I signed on with Securitas 9/2/06. I passed all the tests of course, without much concern. I was to be assigned to a place I will call "the site". I was told that it was a "really nice" apartment complex, a prime assignment, and it was implied that I was very lucky.incidentally, my wife also joined the company on the same day, and recieved the same assignment.
We showed up to training on our first day, and after four hours of training we went home and my wife broke down crying. The neighborhood freaked her out; the screaming, out-of-control, demanding-money-from-us kids freaked her out; and honestly I was concerned about her working by herself until midnight in that neighborhood considering the facts that (1) the trainer pointed out the numerous issues with drugs (including the three different "ice houses"), and (2) the numerous events of domestic disputes and violence.
Also, we were shown the site once (on one round within 4 hours) and we felt utterly lost and confused since the post orders claimed we were supposed to do these rounds every hour. My wife asked for a different assignment and never returned to the site as a security guard.
I showed up for my second day of training on time and prepared, and guess what? No one was there to train me. The site supervisor, who had trained us the day before, pulled a no-show. No one knew how to find her. She was scheduled to be working that day, she just chose not to show up. This proved to be a pattern with her — no call, no show, for days. A no-call-no-show is supposed to mean instantaneous termination. But they didn't fire her.in fact they offered her a raise.
She did eventually decide to quit, but has rejoined the company and resigned from it repeatedly, and once was hired by the office book-keeper and told that she could have my position. It was also rumoured that she had been using illicit substances while on duty. She absolutely admitted to drinking while on the job to me. One of the residents would bring her cocktails.
During our first day of training it was clear that she was on friendly terms with some of the residents, one of whom provided her with lunch while we were there. She knew all the kids by name and yelled at them frequently. She was clearly well-known by everyone and sociable with some of the residents. She's related to four residents at the site.
After the supervisor quit, I became a de-facto supervisor simply due to the fact that after working at the site for a month I had the most experience there. Another pattern surfaced: whenever we had a good guard come on post, who followed instructions and knew how to handle him/herself, that guard quickly disappeared to a better site. I trained numerous guards who were there for only a few weeks and then disappeared. (I have trained over 75 total in the last year, five in the first month of my employment, this on a site that only has one guard on duty each night for a total of 88 hours a week.)
Many of the people hired and trained thoroughly by me also seemed to be incapable of following a few simple rules no matter HOW MANY TIMES I explained them. They continuously sat inside the residents' recreation center, soaking up air conditioning. We ARE NOT ALLOWED to "hang out" in the rec center AT ALL, let alone EVER turn on the air conditioning for ANY reason. When they got busted, they would just smile and laugh it off and be back at it again as soon as they thought no one we watching. I do not have firing authority, and my supervisor (who does have firing authoritiy) refuses to act. If they aren't sleeping in front of the air conditioner in the rec center, they are sleeping in their cars. This is also NOT ALLOWED.
Somehow, though, these are the guards who manage to hold on to their positions at the site the longest. The rarely do their rounds, and half the time if they do, the "do" them in their cars, which of course can only cover a small fraction of the site. This is totally against the rules.
Sometime in early I was officially promoted to site supervisor, given a white shirt with a lot of shiny stuff to pin on, and given a whopping $1 per hour raise. I was told that I was one of Securitas's most valuable employees in the state, and that I had gotten promoted to site supervisor more quickly than anyone ever had, and that my performance was examplary.
I continued to work hard.in the beginning, the site was a heavy-action place. Police had to be called several times a week for domestic disputes and other issues. One night I told one of the residents to slow down in the parking lot, and he got out of his truck and repeatedly tried to punch me in the face. He was inebriated and I'm quick, so he never made contact, but not for lack of trying.
This is not the only physical threat that I have been given. Several people, after being ticketed or asked to keep the noise down or slow down in the parking lot have threatened to "find me out of uniform", assuring me that "this is a small place" and they would find me sooner or later.
I have been threatened numerous times with beatings and even death. I do not carry any weapon — we are not allowed to carry any weapons at this site. I have on several occasions been afraid for my safety and terrified of going to work because of threats I have recieved.
After a year there (nine months was the record for the site), I have the site largely under control. It has become a quieter, safer neighborhood and many of the residents give me the credit for that. I am extremely diligent and responsive. I truly enjoy helping people.
My immediate supervisor, I'll call him Uncle Nepo, treated me very well for months. He made me feel good about working for Securitas and honored to work with him.
Several months ago, problems developed with the overnight shift on weekends. I usually work 4pm - midnight. The midnight-8am shift, which exists only on Saturday and Sunday, was not keeping control of the site to the residents' satisfaction. I consulted with Nepo, and suggested that I take the overnight shift for a few weeks to try to get things smoothed out. This took some rearranging of people's schedules, and also allowed one employee who worked at Southpointe only on Wednesday nights to have a couple of nights off, which he wanted. Nepo agreed that this was a good idea, and we discussed this almost every day for three weeks. So I proceeded to make the arrangements and work the overnight shifts for a couple of weeks.
Suddenly Nepo was accusing me of not communicating with him, of changing the schedule without authorization, and various other nefarious doings. I reminded him that we had discussed this, and even after he admitted recalling the discussion and authorizing the change, he continued to blame me for not having proper authorization for the shifting of schedules because his supervisor was never notified by him of the changes.
Our working relationship deteriorated very suddenly. I called our area supervisor and explained my side of the story, feeling that my perspective was not being represented to her by Nepo. Nepo made it clear that he did not appreciate me contacting her, and our working relationship deteriorated further. I feel that he was trying to pass blame onto me for something that he did not correctly follow through on, and when I refused to accept the blame that I did not deserve I suddenly became his worst enemy.
Since then, things have gone badly downhill. Many of the residents and board members of the site have been wanting to do away with the services of Securitas for some time, and hire an in-house security officer. This change was actually authorized by the board in October. This has caused tension with the guards, as any mistake is paraded as an example as to why the change should be made. I have explained this situation to Nepo, but he does not understand the precariousness of our position here. I have been told repeatedly by residents and board members that the only reason Securitas is still at the site is because of me.
Several months ago a new guard came on duty, who happens to be a cousin of Nepo. This guard constantly stays in his car while on duty, is frequently seen sleeping there, has been seen by numerous people smoking marijuana while on duty, is often unavailable when someone calls the patrol phone — and he is still working here, despite being reported numerous times to Nepo.
A few weeks ago vandals spay painted over 17 cars on the property as well as numerous fences, signs, and other areas while he was on duty. The police responded. No one knew he was there. No one could find him. He never answered his phone. It is possible that the phone may have been forwarded to the resident manager at the time, so that part may not have been his fault, but it is policy that if police are on the property the guard is supposed to respond to the situation immediately and report it.
Lately, one of the board members has decided that she doesn't like me. I believe it began with an alleged dog-attack. I was speaking with a resident, and I was holding her dog for her briefly, on a leash. This board member walked by, behind a short fence, and the dog barked at her. The board member reported that the dog was off a leash and tried to attack her. I reported what I had seen, and refused to site the owner of the dog since her dog was, in fact, on a leash as required.
Since then, this board member called Nepo and reported to him that I have not been doing my job. That I have become lazy and unresponsive since I "got that white shirt". Nepo has threatened my job because of her allegations. Suddenly he is parking nearby while I'm at work, spying on me frequently. I know he's there because I am alert and doing my rounds, but he seems to think that I don't know. He has accused me of not being at my post — I am always at my post, or on rounds. He talked to me one day and basically said that if I didn't start doing my job, I would be terminated. I was blown away. I work my BUTT off at this site and follow every procedure to the letter at all times. Perhaps fortunately, I had to retrain his cousin the next day, and Nepo came to supervise the retraining.
After I had gone over every single thing that needs to be done every day, and after I explained how I did everything, Nepo actually had to apologize to me. He said, "I had no idea". Of course he didn't. He listened to ONE pi*ed-off woman who did not get her way and is trying to get me fired, instead of to the many, many, residents who express their appreciation to me frequently, who go up to my wife in Walmart to tell her how grateful they are that I am on the site.
One night I did get a horrible migraine. I get "classic" migraines and sometimes need to go to the hospital. I had to leave work early, it was an honest emergency. I notified the acting manager and other people, and a resident helped me to pack my belongings to leave. I admit that I was in a lot of pain, not very lucid, and probably should not have even been driving and I did something very embarrassing — I forgot to call Nepo.
As soon as I got home I realized this, and asked my wife to call and explain. I knew that I was almost incoherent with my speech slurred and unable to focus on a single thought for very long. Also, as soon as I got home I had taken serious painkillers and was NOT lucid. My wife was distraught when she saw me, and started crying. She was terrified to realize that I had driven in that condition. She called Nepo and tried to explain.
The next day I was called into the office and nearly suspended. I admitted freely that I had screwed up, and apologized very sincerely. But I have to point out that MANY MANY times other guards disappear from work, are not on site when they are supposed to be, pull no-call-no-shows, and are simply accepted back to work as if nothing ever happened. I messed up ONCE and was threatened with a major suspension. When I pointed this out, the suspension was removed.
But back at work, I am being harrassed by the board member who claims to have been attacked by the dog. Tonight, she was taking notes on every single thing I did all night. That doesn't worry me much, I'm not doing anything wrong, but I feel deeply offended and feel that I am being harrassed. I was so angry that I was shaking when I spoke to my wife about it on the phone. I wanted to cry.
A couple of nights ago I came into the area of town where the site is to visit family (who live nearby) with my wife, and saw Nepo and his cousin (the guard) hanging out together at a gas station parking lot. I said "hi" and went on my way. The next night I found out that Nepo came to the site in the middle of the night and spent an hour making sure that I was not there. I believe this came about because I had made it a habit, as supervisor, to sometimes stop by late at night (unnanounced) to check on the overnight guards. I had told Nepo about this previously, and he was fine with it.
Recently he found out that I had been there and read me the riot act for doing that. He said that I had to inform him before I go and get authorization to do my job every time I was there, otherwise I am never allowed to be on the site. Okay, if that's policy, fine — but could he not have told me that sooner?!
I am being subjected to constant harrassment now. My boss is spying on me to a ridiculous degree — but clearly can't catch me doing anything wrong because there's nothing to catch. The board member I mentioned was "put in charge of keeping an eye on the guards" by him — nice move, Nepo, since she's one of the most vocal supporters of getting rid of Securitas. She is also notorious among the guards and resident manager for lying about other residents to get them in trouble or fined. Pages have been ripped from my logbook by parties unknown, making it appear as if I was not recording my actions. If you look really good you can see the rips. Reports I have written have disappeared.
I don't know how much more of this I can take. My wife is as supportive as she can be, but even she is reduced to tears when she sees how upset I am over some of the harrassing things that are happening to me, and how they affect me.
I have been accused of playing favorites to residents who are friendly with me and being overly harsh to others. I have been accused of babysitting teenagers (i.E., over 15-years old) while on duty, and extorting money from them. I can't even bring myself to justify this with a response. There was an ongoing joke that I was "babysitting" when all the kids were hanging out at the park, which is also my post. Maybe that's where some of it comes from. And if anything, I may be a little harsher with people who try to take advantage of my acquaintance with them than I am with people that I hardly know.
The only reason I am still working for Securitas at the site is because I honestly care about the residents there. I have come to know many of them personally and I know that they depend on me and am grateful for my work. It feels good when I can help them. I don't want to abandon them.
But I don't know how much more I can take.
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