners and etiquette, cause us a few headaches.

One woman decided to assault another woman after having a fair few drinks. This was done, cleverly, in full view of two of our security officers on the door of one of the casino entrances. They shouted it up, as they can't leave the doors, and a couple of us sprinted across the casino floor to where it had happened. I was one of them, and arrived to see a woman, absolutely sloshed, slumped against one of the marble walls. Another woman yelled "She hit me", pointing at said drunk woman, who slurred "Yesh I hit her, but I ain't movin' from this spot". Indicating that she'd better start walking to the security officer or we were gonna drag her, she mumbled "Drag me then". So we did. I took hold of her upper arm (wearing gloves, as I try and avoid touching patrons without some sort of protective gear if I can avoid it), whilst my colleague took hold of her other arm, and we start walking her. En route, she started flailing her arm around wildly on my side. I told her to cut it out or I'd be armlocking her, but she ignored me and carried on. So I grabbed her lower arm, shoved it behind her back, locked my arm in place and forced her forward.

In the office she tried playing the sympathy card, claiming that nobody would be able to look after her kids. She didn't take kindly to me telling her the nobody might as well look after her kids if she was responsible for their care, what with drinking to excess, assaulting someone and generally acting like a degenerate idiot. Fortunately I didn't have to endure her company long, pending police arrival, before I was relieved by a colleague to go and do boxes.

Another person, also indigenous, caused problems a little later, when we suspected his ID was dodgy, and that he'd already given it to someone else to use to enter the club. When we confiscated the ID and detained him pending police arrival, he wasn't too happy. He started coming out with every 'the whole world is racist against me' cliche under the sun, which I'd heard before in my previous capacity and wasn't particularly amused by. The conversation between him and a colleague went something like this:

"Stop whinging. You got a job?"
"Nah. I tried."
"Well you didn't try hard enough did you?"
"White man wouldn't give me no job."
"Oh, well that explains it. It's everybody else's fault but yours isn't it?"
"Yeah. You lot are racist and you're doing this 'cos I'm Abo"
"No, we're doing this 'cos you've got dodgy ID."
"Whatever"

Sunday day shift was a bit quieter, though I witnessed one of the single biggest examples of idiocy I've seen in a long while. Namely, a guy walking up the stairs to the casino entrance with a small child. I was on the door, and my colleague and I looked at each other disbelievingly. My colleague said to the man "You know you can't bring children in here, don't you?" The man actually looked taken aback and inquired as to why. Rather than enter into a detailed explanation about licensing and gaming laws; the safety issues of bringing small children into an environment of large amounts of people, alcohol and gaming tables and the absolute lack of common sense anyone would have to even consider such an attempt, we simply told him that we were merely complying with the same age requirement laws that every other casino on Planet Earth has to comply with. As he walked off he mumbled "Maybe next time". Yeah, maybe next time when the child is 18.

Use of force

Officially, up until my shift today I was 'buddied up', meaning that I am supposed to work at all times with another, more experienced, security officer. However, as I picked up the basics of the job within a shift or two, I ended up walking around on my own a lot and getting on with it, on the condition that I played it safe and reported things and awaited backup before intervening. Furthermore, I was advised to be careful about restraining people until I had completed a casino approved course on 'appropriate' restraints. For that, you may correctly infer that said restraints are of the sort that 'look good' to the all-seeing CCTV cameras and to punters. Personally I disgaree with the 'softly softly' approach, advocated heavily by the casino.

That said, it was advocated to some degree in the police in the UK as well. My own view is that, as security officers, we should be both seen and heard. The suits certainly help us fit in with the surroundings, however if we are dealing with someone, either verbally or physically, we should be high-profile, both verbally and physically. This achieves two desired benefits:

1. It assures those who patronise the casino that security are on top of matters, will deal with people who cause problems and are intent on creating a safe environment in which people can enjoy themselves.

2. It sends a clear message out to idiots and potential idiots that they will not be tolerated, and will be dealt with, publicly and noisily, if the play up.

I have no issue with the 'talk first, act only if talking fails' approach - it's something I'm very good at after several years in the police and talking down everyone from distressed mothers losing their kids to drunk and drugged up idiots wielding knives they intend to use on me. There are times, however, when talking, no matter how systematically structured and delivered so as to ensure maximum compliance from somebody, will not work. By law we are perfectly entitled to use reasonable force to defend ourselves, detain someone or eject them from the premises (under one of three pieces of legislation, depending on which area it's at) and I have no qualms about resorting to force if I can justify it. I may end up having clashes with some managers about this, we shall have to see how it goes. I need to know what the official policy is.

"Think of the cameras"!

The sort of idiocy I used to witness as a police officer has once again come to the fore, this time with a different accent.

Officially, up until my shift today I was 'buddied up', meaning that I am supposed to work at all times with another, more experienced, security officer. However, as I picked up the basics of the job within a shift or two, I ended up walking around on my own a lot and getting on with it, on the condition that I played it safe and reported things and awaited backup before intervening. Furthermore, I was advised to be careful about restraining people until I had completed a casino approved course on 'appropriate' restraints. For that, you may correctly infer that said restraints are of the sort that 'look good' to the all-seeing CCTV cameras and to punters. Personally I disgaree with the 'softly softly' approach, advocated heavily by the casino.

That said, it was advocated to some degree in the police in the UK as well. My own view is that, as security officers, we should be both seen and heard. The suits certainly help us fit in with the surroundings, however if we are dealing with someone, either verbally or physically, we should be high-profile, both verbally and physically. This achieves two desired benefits:

1. It assures those who patronise the casino that security are on top of matters, will deal with people who cause problems and are intent on creating a safe environment in which people can enjoy themselves.

2. It sends a clear message out to idiots and potential idiots that they will not be tolerated, and will be dealt with, publicly and noisily, if the play up.

I have no issue with the 'talk first, act only if talking fails' approach - it's something I'm very good at after several years in the police and talking down everyone from distressed mothers losing their kids to drunk and drugged up idiots wielding knives they intend to use on me. There are times, however, when talking, no matter how systematically structured and delivered so as to ensure maximum compliance from somebody, will not work. By law we are perfectly entitled to use reasonable force to defend ourselves, detain someone or eject them from the premises (under one of three pieces of legislation, depending on which area it's at) and I have no qualms about resorting to force if I can justify it. I may end up having clashes with some managers about this, we shall have to see how it goes. I need to know what the official policy is.

First three shifts...

Wednesday day, Thursday and Friday night. Pretty interesting and enjoyable so far. Also, I've now finally quit my other job, so the hotel/casino security job is now my main job!

For the first few shifts, we are "buddied up", theoretically meaning that we're paired up for someone and can't do any jobs on our own. In reality, there wasn't enough going on during the day to be paired up for the whole shift, so I ended up walking around on my own a lot getting a feel for the place. The idea is that, through on-the-job training, we learn what is required of us, in preparation for doing the job individually.

Jobs during the day, when things are quiet, generally involve patrols; escorting people with cash; doing 'chip runs' which involve filling up floats on the gaming tables; fire door checks and standing on the main casino entrance doors.

Night shift jobs involve fills; doors; dealing with drunks and suchlike, and it's generally busier than during the day. Thursday night was pretty busy, with one of the pubs attached to the hotel having a couple of incidents.

Last night, I was roaming on my own for most of the night. I came across a fight in one of the bars and called it up. Apparently we're supposed to wait until at least two more arrive before intervening, but as the two were reigning blows on each others heads, I didn't want to be caught on camera observing as one potentially inflicited life threatening injuries. So I shouted for the two to stop fighting, which failed to work. I then pulled one of them apart and tried to place myself in between the two warring factions. The guy I pulled apart from the group decided to try and start fighting with me, until he realised I was security, then stopped. He apologised, said it was cool then tried punching the guy again. I first put him in a restraining hold, which he struggled out of, then I placed him in an armlock. Finally, my colleagues arrived and he was escorted out.

Apparently I've not been taught the 'company's way' of restraining people. Well, until then, I'm using what I was taught in the police.

It would seem that, in Australia, most companies are more concerned about image than anything else, including maintaining effective security. In spite of the fact that we are fully entitled to use reasonable force to do our job, the companies I've worked for and seen that prefer non-intervention over intervention, for reasons of image and liability-prevention alone, is staggering. It seems that people are more concerned about not getting sued than getting the job done properly. I have a feeling I'll be rubbing people up the wrong way, as I still operate along the lines of 'If they shouldn't be here or doing what they're doing, they're going, either voluntarily or by force'. I've talked people down who have drawn knives and knuckle dusters on me before, and am always of the view that people should try to be talked out of something first, but unlike a lot of companies here, I don't hesitate to use force if that fails. And I don't mind doing paperwork for it either if necessary. The contrary prevailing attitude seems to be the case here. It looks like I'll have to put up with it.

Induction is over, now to get some actual work done!

Have got my shifts for the week at other-soon-to-be-main job. Tomorrow, 0545-1600 (now THAT'S an early start!), Thursday 2000-0600, same on Friday and Sunday 0545-1600 again.

Had a talk from the boss, and it looks like this place sees the whole range of incidents from fights to glassings and stabbings. Looks like I'll be right at home then! The work seems quite varied too, with rotation of duties every hour and plenty to be getting on with. Unlike the other company I worked for last week, they're not expecting me to buy several hundred dollars worth of equipment at my own expense which, in effect, amounted to me paying for the privelige to work for them.

Interesting new job...

Saturday night at the hotel was pretty busy. Room service were flat out so spent the best part of an hour running food up to guests. It wasn't all bad - I managed to amount a fair few tips, which I wouldn't have received from purely performing security duties.

A ball with a fair few people and live performers provided a lively distraction for the evening.

Today I started my induction/training at my other security job, at a large entertainment/hotel complex. I've been waiting to work for this company for a while now, so unlike most other jobs I've done, I'm very positive and enthusiastic about the company and the work, which has been reinforced by speaking to both experienced and new security guards, who bestow praise upon the organisation and speak highly of the work involved. For once I might finally have a job I don't have reason to be exceptionally cynical about!

It also transpires that there's more than enough hours to do full-time and then some, so I might end up making this job go through a transition from other to the job! I shall be doing plenty of shifts this week, so watch this blog for updates!

Working bus security...

Since I didn't have too many hours this week, and to get some money in until I start my other hotel/casino security job, I worked for a company that provides security for the bus networks. For all that I whinge about my current job, it made me appreciate it more!

First shift was ten hours in a bus port that looked like it had been designed by someone who really hated architecture. Functional to the point of depressing, with no atmosphere whatsoever, the station clock often looked like it was going backwards, such was the nature of the work. A large number of people who both use the buses and loiter around the bus port can be described as inbred at best and abominations of the human race at the worst. The job simply involved walking around, standing next to a bus that came in as people got on and off, and then walk around some more.

The only interesting highlight, if it can be called that, occurred towards the end of the shift, when a bus driver pulled in and wanted a group of people, sat at the back of the bus, removed for causing trouble. I could smell them before I even boarded the bus, and knew before even sighting them that they'd be 'clients' that weren't too dissimilar to the gene pool leftovers that I used to deal with back when I used to be in the police. As expected, they were a group of our unwashed; unenlightened and uncouth non-reflective cousins. Initially they refused to get off the bus, but a bit of skilfull verbal gymnastics persuaded them to get off of their own free will. Some of them then tried to outstare me until I finished my shift.

Wednesday I was walking around the capital city's main bus station, on my own. Nothing happened. It was after this shift that I thanked the Great Architect of the Universe that I wasn't going to be doing this job for longer than a week!

Friday night I worked on mobile bus patrol. This involved riding on the bus to certain stops, with a patrol car following behind, then going back in the car to follow another bus. Halfway through one of the bus trips, a driver radioed up that there was a fight on his bus, and wanted the security officers based at one of the bus stations to meet him there. We radioed up and said we'd backup, and I alighted from the bus and got into the patrol car.

En route, the driver said that three people were attacking one person. The plan, at least initially, was for the bus to pull into the bus station, our guys to get on and see if anyone wanted to press charges, and detain the aggressors (we were equipped with handcuffs for this purpose). A few seconds later, the person who had been attacked had a knife. This was according to the driver. Rather than confirm whether or not a weapon had been seen, something the radio operator should have done instinctively, the police were called out after consultation with the security supervisor. Now, on our pay rate, with bugger all workers compo and the potential for a lot of paperwork, there was no way I'd even attempt to restrain someone who had a blade. However, I did wonder what the security officers at the station would end up doing. A short while later, the bus driver radioed up again, this time to say that the male had threatened to draw a knife, contradicting his previous message that the male actually had a knife. This put an entirely different light on the job, and hurtled it towards the 'ball of shit' bin I tended to categorise these jobs as - i.e no substance and nothing like it is described as on the radio, usually with nothing but paperwork and headaches for those who turn up to deal with the job. The bus depot, meanwhile, told the driver, via radio, to drop off the people involved and clear the depot straight away. From our point of view, this would remove any objective witnesses. So, as we pulled into the bus port, we saw the bus pull away.

We saw two security officers and one male. As we approached them, I could see the male wasn't quite all there - constantly twitching, repeating himself over and over, constant increase and decrease in volume and generally displaying behaviour and mannerisms that were in line with someone suffering from a condition and had not taken their medication. As soon as it was established that there was no knife in play whatsoever, we tried to cancel the police, but they were pulling in just as we were on the radio to cancel them.

It turned out that three people had got on the bus, walked past this male we were speaking to, and shot him a dirty look. He turned around and looked back at them, and they made a remark that was particularly disparaging about his mother. The male then went up to one of them, punched and kicked them, then threatened to stab them. The other two offered to hit him for his troubles, flatlining the confrontation into aggressive verbals until the bus pulled into the bus station. None of the security officers who greeted the bus asked if anyone wanted to press charges, leaving one agitated male, no details of anyone else, no witnesses, no knife and thus nothing at all for police. Had the driver properly informed us whether or not there was a knife, we need not have involved the police. Doh!

Still, back at the hotel tonight for a 7pm-2am. I shall certainly welcome the far more sedate atmosphere, and clients who do not resemble the sort that you would ordinarily cross to the other side of the road to avoid!

Missed out on the bar fun!

Did an extended shift today, which was singularly uneventful. This place really is too quiet!

Missed out on the fun the night before though! The downstairs 'popular' bar (as opposed to the more 'reserved' lobby bar) had its licence extended to allow for a function of people to drink until 4am. Some of the staff took advantage of the extended hours too, so that a fairly small bar was rammed pretty quickly. An employee and their other half set up a tab behind the bar, and asked the bar staff to let them know when it hit a certain amount. This happened pretty quickly, but as the bar was heaving, there were only two bar staff on and it was so cramped that bar staff probably couldn't physically get to the group, this didn't happen.

A few hours later, when things had quietened down a bit, the group went up to the bar to settle the tab. The other half of the employee was paying, so was asked to go behind the bar to pay the tab as they was required to enter their PIN number into the card machine. On being told the bill was somewhat more than the specified amount, the other half launched into a verbal tirade and refused to pay the bill. The bar staff called the team leader/supervisor over, who was then subjected to abuse not just by the other half, but also by the employee as well. The result was that the bill was settled and the two people were asked to leave.

When I heard about the incident the next day, I was quite shocked. Whilst the incident itself was relatively tame in comparison to, say, a brawl or stabbing, a number of serious issues became clearly apparent and which, if the hotel had bothered to manage the event properly, wouldn't have happened:

o Too many people in a small bar - probably exceeded licensed capacity
o No dedicated security staff AT ALL on to act as safety or crowd control - this is required by licensing law. I offered to work that night specifically on that bar because I knew it would be crowded.
o Getting customers behind the bar, a restricted area, to perform transactions. That is completely and utterly unacceptable - there should be wireless machines or they should be placed so that the customer can enter the number from behind the bar. It creates all sorts of insurance; safety and image problems.
o Inability to demonstrate effective crowd control and bar management upon being granted an extension of hours.

I feel sorry for the staff involved, they don't turn up to work to take crap from people (that's our job), and especially not from colleagues!

Can't see the hotel either extending, or being allowed to extend, the hours of that bar again unless they put a better operation in place. My days as a cop working in liquor licensing came straight back - we'd have closed the place down or fined them had we found out about it!

"Why is the bar closed at this ridiculous hour anyway?"

This was the exclamation directed at me from a pissed attendee of a function in one of our larger hotel function rooms last night after I thwarted his plan to fix himself a tipple at the hotel's expense. It arose as a result of about 150 people stumbling out of an event held in one of the function rooms to find the main lobby bar closed. Some took it better than others.

The event had been going, quite loudly, for about four hours, with the last two hours consisting of entertainment provided by a live band, who were quite good as far as cover bands go. The attendees, a mixture of ages, were quite drunk and enjoying themselves. This is fine, and certainly something we don't want to discourage. But when the function finished at 12, we didn't want the clear desire of the revellers to continue enjoy themselves conflicting with the reasonable expectation of hotel guests to get a good night's sleep in rooms they'd forked out a fair bit of money for. Since the downstairs bar closed early (even though it was licensed till 2am), that left the main lobby bar as the only source of alcohol in the hotel, apart from the guest room minibars (but who in their right mind would pay for the extortinately-priced alcohol in those?) The noise would carry, guests would complain and we'd lose money. So, after chatting with the duty manager, the decision was made to close the main lobby bar at half midnight, just before the attendees started coming out. Since most guests were asleep in their beds and there were only one or two stragglers left behind, this wasn't too much of a problem for those already in the bar.

Most left the function room and went straight out to get a taxi, whilst those staying in the hotel staggered upstairs. Some, however, were determined to get a drink. When I told them that all hotel bars were closed, and pointed them in the direction of the city's (lacklustre) nightspots, most of them decided to call it a night. One idiot, however, decided to march behind the unmanned and insecure main lobby bar and start trying to open the locked cupboards! Incredulous at this guy's blatant idiocy, I yelled at him to get the bloody hell out from behind the bar. Indignant that I had the audacity to stop him from pouring a drink of his choice, he shot a look at me and opined "Why is the bar closed at this ridiculous hour anyway?"

I quietly pointed out that at one o clock in the morning, most main lobby bars in hotels in the city would be closed, he was drunk so we wouldn't have served him anyway, and that he'd be best off getting a drink elsewhere if he felt so inclined. I couldn't resist adding, under my breath, that ideally that 'somewhere' would be several miles from the hotel. Unhappy that we were more concerned about our guests than pissed up hotel visitors, he left.

Dealing with hotel guests who are drunk is a bit easier than dealing with drunk visitors, because at least with hotel guests they can be threatened with eviction from their rooms and/or extra charges being put on to cover any damage they may cause, assuming they don't heed our warnings or requests. Visitors, however, are difficult, because they aren't staying at the hotel and thus don't feel any particular sense of obligation towards us to behave properly. So a bit of skillful communication, and occasionally verbal coercion, is required instead. If nothing else, it's amusing to listen to their self-believing justifications for their behaviour or situation, which make no sense to anyone who's drunk less than five pints of beer.

Soap operas

Every shift seems to have a soap opera, in which Security end up as extras, not of their own volition, I hasten to add. The cast tends to alternate - one shift the employees will feature, other shifts it'll be the guests.

I recall one Friday night late shift (3pm-11pm) in which two guests checked in early afternoon, and by early evening a rather excited young lady rang room service to order a particularly expensive champagne as she had just been proposed to. Three hours later, and after many, many drinks over a couple of meals, this young bride-to-be was in our conservatory bar seeking another drink. The barman had had enough and cut her off, which she did not take kindly, and flew into a rage. Management approached her, having asked us to stay back and observe should anything happen.

My personal rule of thumb for soap operas is to have as little as possible to do with them. They're never over when you think they are, and can fuel 'spot incidents' for days, weeks or months afterwards, especially if they're employee ones and can have a tendancy to entangle you in the inextricable web of sides; emotion; heartache and paperwork they create, of which paperwork is the most frightening because you can't switch off to it. In this case, I felt that the woman showing her true colours in front of her fiancee, as well as her need for anger management classes, would probably be punishment enough for her. This turned out to come truer than I expected when, after failing to pacify the lady and convince her to return to her room, the duty manager approached the fiancee, who was sat on his own nearby enjoying a drink he had purchased earlier. He apologised to management for the incident, approached his future wife and uttered:

"If you don't shut up, calm down and get back to your room, I'm taking that fucking ring back"

I resisted the urge to applaud the man for using one of the best pieces of leverage against a woman wrapped up in love - the denial of the white wedding. It worked a charm, and she was back in her room very quickly!

Today, on a 7am-3pm shift which was a back-to-back, I was exceptionally tired and in no mood to deal with any unnecessary incidents. Sods law that it would be one of the busiest shifts in a while. This time it would be a double bill, with both guests and employees taking centre stage.

Act I: Mum comes down to inform us that her 7 year old son has gone walkabout. I stupidly assume she's done a thorough check of her hotel room, inform duty management and we start scouring the hotel. Mum is pacing the lobby, clearly worried. She goes back up to her room to grab something, and finds her son hiding under the bed.

Act II: I'm enjoying a well-earned break in the staff canteen when I hear screaming deeper within the bowels of the hotel. I go in the direction of the noise and see staff restraining another member of staff who had wreaked havoc in an office. Nobody was telling me anything coherent, but the mention of spouses of managers being involved and the clear distress the woman was in made the background to the incident almost instantly recongisable. The old adage 'don't screw the crew' came to mind. That employees of all levels sometimes prefer to interact each other sans lower body clothing is often if not the biggest cause of such incidents. Fortunately I managed to turn up after the main storyline had unfolded and the action sequence was in progress, so was able to stay out of the politics and submitted a pretty neutral report of what I witnessed when I turned up. Management will probably keep it internal anyway.

Employee and guest perceptions of Security Officers

As a Security Officer, you are a necessary evil. Senior management would rather not have you around because you cost money, yet they cannot afford the inevitable cost of losses that would follow from what would happen if there was no such thing as a security presence. So, to reach a compromise, they pay a Security Officer a salary but give them no clearly defined role, so that they can do whatever management want them to do, unlike, say, front desk or Concierge, who have clearly defined remits.

Eventually, you work out that as long as certain things are done, such as lockups or unlocks, a couple of restaurant audits and the key audit once a week, you can be pretty much left to do whatever the hell you want, which usually means being at the mercy of an often fickle manager. Thus when given a 'task' with no given time limit, the task must be completed thoroughly; without interruption and will be done when it is done, if you catch my drift. Usually, this means stretching out a key audit to take a couple of hours extra due to 'complications', or being 'waylaid' by guest requests on a patrol. Since most managers are clueless on the nitty gritty of security work, most security officers can get away with doing whatever they see fit through justifying whatever they happen to be doing or want to do (such as a rooftop patrol on a warm summer's night with a panoramic view of the city) on the grounds of being 'in the interests of security'.

Employees are wary of you, because whilst they may get on with you and have a laugh, deep inside they know that you'll be the one searching their bags, questioning them or reporting them to management should it be necessary. Some interactions between some employees and the security officer are therefore conducted on a pretext of mutual suspicion. Others may be more trusting, but the existence of a remote chance of being called to action a fellow employee will never leave anyone's mind.

Most employees, and indeed management, will only contact Security if they want us to do something, whereas when we contact them, it usually means we need something from them, which means paperwork and being taken away from the task at hand. Thus people are quite happy to leave us be save for a social chat when doing our rounds.

For guests, we are either in the background if they have no reason to talk to us, or an utter pain in the arse if we knock on their door at 3am to tell them to quieten down. It's quite black and white - we either don't exist when not dealing with them, or are perceived to be in their face when we do deal with them. Of course, any time we act against their interests, even when it is to their benefit, such as asking them to goto their room so that they don't get intoxicated to the point of tripping over their own feet and drowning in the fountain or falling down the escalator, we are automatically rude, unprofessional and out to ruin their enjoyment. Hell it might as well be implied in our employment contract.

As you can see, it's a 'can't live with but can't live without' position, and quite a curious one too.

16 hour service, 6 days a week.

The hotel I currently work security for is 5 star. I don't know how the award system works, because when you're behind-the-scenes, you often wonder if it's simply a loosely-conferred title or 'comes with the brand' by default. Admittedly, most of it is that which guests would not be aware of but which ultimately affects them.

For example, one would imagine that a 5 star hotel might have at least one handyman or engineer on call 24 hours, because equipment doesn't schedule its malfunctions to conicide with the shift roster. So, between 3pm-11pm yesterday and 7am-3pm today (I'm asking myself why and how I ended up doing a back-to-back shift), I had to report a malfunctioning air conditioner in a guests room (which made a fair amount of noise); a broken window bracket and the main restaurant's glass washer breaking down in the middle of breakfast. Lo and behold, the handyman last night finished at 9pm when it should have been 11pm, and the next one was due on at 10am. God forbid had the boilers broken down, because I doubt the guests would have been too sympathetic to the 'we can't get the staff' excuse after a cold shower at 7am.

When I rocked up to work at 6.30am, there was no concierge, and the on duty security guard was doubling as night porter. If I were a guest, then I'd imagine that after a long flight and an extensive taxi ride, I would like nothing more than to be greeted at the taxi by a helpful porter who is able to take care of my heavy bags whilst I try to fight the jetlag enough to remember my check-in details. Instead, it was done by the lone security officer, who also had to unlock doors and turn lights off before finishing his shift, which is difficult when you're not physically inside the security office.

Finally, the safe opening machine didn't work. It's a device which sends an 'Emergency Open' signal to the digitally-operated safe. This time, it sent no signal, and there was no reason for it not to. I presented the faulty machine to the duty manager, who had no idea what to do with it, and helpfully suggested that I locate a security officer who was in the hotel to attend a wedding reception, and ask him how to work it. Yeah, sure, I'll just go and pull my colleague out of a wedding reception, on his day off and after he's had a few drinks with friends and family, and ask him a simple question which duty management ought to know. Yeah that'll really be the highlight of his evening. Maybe we shouldn't switch off on this job, and should be always available any time of the day or night (which is more than can be said for the handyman) in case something goes wrong.

5 star? How does that work then?

I work security at a hotel, and will be taking up employment with another hotel soon, which will run concurrently. This blog will therefore serve as an interesting insight into the hotel industry from a security perspective. It's got everything you could want: short staffed departments since nobody wants to work in hospitality anymore; cynicism; harsh reality; weird and wonderful guests; employee soap operas; plenty of office politics; managerial incompetence, all the ingredients for a good read!

What does a security officer do? Bloody everything it would seem. As well as doing the garden variety cash transit/handling work; key audits; door unlocking and locking; patrolling and first aid, we tend also to assist any other department which might be short staffed and is being hammered.

The purpose of this blog is to inform and entertain, and perhaps change your perspective as to what happens and why in the hotel industry. Please feel free to leave any comments, and I'll reply when I'm able to. Enjoy!