r/securityguards • u/JangoCrutch • 22h ago
Rant Two Guards, One Working.
I need to vent about the coworkers I share a post with. I work security in a busy government building. Two guards are always posted.
I was trained years ago by Gen X supervisors who were strict and by the book, so I take the job seriously.
These coworkers sleep on the job, talk on their phones in thier language, sit at the desk with no shoes or barefoot, and treat the post like it doesn’t matter. This is a secondary job for them; they have other work elsewhere.
I’ve reported them more than once. Nothing happens. The union protects them.
I’m just sick of this behavior.
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u/JaguarOk9693 21h ago
Anytime you know somebody sees them other than you start having them send pictures. Pictures from the client will be a lot harder to blow off. This is the one part of unions I absolutely hate is them protecting the crappy employees
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u/Some-Watercress-1144 21h ago
Pictures from the client probably means the contract is at serious risk. I wouldn’t encourage OP to report them to anyone other than their own boss. But yeah I mean if the client sees them sleeping, they can choose whether or not they care, if they don’t immediately start taking photos or kicking up a fuss, the colleagues have probably learnt that they can get away with it and nothing bad will happen… hopefully…
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u/JaguarOk9693 20h ago
It's either they do that or they go above the office if they have that ability but with a union probably going to have to be the client
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u/Admirable_Break_4724 19h ago
Yeah, many don't understand that the client doesn't give a crap who is on shift. They see it as a general security service. Either your service is good or bad. If your coworkers suck, then the general service sucks. That's how you lose posts.
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u/Some-Watercress-1144 18h ago edited 18h ago
This as well 100%. If your colleagues get into trouble, you all get punished. If your colleagues are seen as useless, usually you all get looked down on, which happens less to me now as people know me now and know I can be relied upon… to turn up on time, stay awake and not leave early…
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u/Admirable_Break_4724 21h ago
When there is no union, employer fucks up workers, and when there is a union, some mfs start to abuse it. In the end, as humans, we suck.
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u/JaguarOk9693 21h ago
A friend of mine had a guy ruin a multi-million dollar piece of equipment get fired the union got him rehired immediately. But when the management tried to make it to where he was the only person on call for a holiday because he was the only one that doesn't drink, and he refused they backed off because I knew the union would back him.
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u/LaighingJackal 19h ago
Well the breaking a multi million dollar thing i get, but on the other hand, why should one who doesn't drink be punished with more work? That'd make me develop a drinking habit
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u/TheJohnWarhammer69 Warm Body 17h ago
so I take the job seriously.
There’s your problem. Welcome to security bud
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u/Far-Investigator1265 21h ago
Are you forced to do their job? If not, let them fail in their job, it will happen eventually.
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u/LastChanceStoic 21h ago
Definitely tough to watch others lack of professionalism. An OG guard I worked with told me something concerning management/clients lack of action to concerns “You can’t care more than they do”. If they are okay with it thats on them. If you reported it you’ve done your part.
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u/Some-Watercress-1144 18h ago
I would even say reporting it is not worth it. Maybe once, but it’s not your job or your problem, and after that if colleagues are sleeping in broad daylight on a busy site it’s safe to assume their manager has heard about it, and clearly doesn’t care. We have 2 guys that cost us a very expensive contract for being caught sleeping at the same time on a night shift. They barely even got disciplined, they’re still with us doing nights, been caught many times after that. Not kidding.
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u/Milf_Eaterr Licensed People Watcher 20h ago
You're right to think this is bullshit and a gross misjustice. However with that being acknowledged, "there is nothing we can do!"
Yes it sucks and yes these people and their idiocy will cost you your job. All you can do is hold yourself accountable for maintaining standards and keep your resume up to date.
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u/Some-Watercress-1144 21h ago edited 21h ago
Trust me, I’m saying this as someone who used to be the same as you. My colleagues are even worse than this. Yet, in 2 years nothing bad has ever happened.
Are you their manager or supervisor? If not it is NOT your problem and you need to stop reporting them. You don’t employ them so you don’t tell them what to do. Your employer is an idiot and the contract may be at risk, if so start looking for other work because nothing will ever get better in my experience.
But on the other hand maybe these colleagues have learnt that they don’t have to worry and can get away with this. If it was such a big deal surely the contract would’ve been lost by now to people sleeping on a busy site?
Plus, unless the pay is crazy good, why go above and beyond for a shitty company that values and pays these people the same as you? You need to learn to do the bare minimum (which is still much more than they’re doing). I’m talking stay awake and be somewhat attentive, do the minimum required patrols, or even just your share, to look good for the cameras. I get constant praises for doing this, that’s how bad my colleagues are.
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u/TTV_SgtScoots 18h ago
This is where you lose me... You are legally on the hook if something bad happens on shift and you were negligent. I can't stand working with lazy guards because I know the 1% chance that something bad happens, I'm going to be the one to clean that mess....
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u/TheJohnWarhammer69 Warm Body 17h ago
You are legally on the hook if something bad happens on shift
No you are not, unless you willingly caused “something bad to happen”. We aren’t police officers bud.
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u/Red57872 Dunning–Kruger Specialist 8h ago
If I hire you to call me when the warning light on my equipment panel starts blinking, and it starts blinking but you don't call me (and thus my expensive machinery fails, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage), you're absolutely going to be held civilly liable by the courts. You could also be held criminally liable, depending on the circumstances (for example, if someone got hurt).
Not being a police officer doesn't mean that you can completely ignore the things you were hired to observe and report and get away scot-free.
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u/TheJohnWarhammer69 Warm Body 8h ago
I would love to see an example held and charged in court
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u/Red57872 Dunning–Kruger Specialist 8h ago
Infinite Security Solutions, LLC v. Karam Properties
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u/TheJohnWarhammer69 Warm Body 8h ago
The individual security guard was not charged in that case.
no criminal charges were ever filed against anyone in connection with the incident.
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u/Red57872 Dunning–Kruger Specialist 8h ago
No, but the company was civilly named. Honestly, if security guard tend not be be civilly named in lawsuits, it's often because they're poor and you can't get blood from a stone.
Another example is 1. Wilson v. U.S. Security Associates, Inc. — Pennsylvania, 2015–2017, where the guard was found liable.
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u/TheJohnWarhammer69 Warm Body 8h ago
Wilson v. U.S. Security Associates case involving the 2010 Kraft Foods shooting in Philadelphia: the individual security guards were not personally held liable for the $46.5 million verdict. U.S. Security Associates, the security company, was.
I’m telling you fam, security guards will never be liable unless they were the ones committing the crime. Negligence is placed on the company.
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u/TTV_SgtScoots 16h ago
Yes but if something goes unreported (which happens a lot with you types) then you are
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u/TheJohnWarhammer69 Warm Body 16h ago
No, you are not lmao. If you didn’t intentionally cause damage, you are not liable. Stop falling for corpo bullshit. I would love to see an example of this in court. Got any sources?
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u/TTV_SgtScoots 13h ago
You obviously have no idea what you're talking about. Good luck!
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u/TheJohnWarhammer69 Warm Body 13h ago
Buddy, you’re the one making the accusation that security is liable. I’m asking you to provide proof.
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u/TTV_SgtScoots 11h ago
I don't see a point in providing anything to somebody who barely qualifies as a "warm body" lmao
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u/TheJohnWarhammer69 Warm Body 11h ago
Because you have nothing to provide.
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u/TTV_SgtScoots 10h ago
Says the guy who's only purpose in life is to steal warmth from the universe just to claim he's a "warm body" security guard.
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u/Red57872 Dunning–Kruger Specialist 8h ago
This is why we (clients) prefer electronic monitoring a lot more. I'll trust a good guard more than I trust electronic monitoring, but I'll trust electronic monitoring a lot more than I trust most guards.
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u/Some-Watercress-1144 16h ago
The only time a guard would be legally liable is if they commit something like assault or excessive use of force. If something bad happens like property gets stolen, we have as much power as a civilian to do anything about it beyond calling cops. We observe and report. Worst that can happen is you get fired, but in a job where every guard has learnt to be lazy and incompetent, this is never gonna happen.
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u/Shane-Dad-underfire Management 18h ago
That's the 3rd down side to unions. First being no personal negotiating power, second being paying to work, and the third being that shitty employees who dont deserve the job will be able to keep it forever because the union makes money off them.
I wouldn't get the client involved but I would snap pictures and video of your co worker and send it directly to the union and your employer. If you push hard enough on that end you will get him fired but you will also get marked as an asshole who "rats" on his co workers. Personally as someone who pays people to work in various roles in multiple companies I love employees who take their job seriously and want to be taken seriously.
I admire your professionalism, thanks for being an upright person. Best of luck with your jagoff co worker, I'm sure he will be back to delivering fast food sooner or later.
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u/Amazing_Fix_2399 17h ago
You had me at Union. Here we don’t fire them until the client complains because it’s a massive hassle to hire someone else to a shit post for shit pay. Regards from Florida.
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u/putyourlightso 17h ago
I was working at a job where you cannot have any kind of self defence besides your hands, I had an extremely sore back and my partner knew it. We get a call on a shady guy who was known to have problems and a random woman. We go together and usher him off the property, my partner says he thinks the troublemaker will come back because he personally dealt with him before. He tells me he’s going to log it and I express that if he knows the guy is going to come back then we need to be together. He leaves, a few minutes later the guy comes back with the girl saying that I wasn’t allowing access because I wanted to impress his girl and he is relentless, even after calling on the radio there was nothing from my partner. I managed to de-escalate, went back to the office and he was sleeping. Even if it was a 60 year old man I would’ve been fucked and my partner knew it because of my back. Sometimes you just get a bad pair up and it sucks, you can point it out to management but if they have a good standing some companies really don’t care.
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u/nottoday1059 6h ago
So i worked for walden for 2 years. Due to poor management, and bad guards they lost the government contract to the post I worked. But right before they let us all go the supervisor of the building came to me saying i was the hardest working security they seen, and dont want to lose me, so they hired me to work for the state. I went from 10.00 an hour (2020 security) to 28.50 an hour with health insurance and a pension, with over 250 hours of pto to use anytime i want.
Allied now worked this post and for rhe most part a few of the guards are good. And now as of 2026 im the one looking at the guards for international hires.
So show up and do your best, becuse people like me see the ones worth a huge raise/benefits. And who needs to stay working a low paying guard shift.
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u/Calm-Ninja5951 14h ago
I deal with the same shit. Except there’s 4 guards and one doesn’t do shit.. we’ve reported her countless times, people at the site have reported her, she screams at people, violates policy’s etc and she’s still here. She’s a nightmare to deal with so I feel you
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u/AlphaDisconnect 20h ago
Hold on. Lets go down the checklist.
do they have a pulse? Mazel tov. Passu.
do they have the qualification? Must be a gosh darned genius.
are they there... physically. Looking at baby Jesus.
You sir or mam clearly need to go out and touch the grass. Count your blessings. And be grateful. You walk amongst powers greater than yourself.
Also you are breaking the rules.
- you cared. Dont do that.
- you tried. Nope. Unauthorized.
-you made the holy ones look bad. Straight to purgatory.
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u/nofriender4life 19h ago
stop worrying about what other people are doing and focus on your own work. coworkers like you are the worst.
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u/Vanguard_SG09 18h ago
Lazy lard spotted.
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u/Mill4583 18h ago
My first thought was “and there’s their coworker..”
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u/nofriender4life 7h ago
or I don't like annoying people up in my shit?
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u/Mill4583 7h ago
If that’s how you want to live. 🤷🏻♂️ I don’t care what other people do. I do my job so idc if anyone wants to “be up in my shit”.
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u/Mill4583 18h ago
Username makes sense. 🤷🏻♂️ that’s only like your opinion though, man. I hate guards being up in my business, but I would care if I put work and time in to making my home post and company look good and professional just to have some shitty guards come in and lose us the contract.
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u/nofriender4life 7h ago
Yes, this is my opinion. Leave other people alone unless you are paid to be their boss.
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u/Pebb_io 19h ago
reporting it repeatedly and nothing happening usually means the reports aren't landing anywhere with a paper trail. keep to your own post orders, in writing and dated, and stop covering their half. sleeping on a government site is a client problem, not a coworker problem, and it only gets fixed when the client sees it.
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u/UnusualClick1543 13h ago
Its on the company ultimately. They would have been let go here but my company isn't union, either. Ive been the only consistent security at my site for 2 years, a lot of have come and gone because they think its just a sit and watch cameras job and it isn't. I was Supervisor for a year as well and its not just my homesite. Its ridiculous how lazy people want to be.
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u/75149 state sanctioned peeping tom 9h ago
"The union protects them"
I found your problem.
When the majority of people are screaming and crying for a union, it's because they want to do what your coworkers are doing.
In the year 2026, the majority of unions soul function is to take money from their members and give it to political parties for favors and to protect useless employees.
I'd like to fully support unions in the trades because they are supposed to be providing competent training to people. Then you hear about how people have gotten in trouble for plugging in a lamp because the union electrician is the only one authorized to do that and I really don't give two shit about the trade unions anymore either.
People can get training on being a plumber or electrician in the private sector, just like everyone.
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u/DanTheLakersFan 8h ago
Clock in, do your job, clock out, and you will be fine. Chances are they’ll be caught anyway. The minute you start worrying about other peoples performance is the minute your own starts to decline.
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u/Red57872 Dunning–Kruger Specialist 8h ago
Keep in mind that if you keep raising an issue about this, the company will see you as the problem, not them.
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u/richbrehbreh 6h ago
Stop being a freaking nerd, bro. Clock in, get the bag and clock out. Your paycheck is the same regardless of what they do
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u/Jp3711nc 21h ago
First off so you work there to care second are you there manager to care if the manager doesn't catch them it isn't your job to report them. Its the person who hired them they protect to report or another employee. You seem to not be both.
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u/Little_Flamingo9533 20h ago
As someone who has worked in this business for 15 years, mind your own business and let the universe work itself out. It’s just better that way.
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u/Blackphinexx 21h ago
I think what a lot of you are missing is that the perceived competence of the guard has a direct relationship with the amount of slack a client is willing to grant us. Lazy guards make the entire company look bad in the eyes of the client and whether we are being paid to care or not this affects the entire post.