About ten years ago, an employee approached Human Resources to tell us that her friend and co-worker confided that her boyfriend was getting out of jail in two weeks and threatened to bring a gun to her place of employment and shoot her. These are the kinds of revelations that terrify Human Resource professionals.  It’s no joking matter (even though we tried to make it so). The vast majority of threats are not carried out but you never know. Not only is there a threat to the employee but other people could get hurt in the incident. At that point in time, there was nothing to stop anyone from coming into the building – no guard, no formal receptionist, nothing.

The management was already investigating security at the home office so this incident moved it to the top of the list. Within a week we had on-site armed security. As it turned out the employee took off the day her boyfriend was released from jail. They must have made “nice-nice” as the threat was never carried out nor was there any further problem. Funny side note – this incident was kept confidential but the department management knew about it and they all took vacation on the designated release date.

Having armed guards when you never had guards before is a huge cultural change.  With it came swipe cards to enter the building, side doors were secured and there were only a few entries where you were allowed to enter the building. While the employee base may have felt safer with the security, they were not interested in changing any of their behavior to accommodate the change. Enter Officer Gung Ho, a security guard who was not going to take “any crap.”

Courtesy of chris8800 from Flickr

During his reign of terror, there were many funny incidents:

• We shared our building entrance with a small medical business. One day a mentally challenged patient came in the building to go to the medical office. He either did not hear the “Halt!” directive or chose to ignore it. In any case, the poor guy was tackled on the staircase by Officer Gung Ho.
• Gung Ho was very military in speech and in action. For some unknown reason, this attracted some women who supplied him with many meals during his day. The man was short, chunky and average looking. I couldn’t figure out the attraction except for the uniform. I guess there is something about a uniform……
• Our parking lot was laid out so that it was one way only around the building.  If you would drive the wrong way, you were in deep doo doo. He would come running out of the building waving his nightstick. You only did it once!
• Since I was in Human Resources, I was often contacted for employee situations. Officer Gung Ho did not like to use the phone.  I could get paged fifteen times a day. I would be sitting next to my phone and I would hear a page. I would return the call and ask why he didn’t call. He would say that he didn’t want to take the time – it was an emergency.  It never was. I still can’t figure that one out.

Ivan the Terrible courtesy of Wikipedia

 Because he could terrorize employees, he was occasionally useful. Over time, as our employees felt more comfortable with the security, it wasn’t necessary to use strong-arm tactics and his tenure as

Ivan the Terrible

 was over. We also took away the gun. It is scarier to have an armed guard. Most issues can be settled with authority and gentle persuasion.

 Since then we have had several different guards. Most, if not all have been professional and very helpful. The guard we have now is a former military guy but except for his posture and politeness, you wouldn’t know it.  He doesn’t flaunt it and doesn’t need to. We just call him Bob.