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.