Lobby Thoughts #21

For many of our visitors, the only respect, smile and niceness they see all day is from the lobby guard. It can make their day much easier to endure....and it doesn't cost you anything.

Smiles beget smiles...makes people happy to return to your lobby....and its vendors.

Pick a plain girl or guy and give them a really nice friendly smile and look them in the eyes.
(Not that kind of smile, you perv.)

I say, Hello, how are you today? Customer says "You talking to me?, what do you know?, who's been talking about me? Why you talking to me?"
I say: "OK, well. bye-bye  now, have a nice day!" (Jeesh)

A company on the other side of the mall liked me and so when they needed guards for a product show, they retained my parent firm. Man, were they sorry; they got sullen and surly guards. Rent-A-Thugs instead of Rent-A-Diplomat.

The Forgotten Guard:
I have had 'stand-bys, in adjacent rooms, while a difficult termination occurs conducted by Human Resources (HR).  [They had a wireless panic alarm, if there was a problem, I would swoop in when my receiver beeped.]  After the termination,  the little HR 'experts' often forgot I was there. I would check and find they had left the adjoining room 30 minutes ago, leaving the "secret" panic alarm on the table....forgetting to tell me that all was well.

In emergencies, I was not told that the business was going to be closed that day and I was not needed...until after I commuted to the site and found it closed. Opps, not paid for that day, either. Oh, well.

"Hey Guard, we got sandwiches for the whole team, come by". I arrive. I'm told there is not enough for me, "Sorry, we forgot about you." "No problemo, my friends!, See you guys later."

Employees have a fax machine that occasionally prints out notices about security concerns in the mall. I found these were not shared with their guard. I asked why and was either told that they forgot or that the information was too sensitive (shoplifter gang, really?) or, my favorite: "We didn't want you stopping every person of that ethnic group because you thought they were a criminal." (WTF!)

If you are visibly armed you will be asked twice a day or more. "Hey, is that loaded?", What kind of gun is that?", What kind of ammo you carrying?", ".45 is better than 9mm", "Are you fast on the draw?", "I got that gun, it sucks" [or it rocks], "Can you shoot that thing?", "Can I see your gun", "What would I have to do to get shot by you?"(!?!)
Do not ever answer these questions! Just smile! Do not talk guns with citizens. Don't touch the gun unless its an appropriate emergency.

At one site I was standing near the district VP's car, just surveying the parking lot. The VP approached and ask if all was OK. I said with a big smile "Yes Sir, I think some of my security presence rubs off on your car."  [Ok, not the funniest statement, I told you I was a weird guard.] They started to walk around the car, concerned. "Where?" they asked. "Sorry, Sir, I didn't mean literally." They continued to check their car for security presence. Sigh.