Having worked both as an EMT and as security I will give this a shot
Unfortunately for him, in his position, he is generally obligated to self report, If he was in violation of policy for handling such objects then he should be disciplined. If he was not it creates some new problems.
Depending on the political climate of your workplace, invoking the displeasure of advanced medical personell could be very career damaging. Combined with his obligation to report the incident it creates a situation where if his supervisor in security finds out later that he concealed the incident he could be disciplined and or terminated for concealing it. Sometimetimes its a bigger deal not to report than to do it in the first place (I believe a medication error would be an apt anology)
Many terrorist incidents are designed to make us fear everyday routine things, the breifcase could be a bomb, that letter could have anthrax in it, airliners might crash into the place where we work. Unfortunately we still have to go on with our lives.
Hundreds if not thousands of purses and breifcases get left behind every day all over the world. Where I was security it was 3-4 a week that we picked up. Over thousands of occurances over 10 years in an amusement park with hundreds of children around nobody died. The odds are very much against the probablility that the case in question was dangerous in any way. You did overreact, you attacked someone who from the sounds of it did what would be expected of him then asked him to conceal the fact from his superiors…
If he was in violation of any “abandoned objects” policy hes screwed either way. If not written apology to him via his supervisor. That way him and his supervisor are aware of your feelings on the event and that there is no lingering bad feelings between the ER staff and security. Especially since those are two teams that definitely have to get along.
Maybe it’s just me but you seem to be contradicting yourself a bit here. The first paragraph I agree with 100%. We do have to go on with our lives (but we must also be a little more vigilant). The second paragraph - not so much. The odds were also very much against 4 aircraft being hijacked & used as weapons. How many thousand flights have taken off in 10 years without ever being hijacked flown into buildings? Plenty, but it still happened.
Quasi said he:
Which hardly seems like he:
.
And overreact? Maybe but not by much.
Quasi does not owe anyone an apology, written or otherwise.
It got “handled” between the two of us, and that is where it will remain.
As far as the “ER Staff” is concerned, there will be nothing said. He has gone above and beyond his job description many times to help us, and we appreciate him.
And as far as your accusations against me asking him to conceal anything, I take that upon my shoulders, and I do so willingly. I was there, you were not.
Probably, it would have been better for me not to post this in the first place, but what can I say?
Yes, I overreacted, and yes, I feel badly about it.
You were right and you delt with it in a professional manner.
I’m glad that he didn’t decide to quit over it and that he learned a valuable lesson.
And Eonwe, you’re right in a way also. It is sad that it is an issue in this world today. I wouldn’t, however, leave it there if it was questionable, I’d probably call a professional. So the guy would get his briefcase back either way (maybe with a little embarassment when he realized the bomb squad had his briefcase as a potential bomb) without putting others at risk.
Dosen’t sound like a pretty precedent but, such is life.
I also did not read the whole thread and did not realize that this is not a purely workplace relationship involving an otherwise exeptioanl co-worker. Sorry if I hit a little hard.
For what it’s worth Quasi, I think you did fine. Sounds like the guy got a hell of a fright from this, and if that makes him more careful in the future then you have done him a service. Apart from anything else, surely the conversation should have happened the other way round, he is supposed to be the one thinking in terms of the building and staffs security.
To whoever it was that more or less said “being afraid of anonymous abandoned briefcases is letting the terrorists win”, so is letting them kill more people with a briefcase-bomb.
I direct you to an earlier post of mine (in this same thread) where I said:
And if you think this scenario is impossible or very unlikely, I would have agreed at one time - then September 11th unfolded on the TV in my break room at work. YMMV
Hmmm, sounds like what happened in Lincoln a year or two ago. We heard on the radio that the entire High Street had been cordoned off, and that bomb disposal experts were preparing to inspect a suspect package left underneath a bench.
I can only imagine the look on the guy’s face when he opened the package to find… a set of saucepans that someone had purchased that morning and subsequently mislaid :D.
If you work at kinkos, the odds that something someone leaves behind will explode are around 0.
But if you’re dealing with places where lots of people go, or places that provide emergancy services, and at which an attack would erode public cofidence then you have to treat unknown objects as just that – unknown.
As for not reporting it…
You should have.
While I’m 99% sure that it was just osmeone who forgot a briefcase. There is a chance it was set there for a purpose to test security arrangements.
But on the other hand: if you reported it the guard would have been given additional training or fired after getting a lecture about standard procedures. Probably he would have ended up carrying a grudge and might not perform his job as well as he should.
As it stands now, it seems like he realized what he did, and what could have happened and now will probably be very alert and not let this happen again. So, it’s more or less a win win situation. He’s more attentive at the job and won’t let it happen again and he didn’t get reprimanded.
But I should also mention that I’m probably paranoid in general. Or at least for some odd reason I dwel on matters of security and possible lapses in security… and how’d I penetrate various security setups I see.
You did the right thing. If the guy is still thinking about quitting maybe he should just be reminded that you were chastising him as much for his own safety as anybody elses. He should stay on and learn from the experience.
I think Quasimodem was right, and seems to have dealt with it tactfully. As someone else has pointed out, in the U.K. (and particularly) when I lived in London, a certain suspicion of “unattended packages” became ingrained.
At my hospital, a bomb placed on the sidewalk outside our ER would completely destroy the communication hub of the hospital–my office–the place with control over the overhead paging access, locations to the gas tanks, Security dispatch, all local, state and federal emergency contact information, etc. It would also destroy the Security office, not to mention the damage to the ER itself. In fact, if you were going to attack a hospital (and there have been threats), the ER is the best/worst place. That’s where, in a normal situation, you would bring the wounded. Destroy that and you end up with chaos–especially in towns where there may be only one actual trauma center ER.
I’m very glad the guy decided not to leave his job. The best way to look at it, IMHO, is that he made a mistake, he learned from it, and now he can do his job better. I just do not understand the mentality some people have (not really visible in this thread, thankfully) that would call for the guy to be dumped, so they can get in somebody else who hasn’t learned from this particular mistake.
Errors are to be treasured, in my opinion. They’re how we learn.
Good call. I would have called the local police and let them handle it. Overreact? No. Tell the guy that you still think he should work there, but keep that in mind. Like Cervaise, I think he’d learn from this and would be careful in the future.
It is one thing to blow the whistle and play Barney Fife, trying to “defuse” it yourself, but it’s much much better to use some tact and quietly call the police, and let them take care of it.
Um, not to be disrespectful, but how did you find out the briefcase just had papers in it? Did the security guard bring it inside and open it, and then you talked to him; or (shudder) did you and he open it together?
While I was management at the same park I later worked security at (long story, changed jobs, went back PT). We used to set little traps for employees all the time. Intentionally putting extra in the register starting change fund, leaving money (or in a couple cases alcohol) where only one employee would find it.
There is always a way to get around any kind of security, just a matter of time, planning, and patience. A smart, patient, individual will consistently evade advanced security measures and capture.