Working at guardsmark — Reviews by Employees

There's not much good to say. Very volatile, unpleasant work environment. Initially the pay seemed OK but the hours were incredibly long. They tout an ethics policy but I have never worked in a place with so much cursing and yelling by a supervisor. They have a strict dress code and extremely structured work environment. There was subtle discrimination against non-Jews. The office was old and dilapidated. Everyone who works there seems scared and miserable. It was very depressing.

Guardsmark is a large company focused on profit. There is competition to maximize profit between branches. Therefor, there is great incentive for management to take shortcuts wherever possible. In some cases these shortcuts are illegal (I have personally won a claim against them in front of the CA Labor board on one occasion). In some cases they are just unethical. In my experience they do not promote from within beyond the level of supervisor. This means that management is run by people with little or no security experience. Management in the San Mateo branch has been incommunicative and sometimes outright dishonest when pressed about their more questionable policies. The benefits are minimal and there is no direct deposit even though most employees do not work at the central office and must therefor drive (unpaid, of course) some distance just to pick up their checks.
To be fair, Guardsmark is a very large company and all branches may not be as poorly run as this one. I worked in a different branch before being promoted and transfering here and had a more positive experience (perhaps because I was not expected to deal with management and not in a position to be blamed for their failures.)
However, after one particularly egregious and well documented incident of lying on the part of management, I did contact the company ethics comittee. As far as I am aware they took no action to investigate, which leads me to question the ethical integrity of the company as a whole.
Guardsmark is a good company to work for as a guard, but if you are looking for a serious, long term job, I would suggest looking elsewhere.

Let me start out saying this is not totatlly about Guardsmark.Everything about the job is good except the co-workers. The reason is because we recently voted in a union.The union was voted in because Guardsmark would not take action on our demands so we voted in PPAN.The union was voted in on good intentions but unfortunately the currnet Local administration is a joke.Our union president, let's call him james WILK booth, is a conniving hippocrate who only thinks of himself.He appoints union positions to people without a formal vote.Super-senority should only be used when there are layoffs, unfortunately he thinks that it extends to shift bidding(he always gets called first).If you're thinking about comming as part time forget it.We had part timers working there for 4+ years and as soon as the union came in he threw them off to the side.They attempted to file grievences against certain situations but since it went against the almighty Union president he ignored the complaints.Everytime people ask about certain things pertaining to the union they always gets the same rhetorical remarks.He also holds a part time lead officer position.He shouldn't be a part time supervisor.Other than the fact that he's not competent enough to complete necessary paperwork,holding a presidency on top of being a supervisor is absolute power.What happens when he's a supervisor and someone wants file a grievence against him?He has not gotten anything out of the numerous greivences he actually filed.I personally think it's because the labor board thinks he's a monkey f*cking a football.The union has brought nothing but fighting between shifts.There is no unity between co workers, its cut throat.As of right now our union needs an overhaul, which is in the process.So I say if you're thinking about joining at Ford BSP security hold off.There is going to be a revolution VERY shortly and a new competent, fair president with REAL morals will be appointed.

I have worked for other security companies before and they paid slightly more but also demanded alot more. Most of the supervisors look/talk down to officers just because they are not S/S. Free benni's for officers? hells ya. IF you do your job your good to go. S/Ss seem to think that you can work any time but when you interviewed you told them the hours you wanted and still bug you to come in on the off hours regaurdless of your home life. They have many sites (each with a different pay scale) and crazy OT.

Two words union free it should be!!!!!!!