It’s 2AM, Do You Know Who’s Watching All Your Stuff?

As you leave the office and the magnetic doors clamp closed, a band of brothers (and sisters) begin their day so you can sleep well and have peace of mind at night. The security guard is one of the most common sights in today’s corporate culture — but other than a quick wave or the head nod or the “Have a nice day” that you exchange with your local security professional, how well do you know him/her, and what they do when you are gone?

After a guard arrives, he or she takes stock of what the previous shift has encountered. Broken door locks, water leaks, malfunctioning alarm systems, intruders, unexplained odors, and all other relevant information is “passed on” to the arriving shift. And then the work begins walking around and monitoring the property for the next eight hours.

Take a minute to think about what you leave behind when your day is over and you head home for the night. Your laptop? Your bills with account numbers and other personal information on them? Your prescriptions? Yes, a security guard has access to all of it. If you leave medicine out on your desk they know you take medicine for shingles. They see the pictures of your kids and family members you’ve pinned to your cubicle. All of this information is left behind and watched over for you by someone who you probably don’t even know their name.

 They make sure doors are locked, check to make sure the lights are out and check to make sure your coffee warmer or space heater is turned off.  They often encounter homeless people in hallways, and raccoons in stairwells. They have been spit at, threatened, and chased. They have also helped lost people find their car and kept drunk people from getting in their car. They have even found and returned wallets, paychecks, and cell phones. These are the thing you probably didn’t know and will never see.

So next time you leave the office, along with making sure you turn off your office lights and unplug your space heater, and keeping your prescriptions in your desk draw, take a moment to truly say “hello” to your security guards and go ahead and ask them their name.