Dear security managers,

yes, I am speaking to you.

Do you feel you’ve been valued by your employer?

I mean, are you the go-to person when there is an emergency?

In most cases, yes, I bet.

People think of you when bad things happen, when things are
missing, when there was violence, when police visits your facilities, even when
someone has lost their wallet in the office.

All of a sudden, you become the focus for many people who
don’t even know your name, or your existence one moment ago.

I always feel men are like patients in the hospital, in that
everyone is helpless, weak, restless, uncertain about what will come out.

It is often at such moments when you are thought of – ah, we
have a security guy, don’t we? Let’s get the security manager. It’s like a knee-jerk
reaction for many people to call for security only when they feel threatened or
trapped in trouble.

However, my fellow dear security managers, you make yourself
available to people’s rescue, yet you still don’t know what really happened –
no one bothers to tell you the whole story.

For them, security has come, the imminent danger dissolved. Done,
back to normal life/work.

You stand there, making wild guesses about the issue – what has
caused the problem on earth?

No one tells you. No one thinks you need to know more.

You are called when they need a security guard.

Dear C-suites,

yes, I am talking to you.

How much do you pay your security managers?

I don’t need to know the number. I believe you have a decent
salary system.

Do you get your security managers onboard for troubles? I am
certain you do. But the question is – when?

When do you start to realize you have a full-time proprietary
security manager on the payroll?

In most instances, when the trouble has already unfolded,
right?

You call your security manager, ask him/her to come to the
scene, to figure everything out, to nail it, to get it done, to report back to
you, to keep you updated.

Your security manager does so – he reports to you, after
all.

Problem solved, mission completed. Done, back to normal,
life or work.

And?

You still keep your security manager in the dark, leaving him/her
trying to fathom the THING.

Next time when another trouble hits, history repeats itself.

You have misused your security manager as a security guard,
a hefty guy, only paid multiple times than a real guard.

If you ask me, you are wasting your money on your security
managers, if he/she is only expected to play the role of a security guard.

To whom it may concern, to whom I don’t know,

Yes, you.

I say – try to understand what SECURITY is meant to be, and
what your security manager is hired for.

Get him/her on the team when there are red flags discovered
in whatever procedures;

Give him/her a full picture of the whole thing;

Get him/her involved from the beginning of a project where
security is needed, be it physical systems, or managerial standards, so that
your security managers get to offer their expertise, knowledge, and suggestions,
lest you wouldn’t mind tinkering your newly built facilities here and there
because the CCTV conduit was not planned, or the egress and ingress are neglected
in the design (examples are numerous).

Speaking from my own experience, I have been called for often
when urgent things happen, or a trouble has snowballed into a huge one, so much
so that the situation is on the verge of collapse.

Yet no one would brief me on the ins and outs of the thing,
leaving me search high and low for the full picture, wondering about the root
causes.

Root cause, that’s a big word, but cliché enough to be forgotten,
as if your security manager were nothing but a security guard.

It needs a change. If you are serious about your money, or
your businesses.

Treat your security managers as security professionals.

Don’t waste your money on your security managers if what you
need is only a security guard.