The plight of security guards

Its 2 am in the morning. You hoot at the gate of your estate. Like he had been anticipating you, the ‘watchie’ dutifully opens the gate for you. You’ve been out, enjoying the Christmas off your employer has begrudgingly granted you. But, he, the ‘watchie’ has forfeited Christmas back at home partly because he needs to be there to open the gate for you or he is very broke. The later seems more likely.

Recently the president put on notice private security companies for poorly paying the security guards. Over 4,000 of them, if my memory serves me right. Each and every mall, estate or institution has uniformed guards. You can see their frustration through their half-hearted security checks. Poor pay demoralizes them. They are not motivated to maintain security in the premises they’ve been tasked to man.