Who guards the guards?

So today I had to watch five people get fired. 

The primary goal (or prime directive if you're a Trekkie) is to protect people and property. So when an employee is terminated, it is the security guard's job to stand by while they escort the sacked employee off the property - you know, just in case they do something crazy. Read more after the jump.

This is never an easy thing to watch, and today I had to do it five times. Not fun. Of course I'm sure it was even less enjoyable for the one's being terminated.

Well as I stood there at the entrance of my post waiting for the human resources guy to walk each person out of the building I got to wondering what I would do if one of them did decide to get cheeky. Make no mistake, I'm no ninety pound weakling, but I've lost a bit of weight recently and the uniform is becoming a bit loose on me. Oh I still look overweight, but the loose fitting uniform makes me look mushy. The bottom line is it's no stretch to presume someone would start to think that they could try me.

Again, that's my job. I'm trained to handle situations like that. If he were to start in on the human resources guy - or anyone else for that matter - it would be my job to direct his attention toward me and then diffuse the situation of I can or subdue the him if I can't. So I've always got that possibility in the back of my head and several possible actions to take as needed - kinda like a chess game and playing seven moves ahead... blah blah.

Well, this particular post is a warehouse. So I'm surrounded by heavy equipment, forklifts, tools, sharp things... lots of metal. So if things get out of line here it can get really hairy really fast, and as I see the human resources guy walking these people out one at a time, all I'm seeing are the heavy bolt cutters leaning out into the aisle, the wrench set and calibration thingies on that roll away there, The freaking huge spinning grinding wheel right to the left... 

Doing a quick mental inventory of my gear I know that I have a company cell phone, a Detex wand and my utility folder... all inch and a half of it... Right about then I'm wishing it was an office building rather than a warehouse. 

So in the end, nothing happened. They all got in to their cars and left peacefully. So what does all of this mean? Nothing really, other than that it's been a bitch of a day.