A security gun for hire is a seasoned security professional with years of experience in retail loss prevention, construction site security, commercial building security, and crowd control management. Throughout their career, they have developed expertise in high-pressure situations, from managing retail theft to coordinating security operations across diverse environments including luxury hotels, corporate facilities, and large-scale events. With a focus on accountability and reliability, they have built a reputation for thorough patrol protocols, leveraging modern technology like NFC scanning systems to ensure verifiable security coverage. His approach combines strategic positioning, situational awareness, and proactive threat assessment to deliver comprehensive protection services. A security gun for hire holds active security guard licensing and maintains ongoing professional development through specialized training programs. His experience spans both hybrid and unarmed security rol...
Security work is supposed to be about vigilance and protection, not personal recognition. Yet sometimes circumstances thrust guards into the spotlight; whether through a heroic intervention, a viral video, or simply being present during a newsworthy incident. For professionals trained to blend into the background, this attention can feel uncomfortable and even counterproductive.
Stay Professional, Not Personal
When media or curious onlookers approach you, remember that your employer's interests come first. Politely redirect questions to your supervisor or the organization's public relations team. A simple "I'm not authorized to comment, but you can contact our management" protects both you and your company from potential liability or misrepresentation.
Resist Social Media Impulses
The urge to share your side of the story online can be strong, especially if accounts seem inaccurate. Resist it. Social media posts can complicate legal matters, violate confidentiality agreements, or create security vulnerabilities. What feels like setting the record straight today might become evidence in court tomorrow.
Keep Your Guard Up, Literally
Increased visibility can make you a target. Be mindful of sharing personal information, your schedule, or details about security procedures. Those seeking to exploit vulnerabilities often gather intelligence from public sources.
Let It Pass
Public attention has a short memory. Today's headline becomes tomorrow's forgotten story. Continue doing your job with the same professionalism that likely earned you recognition in the first place. Most guards who've experienced their fifteen minutes of fame report that the best strategy is simply waiting it out while maintaining their routine.
The best security guards are the ones nobody notices, until they're needed. When circumstances make you visible, handle it with the same steady composure you bring to the job itself.
We've all encountered them: colleagues who seem to have lost their spark, going through the motions with glazed eyes and mechanical responses. While "corporate zombie syndrome" isn't a clinical diagnosis, it's become workplace shorthand for employees who appear disengaged, unmotivated, and emotionally checked out. Here's how to maintain your own well-being while working alongside them.
Protect Your Own Energy
The most important thing is to avoid catching the contagion of disengagement. Corporate zombies often radiate negativity; complaining about management, dismissing new initiatives, or responding to everything with cynical detachment. While empathy is important, you don't need to absorb their outlook. Set boundaries around workplace negativity, politely redirecting doom-loop conversations or excusing yourself when the venting becomes unproductive.
Look for the Person Behind the Apathy
Sometimes what looks like zombie-like behavior is actually burnout, depression, personal crisis, or the result of feeling undervalued for years. A little genuine human connection can go a long way. Ask how someone's doing, share something positive, or invite them to lunch. You might find that beneath the disengagement is someone who simply needs to feel seen again.
Focus on What You Can Control
You can't single-handedly revive someone's career passion, and trying to do so will likely exhaust you. Instead, concentrate on your own projects, growth, and workplace relationships. Lead by example; bring enthusiasm and professionalism to your work without making it a referendum on others' choices.
Know When to Escalate
If a disengaged colleague's behavior actively interferes with team productivity or morale, it may be appropriate to discuss the issue with a manager. Frame it around specific impacts rather than character judgments.
Ultimately, corporate zombies are usually products of their environment or circumstances. While you can be compassionate, remember that everyone is responsible for their own engagement and career satisfactionm, including you.
Among the growing family of "thin line" symbols that honor various professions, the thin purple line has emerged to represent security guards and professionals who serve on the front lines of safety and protection.
Security personnel occupy a unique position in public safety; they're often the first responders in shopping centers, hospitals, schools, office buildings, and countless other venues. The thin purple line flag, featuring a single purple stripe across a black and white American flag, honors these men and women who stand watch over our communities, often without the recognition afforded to other emergency services.
Security officers handle a remarkably diverse range of responsibilities. They deter crime, respond to emergencies, assist lost children, provide first aid, and serve as the crucial bridge between the public and law enforcement. In hospitals, they protect healthcare workers and patients. On college campuses, they ensure student safety. In corporate settings, they safeguard employees and assets.
The choice of purple for security professionals distinguishes them from the blue line (law enforcement), red line (firefighters), and other colored lines representing different service sectors. It acknowledges that while security officers may not carry the same authority as sworn police officers, their role in maintaining order and protecting lives is no less vital.
For those who wear the uniform, the thin purple line represents pride in their profession and commitment to their protective mission. For the public, it's a reminder to recognize and appreciate these dedicated professionals who work around the clock to keep people safe.
There's a misconception that security work is all about standing still, watching cameras, and walking predetermined routes. The reality? It's organized chaos, and the best guards are the ones who've learned not just to manage it, but to embrace it.
Every shift brings something unexpected. One moment you're checking IDs at the front desk, the next you're mediating a heated argument in the parking lot, responding to a medical emergency, or investigating why the fire alarm just went off on the third floor. The job description might say "maintain order," but what it really means is "adapt constantly."
The Problem with Rigid Thinking
New guards often struggle because they want everything to fit neatly into protocols and procedures. They freeze when the script doesn't match reality. Someone's having a panic attack in the lobby, but there's no "panic attack protocol" in the manual. A delivery driver is insisting they need access to a restricted area, but your supervisor isn't answering their phone. The more you resist the chaos, the more it overwhelms you.
Learning to Flow
Experienced guards know that embracing chaos doesn't mean abandoning structure, it means understanding that structure is a foundation, not a cage. Yes, you follow procedures. Yes, you maintain standards. But you also develop the judgment to know when a situation calls for something more, something different, or something faster than the manual anticipated.
The chaos teaches you things no training course can. You learn to read people in seconds, to spot the difference between someone who's lost and someone who's casing the building. You develop an instinct for which situations will resolve themselves and which ones are about to escalate. You become comfortable making decisions with incomplete information because waiting for perfect clarity isn't always an option.
Finding the Rhythm
Every site has its own rhythm of chaos. In hospitals, it's the ebb and flow of emergencies. In retail, it's the weekend rush and the after-hours intrusions. In corporate settings, it's the tension between access and security, convenience and protocol. Once you stop fighting the rhythm and start moving with it, the job transforms from exhausting to energizing.
The best part? When you embrace the chaos, you become invaluable. You're not just a guard who follows orders, you're a problem solver, a crisis manager, a calm presence when everything around you is spinning. You're the person people look to when things go sideways because they know you won't panic, you won't freeze, and you won't make excuses.
The Takeaway
Security work isn't about preventing all chaos, it's about being the steady force within it. Embrace the unpredictability. Trust your training but also trust your instincts. Stay flexible, stay alert, and remember that every chaotic situation is just another opportunity to prove why security professionals matter.
Because at the end of the day, anyone can guard an empty, quiet building. It takes a real professional to maintain order when everything's falling apart.
The job posting appeared on a wildlife employment board last month with an unusual selling point in bold text: "Successful candidates will experience at least one rhino charge during their first year. Guaranteed."
Most employers bury the dangerous parts of a job description in careful euphemisms. "Dynamic work environment." "Fast-paced challenges." "Occasional physical demands." But Thanda Wildlife Reserve in South Africa has taken the opposite approach: radical honesty about what security guards actually face on the job.
And applications have tripled.
Selling Danger in a Safety-Obsessed World
"We tried the traditional approach for years," explains Jabu Sithole, Thanda's head of security operations. "Professional language. Emphasis on wildlife conservation, community impact, career development. We'd hire people, train them for six weeks, and then on day three of their first solo patrol, they'd encounter an irritated rhino at twenty meters."
The attrition rate, he admits, was brutal. Nearly 40% of new guards quit within three months, often after their first real encounter with the reserve's 200-plus rhinos.
"We were losing good people because they weren't mentally prepared for the reality," Sithole says. "So we changed the recruiting strategy entirely. Now we lead with the rhino charge."
The Video That Changed Everything
The new approach centers on a recruiting video filmed from actual security guard body cameras and vehicle dashcams. It shows rhinos doing what rhinos do: mock charging vehicles, protecting calves aggressively, and occasionally deciding that a particular guard standing near a fence has committed some unforgivable territorial violation.
The footage is raw, occasionally profane, and utterly authentic. In one clip, a guard named Siphiwe calmly narrates his own evasion technique as a two-ton white rhino closes the distance. "Step left, step left, now freeze—and she's past. See? Forty-five seconds of terror, then paperwork."
The video ends with statistics: average number of rhino encounters per month (4-6), percentage requiring evasive action (15%), and actual injuries in the past five years (zero, though several vehicles have required repair).
"We show them the truth," Sithole says. "Then we show them the training that keeps people safe. Then we tell them the salary, which is competitive, and the purpose, which is protecting one of the world's most endangered species."
A Different Kind of Applicant
The shift in recruiting strategy has attracted a notably different candidate pool. Out are the applicants seeking a quiet outdoor job. In are former military personnel, extreme sports enthusiasts, wildlife biology graduates willing to work security for field experience, and people who simply appreciate employers who don't sugarcoat reality.
Twenty-eight-year-old Zanele Mthembu saw the video and applied the same day. "I'd worked corporate security for three years," she says. "Access badges, parking disputes, the occasional drunk person at a company event. I wanted something that mattered. And I liked that they were honest about it being scary sometimes."
Mthembu completed training two months ago. She's had four rhino encounters so far, including one charge that she describes with obvious pride: "Female with a calf, maybe twelve meters away when she decided I was a problem. I did exactly what they taught us—perpendicular movement, stay calm, let her see I'm not a threat. She stopped at six meters and just stared at me. Then she walked away."
She pauses. "That was the best Tuesday I've ever had."
The Controversy
Not everyone applauds the approach. Some wildlife employment specialists worry that advertising danger could attract reckless thrill-seekers rather than serious conservation professionals. Others question whether emphasizing rhino charges might somehow encourage risky behavior.
Dr. Sarah Chen, who studies wildlife worker safety at the University of Cape Town, offers a measured view: "There's research showing that realistic job previews reduce turnover and increase job satisfaction. If the rhino charges are genuine occupational hazards, being transparent about them is actually best practice. The key is ensuring the training is as prominent in recruiting as the danger."
Sithole insists that's exactly the point. "We're not recruiting adrenaline junkies. We're recruiting people who can handle reality. The video shows the charges, yes. But it also shows the training, the protocols, the fact that we've had zero serious injuries. We want people who watch that and think 'I can learn to do this safely,' not 'cool, danger.'"
Results in Numbers
Six months into the new recruiting approach, Thanda's retention rate has climbed to 89%. Guards report higher job satisfaction. Incident reports show that proper protocol adherence during rhino encounters has improved—possibly because guards arrived expecting encounters rather than being shocked by them.
And the reserve has a waiting list of applicants for the first time in its history.
"Turns out," Sithole says, "there are a lot of people out there looking for work that matters, where the challenges are real, and where employers treat them like adults who can handle the truth."
He gestures toward the savanna beyond his office, where a crash of rhinos grazes peacefully in the afternoon sun. "We protect them. Sometimes they charge at us. We're honest about both parts. And we're finding that honesty recruits exactly the kind of people we need."
The next training class starts in two weeks. All sixteen positions are filled. And yes, statistically speaking, every one of those recruits will face down at least one charging rhino within their first year.
They've all watched the video. They know what they're signing up for. And they can't wait to start.
There's a particular kind of hunger that hits after a security shift. It's not just your stomach talking, it's your whole body reminding you that you're finally allowed to relax. Your feet ache from standing all shift and your mind is still half-stuck in that state of alertness that defines the job. You've spent the last eight, ten, maybe twelve hours being responsible for someone else's safety, someone else's property, someone else's peace of mind. Now, at last, you get to think about yourself.
For guards finishing up at warehouses, office buildings, or retail centers, this greasy guilty pleasure has become something of an unofficial tradition. The reasons are practical: it's fast, it's open when you need it, and it tastes like freedom after hours of structured responsibility.
During your shift, everything runs on protocol. Check-ins at specific intervals. Incident reports filed just so. Chatter you can't ignore. But when you're finally done? That burger is pure personal choice. Extra pickles? Sure. No onions? Your call. It's a small autonomy, but it matters.
The atmosphere helps too. Whether you're eating in your car with the radio playing your music instead of dispatch calls, or sitting in a booth watching normal people go about their normal day, the Crypt Burger creates a buffer zone between work mode and home mode. It's transition food.
Night shifters know this especially well. When you're living on a backwards schedule, regular mealtimes stop making sense anyway. A burger at dawn? Why not. You've been up all night while everyone else slept. You've earned the right to eat breakfast food for dinner and dinner food for breakfast.
The Crypt Burger isn't fancy. It won't change your life. But after keeping watch over someone else's property, sometimes the best reward is something simple, hot, and entirely your own.
Colorado joined a growing number of states offering paid family and medical leave when the Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program launched on January 1, 2024. The program represents a significant shift in how Coloradans can balance work responsibilities with major life events and health challenges.
What FAMLI Covers
The program provides up to 12 weeks of paid leave annually for qualifying events, with an additional 4 weeks available for pregnancy-related complications. Employees can use FAMLI for bonding with a new child, caring for a seriously ill family member, addressing their own serious health condition, or handling certain military family needs. The program also covers safe leave for individuals dealing with domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
How It Works
FAMLI is funded through payroll premiums split between employers and employees, with workers contributing 0.45% of their wages. The program offers a sliding scale of wage replacement, providing up to 90% of wages for the lowest earners and at least 50% for higher earners, capped at a maximum weekly benefit amount that adjusts annually.
Most Colorado workers are covered after earning at least $2,500 during their time working in the state. Both full-time and part-time employees qualify, making the program accessible to a broad workforce.
Looking Ahead
Colorado's FAMLI program addresses a long-standing gap in worker protections. While federal law provides unpaid leave through the Family and Medical Leave Act, Colorado workers can now take time for critical life moments without facing financial hardship. As the program matures, its impact on workforce retention, family wellbeing, and economic security will become clearer.
