Okay, no offense to anyone here who's done security for hire type work, but I have to say, the companies around here are a joke. I'm feeling a little miffed at them now, so I'm going to detail the failings of the two companies we've dealt with.
Company 1:
- used nothing but very old men, or people who did not speak English much. Leading with that last part, I don't think everyone needs to speak my language, but if you're in a position where panicked people are going to be telling you important information quickly, that's not really where you want a language barrier. Especially when we've a large Chinese student population who's English ranges from very good to Introductory levels, and so very little communication would be going on there. As for the old men, they were all nice, but they were 70 if they were a day. They weren't going to deter anyone from doing anything. They also tended to fall asleep on the graveyard shifts. Actually, credit where credit's due. The young guys fell asleep on the job too. Also, they refused to do jack squat, and would simply call whenever there was an issue. Even if it didn't require calling, but simply some thought on their part.
Company 2:
- slight improvement, as their guys spoke English well enough to communicate with the international students (definitely helps minimize trouble calls), and were young enough to actually act as a deterrant for shennanigans. However, their scheduling sucks. The first two nights, no one showed up. At all. Apparently, they'd pushed back the start date of the contract, but didn't tell us. The next night, the guy showed up, then went and fell asleep on the couch. Bossman wasn't happy about that at all. That guy didn't come back, except for the couple of times he mixed up which building he was working at, which segues nicely into
- the guards don't know what building they're working at. We regulary have multiple guards show up here at the dorm because they don't know the difference between the buildings, or they can't get in to the building they're supposed to be at
- also, the scheduler will randomly miss days, though we're supposed to be 7 nights a week, midnight to eight am. The last time they missed a day was on the same evening that my boss and his boss met with the scheduler to get assurances that it wouldn't happen again.
Overall though, I prefer company 2. The guards are nicer, and more competent (when they show up to the right place), and the regular guard we have now is one of the best I've met out of all of them, I just really hate his nights off
Company 1:
- used nothing but very old men, or people who did not speak English much. Leading with that last part, I don't think everyone needs to speak my language, but if you're in a position where panicked people are going to be telling you important information quickly, that's not really where you want a language barrier. Especially when we've a large Chinese student population who's English ranges from very good to Introductory levels, and so very little communication would be going on there. As for the old men, they were all nice, but they were 70 if they were a day. They weren't going to deter anyone from doing anything. They also tended to fall asleep on the graveyard shifts. Actually, credit where credit's due. The young guys fell asleep on the job too. Also, they refused to do jack squat, and would simply call whenever there was an issue. Even if it didn't require calling, but simply some thought on their part.
Company 2:
- slight improvement, as their guys spoke English well enough to communicate with the international students (definitely helps minimize trouble calls), and were young enough to actually act as a deterrant for shennanigans. However, their scheduling sucks. The first two nights, no one showed up. At all. Apparently, they'd pushed back the start date of the contract, but didn't tell us. The next night, the guy showed up, then went and fell asleep on the couch. Bossman wasn't happy about that at all. That guy didn't come back, except for the couple of times he mixed up which building he was working at, which segues nicely into
- the guards don't know what building they're working at. We regulary have multiple guards show up here at the dorm because they don't know the difference between the buildings, or they can't get in to the building they're supposed to be at
- also, the scheduler will randomly miss days, though we're supposed to be 7 nights a week, midnight to eight am. The last time they missed a day was on the same evening that my boss and his boss met with the scheduler to get assurances that it wouldn't happen again.
Overall though, I prefer company 2. The guards are nicer, and more competent (when they show up to the right place), and the regular guard we have now is one of the best I've met out of all of them, I just really hate his nights off
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