Working at guardsmark — Reviews by Employees

Guardsmark is one of the worse security companies that I have ever seen. The familhpresidents. They say that they hire just the best employees in the business. Not true. Most of the people that they hire are found sleeping on the job. The managers that they have could care less what goes on. If you are just hired in as a Security Guard and have no college, then you might as well forget on any promotions. Jobs are really boring. Even the uniforms are sloppy. They are worn out when you get them. I even had to purchase my own to even have a decent looking uniform. Company really sucks. I'll never work for them again. Just beware if you are thinking about working for them.

Well, from personal experience I have never worked for the Raleigh, Guardsmark. First let me explain this stems from working from the Guardsmark in San Francisco. I lived in San Francisco in order to help a buddy and my self out of a few problems. Need less to say that guardsmark was good in the beginning, they found me great job site even though the hours were long, I kind of enjoyed working for the site. Now for the bad, one night I noticed a co worker falling asleep at the job and my first instinct was to rat the guy out but, I decided to give him a break and warn him in order to give him a chance. Well, the guy decided that he wasn’t going to heed my warning and continued to sleep on the job. Eventually the Security manager of the site started asking questions and eventually, told me it was either me or the other guy. Let’s just say it wasn’t, going to be me. Long story short he tried to get even with me, by putting feces/urine in my Dr. Pepper. I caught it while on break, decided to confront him about it. He decided that he was going to deny it. Well one thing lead to another and I was about to put this guy through some security glass at the site. Unfortunately, he was saved at the last min by a female co worker. I was placed in a meeting with my supervisor and manager… which they wrote it off as nothing and I got a negative on my record of employment. They didn’t even try to investigate the situation. Well when I transferred home to North Carolina. I was told that there was an opening and they would gladly put me in the position, I turned in my application and materials and then boom no- job, they were constantly filled or were not hiring for some reason or other. I called back every month and still same situation, recently I called because they web posts about being hired. I called yesterday and a manager told me that yes they were hiring and that I need to call back the next day. I called back today only to find out they aren’t hiring. Every time I called each time I was told that they aren’t hiring ……. F@#% ‘em they can have it …. Don't work for these sorry Mfrs..... its a waste of time.

I worked with guardsmark for a while at a site where they had taken over the ocntract. Despite being there for only 8 months they went through 2 site managers and 1 account manager. Both ignored the officers that had worked there for years. At one point we heard there was an issue with someone not doing their job correctly. 6 months later i found out it was me. Even after proving that i was in fact doing my job they told me that if it happened again i was fired. When the contractor needed to renegotiate the contract because of the economy they laid me off even though i had both experience, customer satisfaction, and the required security clearance. However they did retain those without clearances. They did not give me any warning in this even though they had promised to keep us informed. The only reason i found out that i was laid off was because I called in to see what my schedule was the day before my last shift. All in all my time with them was horrid. One last thing they do not care about the civil rights laws here. Regardless of proving the fact that im transgenders had no effect either way on my job performance they laid me off over the bathroom issue.

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!!!!!!!