As previously noted, at one point the various information technology jobs and contracts dried up. So I worked for a while as a security guard. It was about as boring as it sounds like. But there were a few weirdnesses that stick in my mind. Early on in my career as a security guard, we were contracted by an ethnic group, holding a dance for their community.
They told us to send over "a couple of big white guys." I'm not quite sure how I fit into that category, but I was one of the people assigned to the dance. When we got to the dance, the organizers asked us to frisk everybody. I explained that this was not something that we could force anyone to put up with, and that, in any case, since the two of us were both male, we would not be frisking any of the female patrons. I explained that we would ask whether we could frisk the people as they were entering, but that if anyone refused, there was nothing that we could do about it.
So, that was what we did. We were close to the entrance, and, as the patrons came in, we would inform the male patrons that we had been requested to frisk them as they came in. I was rather surprised that no one, in fact, objected. I developed a quick, and probably not terribly effective, process of running my hands up inside the person's jacket, feeling, with my palms, for any hard lumps on their body, and with the back of my hand for any particularly heavy lumps that were in the jacket. At one point, doing this, I felt that there was a long thin object in a jacket pocket, about the size of a large knife. I backed up about three feet, and asked the person what was in his jacket pocket. He was obviously surprised by this, and then checked. What he eventually pulled out was the battery for a cell phone. This was in the days of the banana phone, of which I have previously spoken, and their battery packs were long, and flat, and narrow.
As this particular ethnic group, in our city, had a large representation in the drug trade, a couple of police officers showed up at one point. They amused themselves by pointing out to us that this person had just come out of jail for murder, that person had just come out of jail for grievous bodily harm, oh and that one over there was the leader of the largest drug gang in Vancouver. What, the guy that I just frisked, I asked?
Security guards vary in capability, and their reasons for performing the work. Generally speaking, while they have to be able to pass the certification exams, few of them are major intellectuals. Occasionally we had some who were rather unsuited to the job, primarily because they thought of themselves as junior policemen. We had one such who was occasionally reported to us as having thrown his weight around on public transit as he came to work. Even by the rather easy standards of security guard work, he was not particularly bright.
One evening, I was on the afternoon shift, and was made aware that there was a problem with a piece of equipment on site. They had not been able to get a repair person in, and, this being a Friday, the piece of equipment would not be repaired until the following Monday. The equipment was not absolutely crucial to the company's operations, but they didn't want it to be unavailable, if they could help it. So a couple of the techs on site showed me the process for checking the equipment, and, if it wasn't functioning, restarting it. It wasn't a terribly onerous process, but it did require about five different steps, which had to be performed in the proper sequence. The plant manager asked if I thought I could handle it. I said yes, it shouldn't be a problem, but I would appreciate if they would write up the instructions for my colleagues who would be coming on over the weekend. The techs, who would be responsible for writing up the instructions, objected. "It's not that difficult," they said. I said it would be a good idea to have the instructions in writing. They appealed to the plant manager: it's not that difficult. I turned to the plant manager. "Kevin's on this weekend," I told him. He thought about that for about five seconds and turned to the techs. "Write up the instructions," he said.
Previous: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2024/06/mgg-525-hwyd-my-folks-and-my-books.html
Introduction and ToC: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2023/10/mgg-introduction.html
Next: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2024/06/mgg-527-hwyd-80times86.html
No comments:
Post a Comment