Article Originally Published Here.
There’s something hilarious about how quickly company leadership can change their tune when their own rules inconvenience the wrong person.
One security guard simply followed the visitor policy exactly as written, even if it meant stopping the CEO as he walked in for a meeting.
And of course, the policy didn’t survive long after that.
Read on for the full story!
They said all guests must sign in, so I made the CEO wait in the lobby until security approved him
We got a new visitor policy last week.
This new policy was to be enforced very strictly.
The email was bolded, underlined, and said: “ALL GUESTS MUST SIGN IN AND WAIT FOR SECURITY CLEARANCE BEFORE ENTERING. NO EXCEPTIONS.”
I work front desk.
This guard knew it would be trouble, but decided to comply anyway.
Normally, executives just walk through.
But hey, the email said what it said.
Sure enough, before long this guard was stopping the top exec in charge of the whole company.
So when the CEO came in early for a board meeting, smiled, and started heading for the elevator, I handed him the clipboard and said, “Sorry sir, I’ll need you to sign in and wait while I call it in.”
He looked confused, maybe a little amused, but sat down.
Security took their time—ten full minutes.
You can guess what happened after that.
The next morning, we got a new email: “Use discretion for executive level visitors.”
Go figure.
Sounds like this visitor policy should have been a little more specific.
What did Reddit think?
Sometimes it’s helpful for high-level executives to see how things are done at the bottom of the ladder.
Cops also tend to get a kick out of security guards who take their jobs seriously.
Following directions to the letter can get you far in life.
Security rules can reveal which members of the executive teams have chips on their shoulders.
It only took this one awkward encounter to rewrite the whole rule book.
Guess “no exceptions” really meant “no exceptions… unless it’s inconvenient.”
