Complaint Review: The Wackenhut Corporation

This comment is NOT directed to the original poster because I KNOW she told the truth because that is how Wackenhut worked here.

This is to the corporate Shill who posted last and doesn't have a clue of what she is in for.

How nice it is to be able to climb right into the corporate management structure...

SHE DID NOT DO IT FROM WHERE I WORKED AND WHERE MY FAMILY MEMBERS WORKED EITHER!

So what this lady (?) has to say does NOT apply to how things are HERE.
Rather, how things WERE because people are learning NOT to work for Private Security Guard Contracting Companies BECAUSE they DO NOT WANT their wages SKIMMED AND RIPPED OFF, they don't want to be BLACKLISTED and get FALSE JOB REFERENCES FROM PEOPLE WHO DON'T EVEN KNOW THEM BECAUSE IT IS FUN TO TELL LIES AND RUIN PEOPLE'S LIVES!

I will admit that Wackenhut DID NOT DO this to ME because as soon as they were finished USING me, I NO LONGER EXISTED IN their employee section in the computers, like all of the other guys who took the training course with me.We were promised that it would be entered into the computrs and that we could get junior college credit for it -- ALL LIES!

Thanks, Wackenhut... for making me ineligible for unemployment and job retraining programs as well as reimbursement for promised vacation pay.

THEY NEVER EVEN GAVE ME THE TRAINING CERTIFICATE THEY PROMISED ME AFTER I WENT THROUGH THEIR CUSTOM PROTECTION OFFICER TRAINING PROGRAM...AT REDUCED TRAINING PAY WHILE WORKING OTHER POSTS.

THEY TOOK THE MONEY OUT OF MY PAY TO REGISTER ME WITH THE STATE BOARD THAT REGULATES SECURITY GUARDS IN MY STATE BUT THE PAPERWORK NEVER CAME THROUGH EITHER WHICH MEANS THEY WERE WORKING ME ILLEGALLY( without my knowledge, I FOUND OUT AFTER I LEFT AND ASKED FOR MY COMMISSION CARD) AND MUST HAVE SKIMMED THE MONEY THAT THEY DEDUCTED FROM MY PAYCHECK FOR THE COMMISSION CARD THAT NEVER CAME!

Now this Corporate Shill claims to have a Bachelor's Degree and no REAL LIFE experience to speak of, she is going presume to tell some VETERANS who have been in places she only sees in YUPPIE nightmares, how we DID NOT get screwed over by this MEGACORPORATION which doesn't give a d**n about its people who are ACTUALLY IN THE FIELD, TAKING ALL THE RISKS AND THE LUMPS for the pimps who hire us out and think that we are disposable, dispensable, interchangeable TRASH!

THESE THINGS REALLY HAPPENED THAT ARE WRITTEN ABOUT HERE!

BECAUSE THAT IS THE LEVEL OF WHAT I CONSIDER CORPORATE MISMANAGEMENT HERE BUT ANYBODY ELSE YOU GET IN HERE WILL BE JUST AS BAD. THERE IS NO INCENTIVE FOR THEM TO CARE AND TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR TROOPS.

I READ THIS SITE AND I SEE THAT BAD THINGS HAPPENED TO OTHER GOOD PEOPLE who tried to work for this place!

BUT ALL PRIVATE SECURITY GUARD CONTRACTING COMPANIES ARE BASICALLY THE SAME!

WE DON'T CHOOSE TO WORK FOR PRIVATE SECURITY CONTRACTING SERVICES ANYMORE AND WE LET OTHER PEOPLE KNOW WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO WORK FOR YOU!

WE TELL THE TRUTH HERE!

Thank God I don't have to depend on LIARS, BACKSTABBERS, immature, hateful and hate-filled,BIGOTED AND SNOTTY LITTLE YUPPIE COP WANNABES anymore!


For all I know, you are a corporate shill who is trying to come here and try to discredit our LEGITIMATE COMPLAINTS because YOUR COMPANY IS HAVING TROUBLE KEEPING AND RECRUITING EMPLOYEES WHO CAN DO THE JOB and if that is TRUE, THEN MAYBE YOU ALL BETTER LOOK AT YOUR CORPORATE STRUCTURE!

THE TRUTH HURTS -- LIKE IT IS SUPPOSED TO DO IF YOU ARE ABUSING EMPLOYEES AND TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THEM.

Especially EMPLOYEES who just want enough to pay the rent on a basic place to live, pay their utility bills,and afford groceries and bus fare --NOTHING FANCY, Just the basics. And are willing to WORK anytime that the company needed us, holidays, weekends, overtime and take PRIDE in their work.

Totally NO appreciation, no raises, no chance for promotion... Just a BACKSTABBING on the way out the door and BLACKLISTING and FALSE JOB REFERENCES FROM HELL after they leave.

NOBODY I KNOW EVER EXPECTED A COMPANY CAR, A $50,000 a year salary in PRIVATE SECURITY or all the perks like an arrogant yuppie CORPORATE TOOL would DEMAND. And Anyone getting them, with THIS economy, had better SAVE that BIG MONEY because I am not sure how much longer they will be able to get paid that BIG MONEY because they end up shafting EVERYBODY -- sooner or later!
Even the guy who shafted my family members was in turn chewed up and spit out by the CORPORATION... as EVERYONE I have EVER known WHO has WORKED for them has been...sooner or later.

I HOPE YOU ALSO HAVE AN UP TO DATE RESUME!

Because just when you have come to depend on your job, they will FIRE you for TRUMPED UP, IMAGINARY REASONS, when you least expect it and rig it so you won't get your back vacation pay or ANY unemployment either.

If the security client cancels the account for ANY reason -- in our case, they were all high tech employees who were downsizing, bankrupting, outsourcing and moving, the security guards were NOT temporarily laid off with a hire back preference. THE GUARDS WERE LIED ABOUT SO THEY COULDN'T GET UNEMPLOYMENT, VACATION PAY and then Fired. They were also put on the worst, lowest paying posts until they couldn't live on the pay and were set to fighting among themselves because the only way they were able to survive was OVERTIME PAY and the only way to get OVERTIME PAY was to get RID of as many co-workers as possible.
THIS MAKES HELL that YOU have NEVER experienced! This included the post "supervisor"....like TRAPPED RATS TRYING TO GET OUT! THE WACKENHUT BOSSES DELIBERATELY CREATED THIS INVOLVEMENT AND TO MAKE THINGS BETTER, THIS POST WAS GOING TO GO OUT OF BUSINESS ANYWAY SO EVERYBODY ULTIMATELY LOST --EVEN THE BACKSTABBERS WHO WERE TRYING TO GET PROMOTED!

GREAT PLACE TO WORK!

It would have been easier and better public relations to have laid us off.
But the way WACKENHUT regarded its guards as disposable, mindless PEONS,SERFS, AND FIELD HANDS, UNHUMAN OBJECTS!

ALL I EVER EXPECTED WAS A FAIR AND JUST WORK ENVIRONMENT AND NO DISCRIMINATION -- AND AN HONEST DAY'S PAY FOR AN HONEST DAY'S WORK!. That is NOT goofing off, stealing,lying, plotting how to make my co-workers' lives on the job a LIVING HELL so they would quit and I would get their overtime hours until some other VICTIM was hired.
I NEVER DID ANY OF THIS. One of the reasons I guess I am NO LONGER THERE AND DO NOT EVER WANT TO BE THERE AGAIN AND AM WARNING OTHER PEOPLE NOT TO GET IN SUCH A BAD SITUATION AGAIN!

YOU HAVE NO IDEA THE MAELSTROM YOU JUST WALKED INTO, MADAM CORPORATE SHILL!

With the economic meltdown, security services and janitors tend to GO first!

WE WILL SEE.

Well, I am happy to read some things here... sad to read others.

As a BA degree holding individual from a State University, with my major in Criminal Justice and minor in Psychology, I was hoping to get right into Police work.

I started with Wackenhut in 2001, as an Officer. Contrary to popular beliefs here, I didn't backstab, I didn't snitch and didn't kiss a*s. I worked hard and climbed into the management levels of Wackenhut.

I mention that I am sad to hear that these things (may or may not) have happened to people. I never want to see someone unemployed. The hate and disgust that I read though are typical of people that had a problem with one or a few members of management.

Unfortunate, I admit. After 9 years of working for the company, I would hope that the man (and his wife) would have found a better result.

But to complain about a 'living wage' as a Security Officer, private Security Officer, is like complaining that the uniforms are itchy (polyester). Really, what did you expect? Retirement pensions, company cars and $50k a year?

Would other post-ers reply the same had the same feelings had a janitor written this post? No. In reality, Wackenhut, Securitas, Allied Barton don't pay much more than janitors. It is just the type of person the job attracts. Some people can mop up vomit for $10/hour... some people feel comfortable standing a post as a Security Officer.

To bash management is to, in turn, criticize the companies in which Private Security Companies do business with. Do you think that these companies CHOOSE to pay $10? No. In all honesty, it is the small, 'mom and pop' security companies that come in, bid $12/hr as a bill rate, paying $8/hr to their guards that screws up the wages in any area. When a reputable company like Wackenhut comes in to bid at $15/hr... paying $12/hr (closer to a 'living wage'), of course the contracting company is going to go with the lower price, its economics.

So, in totality, to complain about a living wage, as a Security Officer is absurd.

To complain about the way the company dealt with you... is justifiable, but on a case by case basis. I would think that after a 9 year employment, something came up from that employee that resulted in the termination. It makes zero sense for a company to terminate a 9 year employee. Think about it. Something was left out of that story.

Think for yourselves, think about the actual market of private security before making your decisions on these hate-sites.

What they don't tell you in this article is that Wackenhut has been owned by a DANISH-BASED INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORPORATION! AND that we have agents of a foreign government guarding OUR nuclear facilities and numerous other top-secret, highly sensitive FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS as well.
SLEEP WELL TONIGHT!

The Wackenhut Corporation Earns a Slot on AFL-CIO List By Ignoring Right of Workers to Organize (10/06/04)

Washington, DC, October 6, 2004 The AFL-CIO today placed Wackenhut Security on its national boycott list at the request of the Service Employees International Union.

Wackenhut Security, the second largest private security company in the nation, has been charged with multiple violations of federal labor law by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board in a trial over complaints filed by Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The charges are being aired in full in an NLRB trial that began on October 4th.

Tampering with the fundamental right of American workers to form and join unions of their choice cannot be tolerated, especially when workers' tax dollars are being used to pay scofflaw employers, declared AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka. Patronizing anti-union firms effectively rewards their lawless behavior.

Wackenhut is the largest supplier of private guards to the U.S. government and to highly sensitive nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons sites. Wackenhut also provides security guards for private commercial office buildings, banks, and industrial operations. The current round of NLRB charges is related to incidents involving company harassment of security officers' working at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC.

The IMF incidents prompted inquiries about IMF labor policies by two senior members of Congress. In May, the IMF decided to discontinue its contract with Wackenhut. In a letter earlier this year to acting IMF Director Anne Krueger, Reps. George Miller (D-CA) and Robert Andrews (D-NJ) noted that the expressed policy of the U.S. is to encourage the formation of labor unions.

In the past four years, employees and their unions have filed nearly 100 U.S. labor law charges against Wackenhut. The charges include allegations of interfering with employee rights to organize and bargain and discriminating against employees based on their union activity or membership.

In placing Wackenhut on the national boycott list, the AFL-CIO also cited Wackenhut's refusal to join nearly every other private security firm in the U.S., including Sweden-based Securitas and Group 4 Securicor subsidiary Cognisa, with SEIU, America's largest security union, in raising private security standards in major U.S. cities.

I am the lady who filed the original report and I would like to thank the people who responded for your insight, comments and support.

By the way, the designations for Upscale/Uniformed Security Officer and Custom Protective Officer and Traditional Security Officer are WACKENHUT'S and not mine. This is in response to the guy CLAIMING to be a security manager. If he really was, then he had better get acquainted with his competition's marketing strategy or he will lose a lot of security accounts by not being familiar with the product his competition is selling to clients and be able to counter it with something better... Lowest bid for the most service wins.

Wackenhut will deliberately UNDERBID an account by the way because they are so big, they can afford to assimulate the loss. They do this primarily to put smaller companies out of business and then they can charge whatever they want.

In fact, that security manager is probably already gone... Or on his way out the door.

The security industry in Texas is like a meat grinder. They take you in while you are in your prime and then you get ground up and nothing is left. AND THIS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL SECURITY PEOPLE IN TEXAS GET SMART AND UNIONIZE,UNIONIZE,UNIONIZE!

Something else I should warn people about if you are a former SECURITY person DESPARATELY TRYING TO LEAVE THE TRADE as I AM NOW. Security companies move around a lot. They also go out of business a lot. People and supervisors you know and worked with disappear and so it is terribly tough when trying to get employment out of the security business to list former employers,co-workers and supervisors when prospective employers want all of this on a more traditional employment application. It's also impossible to get a reference from a formerly inhabited office building.

One prospective employee wanted 10 years of employment history and one of the security companies where I had worked nine years ago only keeps former personnel records for eight years. To make matters worse, three of the security companies where I had worked were bought out by SECURITAS and they PURGED ALL of the records older than a year or so... So I was NOT hired and NOT hireable. Unless I go back into the SECURITY INDUSTRY and I don't think I can deal with it anymore I will be at a LOSS to fill out a traditional employment application correctly so that I will be hired.

At the time, I didn't know enought to ask for a letter of recommendation/ Support from my co-workers and supervisors on company letterhead stationery! Now that I do, everyone has dispersed or died or been killed in the line of duty or just gone somewhere without a forwarding address!
A lot of people you work with in security, you don't want to keep up with anyway.

Another way around this will be providing W-2 or W-4 forms from IRS to prove that I worked there except some security companies file taxes under a name different from the Security Corporation name that I was hired and worked under and received paychecks under. Most employers don't have the resources and patience and time to hire an attorney to figure all of that out.

I was told if you kept a paycheck stub or two, that would prove you actually worked there but who hasn't moved around and lost a few things like this. The ONLY drawback here is DO YOU REALLY WANT THEM TO KNOW HOW LITTLE YOU EARNED THERE? You want to LEAVE the SECURITY INDUSTRY to make MORE money and when a prospective employer sees how LITTLE you have worked for in the past, in Texas, they will NOT put you in the fast-track to a HIGHER PAYING JOB. They will give you all the work and all of the headaches for as little money as they can as it is.

In fact, prospective employers might wonder what is wrong with YOU that you have all of these great credentials and education and experience and you were working for near-minimum wage? I often wonder why I did it myself.Desparation. Stupidity.

I am still looking for a job but my husband got another security job, this time at higher pay and as a patrol officer at a smaller company. He wasn't sure he wanted to go back into it but the job was available the very next day after he was terminated by the YUPPIE TRASH at The Wackenhut Corporation. Since we had already lost our electricity and our home phone, he had no choice but to take it. He's doing OK. The other patrol guys who work the street with him are all very supportive and helpful to him.

In that time, I have observed two female patrol officers being deliberately set up for failure by the administartion and they were terminated. The ordinary patrol guys all want me to come back and I want to and but I am just HAD ENOUGH! The administration doesn't want women and will do their best to take them out. It's like a game. At my age and station in life I am SICK of the female-discriminatory mind games that these sickies play, especially when they have all the trump cards. My husband is thriving though -- FOR NOW.

I still wanted to WARN people NOT to go to work for THE WACKENHUT CORPORATION IN ANY CAPACITY and think that they have a SECURE FUTURE there or will be able to retire from there!

Unless you are well-connected MAN with the company or you are an Army Ranger or a Navy Seal or some elite special forces unit kind of MAN from the US military, you don't stand a chance! And then, I have to ask, why aren't you being a police officer or something else where you will more respected, appreciated and make more money besides????

And WACKENHUT has already erased any record of me EVER having worked there from their computer files. I was last there in 2000 and this is 2004 and I am already out of their files. If someone calls for an employment verification, guess what THIS looks like? Fake reference,you're outta here!

If I can save some lady the Hell that I went through and for what? I guess this posting will have done some good.

If I can save some man the Hell that happened to my husband when THEY USED HIM UP AND THREW HIM AWAY, then I guess this posting is worth it.

I LOVED the job but it was the bigots, racists, sexists and arrogant YUPPIES that ruined it for me.

I think the man who identified himself as a security director --and notice that he is a MAN-- as I don't know a lot of WOMEN security directors -- protested too much.

I think he knows in his heart of hearts that HE will probably be THE NEXT TO GO!
That's how it is.

By judicious job-hopping, working the night shift and staying quiet and not participating in any company gossip I managed to make a career in security that lasted 20 years. I have seen it ALL...

And by the way, after nearly 10 years of that "career" in Austin,TX, I NEVER WANT TO WORK IN PRIVATE CONTRACT SECURITY AGAIN! EVER...
I, too am a former WACKENHUT employee.

I am curious to see how long this guy who claimed he was a security manager lasts... Here is Austin, if you have made it longer than three or four years, you are considered an OLD TIMER!

Sooner or later,though, no matter how good a job you do for them, you are slated to go.But this is true of almost any other company in Austin, TX where employees aren't protected by a labor union.

Like the lady from Georgia, another Southern state, says, THEY USE YOU ALL UP AND THEN THEY THROW YOU AWAY!

Here, you are only good as long as you are young, beautiful/handsome, ridiculously overqualified and then you MIGHT ALMOST make a living.For a few years anyway.

By the way, I KNOW personally the two people involved in the incident. Wackenhut must have had plenty of other accounts that poor man could have been placed on instead of setting him up for failure because they recently moved into a HUGE BEAUTIFUL building right on the border between Williamson County ( Round Rock) and Travis County ( Austin) TX. you can't do that and not make money.

They could have put him somewhere else and not lost a valuable, dedicated employee with years of experience and they would have continued to make money. It would have been a win-win situation. But some yuppie decided otherwise. Don't worry -- in security-- here in Austin, TX, you will eventually be out of work no matter how high you think you are.

This guy who calls himself a security director needs to wake up and get another line of work. I think I MIGHT have seen him here in the UNEMPLOYMENT OFFICE sitting beside me.

And IF you lose your job here in Austin, it will take you a year, MINIMUM to find anything else that pays a living wage unless you have EXTREMELY well-placed friends. Which is why I am going to go to law school... MY TURN!

Her husband has 9 YEARS at that company but was let go! That gives her a right to complain! But you wouldn't know about that since the 10 yrs of your life was dedicated be to a butt munching snitch!! Let's see how much of a "CAPTAIN SERCURITY GUARD" you can be if your job ever goes oversees or when you are used up by you "almighty" boss man and let go!

It is no wonder with your attitude ("upscale and prestige guards.") that they fired you. I have over ten years of security experience starting as a security guard and ending as a security director. I did not achieve this by whining about my working conditions, or complaining about bad assignments, but through hard work and respect from my supervisors. Do me a favor and stay out of the security industry, I have had enough of you. I digress..