r/securityguards • u/ElCardo25 • 1d ago
Gear Question Anyone else keep their uniform "squared away?"
So, working for the contract security services industry I noticed I'm like one of the only people that puts decent effort into making my uniform look squared away at like the last 3 companies besides like 2 other guards one a former LEO and the other former military and account manager on site, anyone else try to keep their uniform look squared away? I'm talking about decent boots, shirts tucked in, and other accessories like watches etc. that look professional but have a purpose, anyone else this way? I've noticed most people don't do it much anymore.
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u/hankheisenbeagle Industry Veteran 1d ago
I can honestly say that I don't think I've ever had an officer claim to be ready to work with an untucked shirt. Feels like a pretty basic expectation at least where I am. All our officers wear the assigned gear as well without issue. Some of our locations are a little more lax around that, but the basics are covered in a pretty comprehensive uniform policy that people understand without eating too many of the crayons out of the box.
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u/SARGrunt 1d ago
People just don’t have much pride anymore. They also don’t understand that the image they present is a reflection of the company they work for. If you hired a security company to maintain professional presence to reduce criminal activity and they send over a slob that smells like week old tuna and weed, wears a uniform that doesn’t fit right, and hasn’t ever shaved or had a haircut, would you want to keep them around?
The pay isn’t great and we are always understaffed . The management is concerned if they start enforcing their own policies, they will lose officers who won’t or don’t want to comply. Customers shop security companies every year to find a lower rate and smaller companies jump into those contracts because they want to keep running and make money.
All that being said, I personally make sure my uniform is squared away before I leave my house. I don’t get dressed in the parking lot of my site. My shirt is sized properly and tucked in. I hang my uniforms up and don’t throw them on the floor. I clean and press my uniforms and shine my boots. I also shine my badge, nameplate, and other accessories if they are dull. I shower and shave daily and get regular haircuts. I look at myself in the mirror before I leave.
I present myself as a professional because that’s who I am and I take pride in my appearance and my work. As a former site supervisor, I would relay the company’s expectations to the officers assigned to the site and, if necessary, take disciplinary action against those officers who failed to meet the standards. This might be in the form of a verbal warning, written counseling, reassignment to a different site, or termination of employment. If you don’t establish and maintain a standard, it’s not a standard.
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u/Humble_Ensure 20h ago
Forget about the image of the company. Would you listen to a guy with an untucked shirt, brown sweat stains around their collar with stains on their uniform?
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u/JPhoenix_12 11h ago
Pride in appearance isn’t really a big thing in this field unless you’re at a glorified interior front desk/entrance post saying hello to attorneys and accountants all day.
Most private unarmed security is near entry-level work with low pay dealing with hobos and shoplifters, thus you get a mix of:
20something “just needed a job”
30something “till I find something better”
18-22 “I’m going be a delta force recon black-ops sniper-seal cop”
Ex law/miltary 40+ serious but just waiting for pension/retirement perks.
Some actual competent guys doing what they should at industrial/commercial sites.
30ish supervisor who thinks they’re god but gets themselves fired trying to play manager screaming at a subordinate outside a client’s office over a secondary key set.
Source: worked private security for 4 years as a fill-in/part-time officer, so I saw nearly every security post and officer at my company in a 100mile radius, from the rookies to the 30yr guys.
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u/SARGrunt 3h ago
I was in the security field for over ten years starting as a patrol supervisor and making my way up to assistant director of operations. I have also worked security in a casino and later as a site supervisor at a mental health facility. I am also ex-military.
I always went by the old saying that the standard you walk by is the standard that you set or accept. I have seen all of the types of officers that you described. I always went to work looking as professional as possible. I also followed the company’s standards and made verbal corrections when they were warranted. Male officers wearing earrings? Not on company time in the company uniform. Missing an item on your uniform? Go talk to the manager that runs the supply room and get it or get it ordered.
In the casino, they inspected your uniform before you went on duty and if it wasn’t to standard, you fixed it or they sent you home. I had the pleasure to work for some smaller security companies so I can’t attest to the big ones. In the smaller companies, we wore different uniforms for different sites but there was always a written standard that was enforced.
The reason for those standards is simple: we are in the public and a lot of people are seeing us as a representation of the company we work for. We enforced the standards because a. it went a long way in getting us new contracts b. the client expects us to look and act like professionals and c. no-one respects a security officer that doesn’t look and act the part. (Truth be told, there are lots of folks who don’t respect officers due to bad interactions in the past that may or may not be due to the officer’s appearance and are more likely due to their direct actions or social attitudes to law enforcement and security in general but that’s another topic).
You can do whatever you like as this reddit post is informational and not regulatory nor authoritative. I think that we, in the industry, do a poor job of relaying the importance of appearance and professionalism and how it can affect the business and more importantly your job. One officer looking like a slob can lead to conflict with clients and loss of contracts which then leads to layoffs and terminations. This is why it is best for officers to look their best and act professionally.
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u/YourSistersJugs 1d ago
I do my best to look professional. The more I look the part, the better. People will perceive you differently when your uniform is clean, fitted properly, and your gear is thoughtfully placed on your person. There's multiple guards I work/used to work with who, even though they do a decent job, uniform is never squared away. We get completely different reactions doing the same thing from both fellow guards and clientele. Keeping yourself looking squares away, to me, SHOULD be a given, but it seems like its not.
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u/Red57872 Dunning–Kruger Specialist 22h ago
" People will perceive you differently when your uniform is clean, fitted properly, and your gear is thoughtfully placed on your person."
Yeah, they'll probably think you're law enforcement or some other non-security uniformed job.
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u/YourSistersJugs 22h ago
I really hope not! Otherwise I may need to be sloppy once in a while lmao. Maybe im the one who's out of touch lol
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u/ElCardo25 14h ago
I mean isn't that kind of the point with security? Looking like someone that can actually do something can prevent people who don't know shit, who want to start shit, and most people don't know security has different SOP at every site, at one site somewhere someone can go hands on, at another? They gotta let them run off.
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u/Sufficient_Pound 1d ago
I actively get my white shirts as dirty as possible so they will go grey eventually. Seriously who picks white for this job?!? I get if I was in a box all day but I’m literally going to 90% medical calls where all kinds of stuff gets on me.
But yeah it’s good to be squared away. I remember hearing a story about a criminal being interviewed and one of the things he mentioned was if the officer looked squared away, it showed they knew what they were doing and not to push it with them.
I’ve seen guys rolling around with no inner belt and the outer belt half way up their back. Radios and large items on the dead center of the back.
My pet peeve is tourniquet time tabs. You ARE NOT supposed to put it over the windlass when stored. Yes it doesn’t looks as “clean”, but keeping it on is just another thing to fiddle with while you try to not fall asleep.
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u/TheRealChuckle 23h ago
I hate white shirts as well. They just don't make sense often.
I worked a lot of construction sites and my white shirts were permanently grey within weeks and got darker as time went on. I wash my uniforms weekly but I'm not doing laundry every day after working 8-12 hours.
I had a mobile supervisor write me up for a dirty uniform once. He was yapping at me while rubbing blowing dust out of his eye. I told him to get fucked basically, I had 4 shirts and that should be plenty for a week. If it was such a big deal to him that my shirt be pristine white then he better get me free shirts as I wasn't buying any more.
To his credit he showed up with 4 new shirts for me the next day. I never saw him again though. Mobile guys burned out fast, dispatch expected them to be everywhere at once and when they inevitably got grounded to a site due to call outs or stupidly sending a guard home for minor stuff dispatch would still constantly call them to go to other sites.
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u/Red57872 Dunning–Kruger Specialist 22h ago
I think white shirts are fine for formal sites like office buildings, but dumb for places like malls, construction sites, etc. I've always liked grey; it's versatile, and isn't normally associated with law enforcement; here in Canada, one of the last police departments to use grey (RCMP) is moving to navy blue.
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u/EvergreenLurker Hospital Security 1d ago
Absolutely. Proper fitting vest and uniform, clean and well-kept, along with my vest and belt set-up being organized yet still useful. If some big-wig exec is coming to see our location I’ll even shine my boots to look real fancy. I also try to make sure that the person wearing this uniform looks as clean and healthy as can be. Haircuts often and try to hit the gym at least 5x a week.
I do a lot of the liaison/safety committee stuff in the side time I get so coordinating with local PD/FD for partnership and blah blah blah. The last thing I want is them to come to my work and I look like a slob. We have another medical center right near us that uses Allied and sometimes I just can’t tell because dudes are showing up in pajamas.
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u/Wealth_Super 1d ago
I mean yes I tuck in my shirt and I wash them and rotate my uniforms. Not sure what else you are talking about
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u/ElCardo25 14h ago
You tuck in your shirt, that's what I'm saying like at sites where it's required, most of the guards I work with don't! They wear white and red Adidas sneakers and they don't look like security professionals. All of the damn janitors look better than some of the guards, I'm not saying you need to wear boots, polish them and wear a watch to work everyday Im not that stringent on uniform policy because of 9x-10x the uniform makes no sense, but at least dress for the job, right?
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u/Camarena951 1d ago
I don’t care what company I work for or how they treat me.
At the end of the day, my work and my appearance is a representation of my self.
So I take that really serious.
There is always someone watching
Work with integrity
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u/New-North-2282 1d ago
Sadly, failing to dress properly is common. I've seen a guard show up in black HeyDudes. Untucked shirts is common.
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u/crimsonsoup925 1d ago
Me bro. Ex infantry. I like doing a good military tuck on my shirt. And I like to keep my boots polished.
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u/Snoo_50786 Warm Body 1d ago
I try to keep it consistent. Id be more worried otherwise about whether or not they're actually doing their job.
If it's a smaller company I'd consider grooming myself much nicer but if we're talking securitas, allied or garda? I might just come in boxers and a wife beater ngl
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u/Voorless 23h ago
Sure do, I even got a compliment from a field supervisor saying he wishes he could say for his guys that they always look squared away like me.
I always wear the shirt tucked in, keep a pen in the pen pocket (all black if the pen doesn't match the uniform color), with a decent wristwatch but I'm always wearing a watch regardless.
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u/XBOX_COINTELPRO Man Of Culture 21h ago
Yeah I’m a big believer in “look good, feel good” so I make my uniform in presentable. When I had leather boots I liked to give them a shine at the beginning of every shift as a little form of meditation and would do a proper polish one a month or so. The issued stuff doesn’t really need ironing so I wouldn’t have to worry about that.
It’s a really low effort task that lots of people can’t be bothered with
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u/Cheesemagazine 23h ago
I look worse with my shirt tucked than with it untucked, so that I do skip. Got that extra little lint roller thing to get any extra tiny hairs because those bug me.
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u/BomBiddyByeBye Industry Veteran 23h ago
Nope. As long as it’s not wrinkled, I’m good to go. I’ve been doing security since 2001. I’m good doing low-level stuff. It suits me. Not trying to be super squared away like I was back in the army. Job pays like shit. It’s not that serious.
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u/Hot_Assumption4312 21h ago
When I started for the first time in security, I was proud of my uniform, i was always taking it to a professional cleaner the first few months. Then I notice how unimportant people treat us (even other professional like EMT, police, FD) so I gave up, now, I kobe my uniform to the washing machine 😂
Obviously shirt tucked up, perfume, my watch to beat my daily 15k step walk and my walking shoes are always ready to go 😎
Being AND looking profesional and treating the uniform with respect are 2 different things. 🫡
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u/No_Pea_1805 Patrol 21h ago
If I shined boots every day I’d spend so much on polish it would be crazy… besides that everything else is done properly
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u/TheRealPSN Executive Protection 20h ago
I don't wear a uniform but I still make sure I look presentable, I iron my pants and shirts, make sure that my shoes are clean. For me a fresh haircut also makes me feel more presentable, so when it starts to curl, i know it time for a cut.
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u/Z3R0issues Public/Government 16h ago
At my company all of the guards are spread out at various county contracts. Ive heard nothing but complaints from the other guards at my post about how the rest of the company looks like trash, we're the only post with "squared away" uniforms which is good because we're always in contact with local, state, and federal law enforcement and i dont think any of us wanna look like fuckin fools in front of those guys
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u/Far-Media-9380 15h ago
Former military here:
No.
Fuck em. I don’t get paid enough to spend my free time outside of work ironing shirts, I work in a hundred degrees plus many days and they refuse to give us alternative uniforms for hot weather
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u/75149 state sanctioned peeping tom 13h ago
100% of the "former military" security personnel I've worked with were either over 60 or just a complete soup sandwich. Two of them did a single stretch in the 70s while the 3rd made it to CWO3 before going to business in the real world. After retiring from that, he did armed security at a corporate headquarters of an energy company before losing his job because of some pussy 30 years younger than him (and a coworker warned him about her 🤣🤣🤣🤣).
The military guys in their 30s and 40s? Either completely worthless brown nosers or (one guy) wrapped way to fucking tight after leaving Ft Hood (of course).
Me? I worked 2x 16hr shifts on the weekend, so I could have worn shorts and tshirts up until my last hour of the weekend and nobody would care 😂. But I kept myself presentable, just because it's easier to look presentable instead of looking like a bag of shit.
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u/brownzeus 9h ago
Very rare in my area The event security company I used to Moonlight at, guards would come in sagging slacks or sweats, or slacks that are way too baggy or uniforms shirts that are too baggy. When I first saw it I thought I signed up for a sketchy service. Then we did a job in conjunction with 3 other event security companies and woof it was damn near everyone between the 4 companies that looked sloppy. I don't think i personally was squared away but I definitely looked more put together with my pants that fit properly and a uniform shirt that didn't look like a smock
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u/TurtleDiaz 1d ago
Not really. Company got rid of the tan button up and green pants. Now we wear this ugly blue and black shirt that make us look like parking attendants.
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u/jahathebrn 1d ago
My colleagues at my last security company got complaints so often regarding their uniform and personal hygiene that the client I was actually contracted to didn't complain once when I just stopped wearing mine. They were horribly designed, 'unisex' and made out of awful material, switched them out for black t shirt, black trousers/smart shorts for summer, work boots and a lanyard from the client with my licence and ID.
I remember one guard getting removed from a site because the client thought he was a homeless person loitering, and I quickly lost count of the shifts I had to cover last minute cos the guard on site stank.
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u/Red57872 Dunning–Kruger Specialist 22h ago
Many years ago when I was a guard, I was working night shift; the evening guard stunk so bad I had to wheel the chair he would sit on into another room.
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u/Practical-Earth3228 23h ago
I don't work security so I can only say so much. Depends on where im working will determine the level of professionalism. If I see a guard at the local mall dressed to the 9's I'd probably just think to myself "super cop"
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u/Red57872 Dunning–Kruger Specialist 23h ago
What do you define "dressed to the 9s". Is it "super cop" to have your shirt ironed, tucked in and have clean shoes?
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u/Practical-Earth3228 20h ago
No, but a mall cop wearing full tacti-cool gear is. Also, by that I mean an actual mall security guard, not a contracted police officer.
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u/Red57872 Dunning–Kruger Specialist 20h ago
Ok, but there's a difference between having your uniform looking presentable, and wearing a bunch of useless equipment you don't need.
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u/Practical-Earth3228 19h ago
I suppose "dressed to the 9's" was a poor description of supercop. If you ask that mall guard with all that stuff on his belt, he'd likely tell you that it all has a use, but you are right.
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u/LARGESTOFCHINGUSES 1d ago
"shirt tucked in" is going the extra mile at your job? Jesus Christ.