Hospital staff don't communicate enough vital information to security about the presence of potentially violent patients or patients that have orders of protection against potentially violent persons.
Hospital staff tend to leave doors unlocked, disregarding the need to ensure that exterior doors must be securely closed at night.
The emergency department frequently does not call security, but instead calls the police for disruptive patients and visitors. The delay could be dangerous.
Many, many people here are very rude and with small town xenophobia.
No one at the hospital has the foresight to provide copies of Orders of Protection to Security regarding patients, but they always provide information about such things when employees are involved. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prevents security from being informed about potential threats from patient visitors. There appears to be no information at HHS.gov about such a situation.
Certain staff members are clearly unqualified for their positions, and despite their mistakes and unprofessional behavior, appear to suffer no consequences. There is a clearly defined social stratum and the culture in this organization encourages class segregation and psychological abuse based on the values of title and income. There are only a handful of people who demonstrated a minimal team spirit.
Hospital employees take wheelchairs from the emergency entrance and stash them in their departments. Often, wheelchairs are brought back without the supports for the legs. Sometimes, wheelchairs are found locked over the weekend in the Rehabilitation Center which is open only during the week.
The radio equipment is issued and owned by the hospital and typically takes months to replace worn-out batteries.
The parking situation:
The hospital does not provide security staff with the necessary resources to enforce parking restrictions, such as employee stickers and records of license plates and vehicle descriptions, yet they demand the rules be enforced. Hospital employees park in patient parking areas and other employees complain to Security about it. Regardless of the submitted incident reports, there are no negative consequences to anyone other than Security being accused of not doing their job. Daytime employees ignore the signs that say "Parking for 3PM to 11PM employees only." Employees find excuses not to park where they should and have no respect for their fellow employees or patients. The safety officer treads on social-political eggshells because this is a small community from which the absolutely necessary professionals can easily leave (and do) if they are so much as looked at the wrong way.
The Expenses:
The pay is minimum wage which leaves me a net take-home rate of about $6.20 per hour. There is never going to be a pay raise. I don't recall being told this myself, but other officers said they were told this up-front.
For my wage, gas prices are getting too high for my 90 minute total daily commute. Car maintenance costs are too high for my 90 minute total commute. There are no insurance benefits that permit preventive health care.
The safety equipment such as handcuffs, pepper spray, baton, etc., required for real security is not provided by the company. Each officer is responsible for purchasing their own safety equipment, and paying for the training required to properly use the equipment.
Each officer is issued 2 uniforms, 1 short sleeve shirt for warm weather and long sleeve shirt for cold weather, 2 pants and one badge. Anything else is out-of-pocket without reimbursement.
The Permanent Employee Registration Card from the state of Illinois is paid for entirely by the officer. Expenses included the screening process fees which totaled more than $100.00
Security employees must use their own cars for patrol work, with no mileage reimbursement from the company.
The Work Schedule:
My schedule was changed from working nights to working days. I work Wednesday night and Thursday night, then I have Friday off, then work Saturday and Sunday mornings from 7 am to 3 pm. This means I must get off work at 7 am on Friday morning, then stay up all day and sleep Friday night to get up Saturday morning. So I must stay awake from around 8 pm Thursday all the way through 8 pm Friday to adjust my sleep schedule. I almost lost control of my car on the way home from work because I was so tired.
The work schedule comes out every week. Usually on Friday, but often the schedule for the following week comes as late as Sunday. The schedule changes so frequently that an individual can work Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 PM to 7AM and Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 7AM to 3PM. Then the following week work Wednesday through Sunday from 11PM to 7AM. There is no way to make regular plans outside of work. You lose touch with all the friends you had outside of work.
When I work the night shift. I must sleep during the day, even on my days off to avoid falling asleep at the wheel during my 90 minutes of total commute time between home and work. On my nights off, there is nothing to do but sit alone in my room as there is nothing but Denny's open all night as far as I know, besides that, I don't make enough money to spend freely on my nights off anyway.
Finally, The other security officers won't answer their phones if someone calls in sick, leaving the officer on duty to work a second eight-hour shift without even relief from the company's own family from which the business was founded.
