Archi­ves

Job

Unhap­py in your job: What opti­ons do you have as a secu­ri­ty guard?

Unhappy in your job: What options do you have as a security guard?

It is true that working in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try can be a tough job. Working con­di­ti­ons are real­ly bad in some are­as. Howe­ver, the situa­ti­on also varies signi­fi­cant­ly from com­pa­ny to com­pa­ny. It is not uncom­mon for a chan­ge to offer bet­ter care­er oppor­tu­ni­ties, the chan­ce to gain new expe­ri­ence and a more com­for­ta­ble working environment.

Step 1: Ana­ly­se the situa­ti­on carefully!

It is important to know what the cau­ses of their own dis­sa­tis­fac­tion are and know your own moti­va­tors. Ana­ly­se the reasons for dis­sa­tis­fac­tion: Iden­ti­fy exact­ly what makes you unhap­py. Is it the working envi­ron­ment, the tasks, the team, the remu­ne­ra­ti­on or the cor­po­ra­te cul­tu­re? The bet­ter you under­stand the cau­ses, the easier it will be to find a solution.
Often the pri­va­te envi­ron­ment also plays a role or a chan­ge in per­so­nal needs. The­r­e­fo­re, also con­sider the­se aspects in your analysis!

Step 2: Think through your opti­ons and weigh them up!

A next step would be a Brain­stor­ming and rese­arch regar­ding the opti­ons available:
What are my chan­ces? How high are the risks? What hap­pens if…? etc.
Many of the fol­lo­wing opti­ons cost No money, only over­co­ming. Howe­ver, some opti­ons are quite time-con­sum­ing and cost-inten­si­ve or even leng­thy.

  1. Find out about your rights: Make sure you are awa­re of your rights as an employee in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try. This includes things like mini­mum wage, working time laws, holi­day entit­le­ments and over­ti­me rules. If you know your rights, you can ensu­re that your employ­er respects them.
  2. Talk to your employ­er: If you are dis­sa­tis­fied with your pay or working con­di­ti­ons, you should tell your employ­er. Per­haps an open dis­cus­sion can help bring about impro­ve­ments. Per­haps your employ­er can also offer you oppor­tu­ni­ties to train or spe­cia­li­se to impro­ve your care­er pro­s­pects and opportunities.
  3. Chan­ge the field of acti­vi­ty (within the com­pa­ny): The pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try is mul­ti­face­ted. Many pri­va­te secu­ri­ty pro­vi­ders offer dif­fe­rent ser­vices. May­be ano­ther field is bet­ter sui­ted for you. Talk to your super­vi­sor about it, app­ly intern­al­ly for ano­ther job. Some­ti­mes an inter­nal trans­fer to ano­ther area of respon­si­bi­li­ty helps.
  4. Join the uni­on: In Ger­ma­ny, the­re are trade uni­ons that stand up for the rights of workers — for the guar­ding ser­vice, this is the Ver­ein­te Dienst­leis­tungs­ge­werk­schaft (ver.di). If you beco­me a mem­ber, you can bene­fit from their coll­ec­ti­ve bar­gai­ning power and fight tog­e­ther with other workers for bet­ter working con­di­ti­ons and hig­her wages.
  5. Search for fur­ther trai­ning oppor­tu­ni­ties: If you con­ti­nue your edu­ca­ti­on or spe­cia­li­se, you can impro­ve your care­er pro­s­pects and often earn signi­fi­cant­ly hig­her wages. Think about what addi­tio­nal qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons could be hel­pful for your job and look for appro­pria­te trai­ning oppor­tu­ni­ties. You will have more opti­ons for action after­wards and be more in demand.
  6. Net­work with othersMany job oppor­tu­ni­ties come about through recom­men­da­ti­ons and per­so­nal cont­acts. In addi­ti­on, cont­act with others offers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to exch­an­ge expe­ri­en­ces. If you have a strong net­work, this can help one gain new per­spec­ti­ves. In addi­ti­on to per­so­nal exch­an­ge, online plat­forms such as Xing or Lin­ke­din are recommended.
  7. Look for ano­ther employ­er: If all the abo­ve steps do not lead to impro­ve­ments, it may be wise to look for ano­ther employ­er. The­re are cer­tain­ly com­pa­nies in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try that offer bet­ter working con­di­ti­ons and hig­her wages.
  8. Last but not least: Do it bet­ter and start your own busi­ness! Of cour­se, this step should be very well thought out. It is often an opti­on to beco­me self-employ­ed on the side and thus start gra­du­al­ly with less risk. Howe­ver, remem­ber that your pre­vious employ­er must play along. One pos­si­bi­li­ty could be, for exam­p­le, free­lan­ce work as a lec­tu­rer in the secu­ri­ty industry.

Step 3: Set your per­so­nal goals!

Only if you know as pre­cis­e­ly as pos­si­ble what you want to achie­ve can you work towards it in a con­cre­te way. In order to moti­va­te ones­elf, it is very sen­si­ble to Wri­te down and visua­li­se your own goals. It can also be hel­pful to use the so-cal­led SMART rule to set one’s own goals.

The SMART rule is an acro­nym used as a gui­de for the For­mu­la­ti­on of clear and well-defi­ned goals ser­ves. It helps to for­mu­la­te goals in such a way that they are rea­li­stic and achie­va­ble. The SMART rule stands for the fol­lo­wing criteria:

  1. Spe­ci­fic (Spe­ci­fic): The goal should be cle­ar­ly and pre­cis­e­ly for­mu­la­ted so that the­re is litt­le room for inter­pre­ta­ti­on and one is ful­ly awa­re of one’s goal.
  2. Mea­sura­ble (Mea­sura­ble): The goal should be mea­sura­ble so that pro­gress can be moni­to­red and suc­cess objec­tively asses­sed. It can be defi­ned by quan­ti­ta­ti­ve or qua­li­ta­ti­ve indicators.
  3. Exe­cu­ta­ble (Achie­va­ble): The goal should be achie­va­ble. It should be chal­len­ging but achie­va­ble by you with the means available.
  4. Rea­li­stic (Rea­li­stic): The goal should be rea­li­stic, i.e. it should be pos­si­ble to imple­ment it as inten­ded under the actu­al given frame­work conditions.
  5. Ter­mi­na­ted (Time-bound): The goal should have a clear time frame by when it should be achie­ved. A clear dead­line pro­mo­tes moti­va­ti­on and focus on achie­ving the goal.

Here is an exam­p­le of a goal for­mu­la­ted accor­ding to the SMART rule:

Non-SMART goal: I want to earn more money.

SMART goal: I would like to increase my month­ly inco­me by 20% by com­ple­ting a fur­ther trai­ning cour­se to beco­me a cer­ti­fied pro­tec­tion and secu­ri­ty worker in the next six months and then being employ­ed by my employ­er directly.

By app­ly­ing the SMART rule, the goal beco­mes con­cre­te, mea­sura­ble, achie­va­ble, rele­vant and has a clear time­frame. This increa­ses the likeli­hood that you will suc­cessful­ly achie­ve your goal.

 

Step 4: Make a “batt­le plan” to achie­ve your goals!

Now it’s time for imple­men­ta­ti­on plan­ning. Plan the mea­su­res that con­tri­bu­te to your goals, e.g.:

It often makes sen­se to approach dif­fe­rent approa­ches in par­al­lel and also to have a plan B (and plan C).
Prio­ri­ti­se your goals! Link the dif­fe­rent actions to your goals. Make calen­dar ent­ries and work in a focu­sed way to achie­ve inter­me­dia­te goals and milestones!
Don’t let set­backs throw you off track! Stay per­sis­tent, focu­sed and positive!

 

I hope that the­se tips will help you to impro­ve your indi­vi­du­al situation.

Working as a 34a secu­ri­ty guard: What to do when the boss can­cels services?

Working as a 34a security guard: What to do when the boss cancels services?

In the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty sec­tor, shift work, night work and work on holi­days are com­mon working con­di­ti­ons. Secu­ri­ty guards often per­form chal­len­ging work to ensu­re the safe­ty of faci­li­ties, events and peo­p­le. Unfort­u­na­te­ly the Wages in this sec­tor often in the low-wage sec­tor for exam­p­le, in the sepa­ra­te secu­ri­ty ser­vice. If hours are unex­pec­ted­ly lost, e.g. becau­se the employ­er loses an important con­tract, and the month­ly tar­get working time is not rea­ched becau­se of this (or for other reasons), it can beco­me finan­ci­al­ly dicey as a 34a secu­ri­ty guard. This artic­le looks at the reasons that lead to the can­cel­la­ti­on of working days and shows the pos­si­bi­li­ties that one then has as a secu­ri­ty employee.

What are pos­si­ble reasons why my employ­er sche­du­les me on fewer assign­ment days?

First of all, the secu­ri­ty company’s point of view should also be brief­ly exami­ned at this point. The fact that you are on the duty ros­t­er less often has in most cases (hop­eful­ly) not­hing to do with you per­so­nal­ly, but has ope­ra­tio­nal reasons. If the­se are explai­ned trans­par­ent­ly by the employ­er and you can under­stand them, this offers a bet­ter start­ing point for a solu­ti­on to the pro­blem that can be sup­port­ed by both sides. It is pos­si­ble, howe­ver, that this will lead to a chan­ge of employ­ment or to you start­ing to look for a new job. Or may­be the “lean peri­od” is only short and you can com­pen­sa­te for the hours by working extra hours in the fol­lo­wing month or the employ­er accom­mo­da­tes you in some other way.

Here are ten pos­si­ble reasons why your employ­er might want to redu­ce your working hours:

  1. Lower cus­to­mer demand: The­re could be less demand for secu­ri­ty ser­vices, lea­ding to a reduc­tion in the num­ber of man-hours needed.
  2. Eco­no­mic slow­down: It is pos­si­ble that the eco­no­mic situa­ti­on has dete­rio­ra­ted, lea­ding to resour­ce cons­traints and cost savings.
  3. Chan­ges in the busi­ness stra­tegy: Your employ­er may have chan­ged its busi­ness stra­tegy, lea­ding to an adjus­t­ment of human resources.
  4. Staff rota­ti­on: Pos­si­bly rota­te staff to give all staff the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work and to dis­tri­bu­te working hours more equitably.
  5. New tech­no­lo­gies or auto­ma­ti­on: The Intro­duc­tion of new tech­no­lo­gies or auto­ma­ted sys­tems could lead to fewer employees being needed.
  6. Sea­so­nal fluc­tua­tions: Working hours could be sub­ject to sea­so­nal fluc­tua­tions, for exam­p­le if less secu­ri­ty staff is nee­ded in cer­tain months.
  7. Chan­ges in con­tracts with cli­ents: It is pos­si­ble that con­tracts with cli­ents have chan­ged and this leads to a reduc­tion in the volu­me of work.
  8. Legal rest­ric­tions: The­re could be (new) legal rest­ric­tions, such as maxi­mum limits for working hours or rest peri­ods bet­ween shifts. Or the exis­ting requi­re­ments (e.g. from the Working Hours Act) are now bet­ter fol­lo­wed up.
  9. Com­pa­ny holi­days or sea­so­nal com­pa­ny breaksYour employ­er may have deci­ded to redu­ce working hours during cer­tain peri­ods, such as com­pa­ny holi­days or sea­so­nal breaks (from cus­to­mers). Also, for exam­p­le, the Covid pan­de­mic had cau­sed tem­po­ra­ry dis­lo­ca­ti­on within the industry. 
  10. Inter­nal com­pa­ny res­truc­tu­ring: Your employ­er may car­ry out inter­nal res­truc­tu­ring lea­ding to a reas­sess­ment of working hours and resour­ce allocation.

What opti­ons do I have if my employ­er assigns me to less work?

Of cour­se, it is not worth arguing about one or two hours. Howe­ver, a loss of 20, 30, 40 per cent or even more hours is a big deal, becau­se you also have to make a living. If your boss remo­ves you from the duty ros­t­er, assigns you to signi­fi­cant­ly fewer shifts than usu­al and you don’t work your hours — then you have the fol­lo­wing options:

  1. Check employ­ment con­tract!
    That is the most important point. As a rule, what is decisi­ve is what has been agreed in your employ­ment con­tract. For exam­p­le, if it says “full-time”, the employ­er is obli­ged to employ you accor­din­gly. What is meant by full-time is usual­ly regu­la­ted in the respec­ti­ve coll­ec­ti­ve agree­ment. Often a spe­ci­fic num­ber of hours is also agreed. If, for exam­p­le, 170 hours per month are con­trac­tual­ly sti­pu­la­ted in your employ­ment con­tract, this num­ber of hours must be adhe­red to (apart from minor fluc­tua­tions, e.g. due to sick cover).
  2. Con­sult the duty ros­t­er!
    Duty sche­du­ling in secu­ri­ty ser­vices, e.g. in fac­to­ry secu­ri­ty, is often done on the basis of a fixed shift rhythm. In this way, it is pos­si­ble to plan rough­ly in advan­ce — of cour­se with a cer­tain degree of uncer­tain­ty (e.g. due to eter­nal out­stan­ding holi­day plan­ning). Howe­ver, the actu­al duty ros­t­er for the fol­lo­wing month is decisi­ve: If it sta­tes 20 shifts, for exam­p­le, then you are entit­led to work this num­ber of shifts. Once a duty ros­t­er has been published, it may only be chan­ged again after con­sul­ta­ti­on with the employees.
  3. Seek dia­lo­gue and actively offer work per­for­mance!
    Many things can be cla­ri­fied through com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on. Seek to talk to your super­vi­sor and reach a con­sen­sus. Important: Com­mu­ni­ca­te that you do not agree with the chan­ges and expli­cit­ly offer your work per­for­mance! Your employ­er is obli­ged to give you the work accor­ding to the exis­ting employ­ment con­tract, you pro­vi­de your work per­for­mance accor­ding to the contract. 
  4. Your employ­er does not react? Send a writ­ten remin­der!
    Inform your employ­er in wri­ting about the aspects men­tio­ned abo­ve. The writ­ten form is important so that you have pro­of. Set a dead­line for your boss, but con­ti­nue to be poli­te and coope­ra­ti­ve. After all, you usual­ly want to con­ti­nue working for your employer.
  5. If not­hing helps: com­plain!
    If all else fails, the employ­er does not react and talks (pos­si­bly also with the works coun­cil) have not led to suc­cess, the only opti­on is to take legal action befo­re the labour court.

Lawy­er Jörg Zitz­mann has beau­tiful­ly pre­sen­ted the facts of the case in the You­Tube chan­nel of the Aca­de­my for Secu­ri­ty:

Appli­ca­ti­on tips for pri­va­te secu­ri­ty guards: How to app­ly successfully!

Application tips for private security guards: How to apply successfully!

Secu­ri­ty guards play an important role in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try and are often the first point of cont­act for cus­to­mers and visi­tors. If you are a secu­ri­ty guard loo­king for a new job, a suc­cessful appli­ca­ti­on can make the dif­fe­rence bet­ween suc­cess and fail­ure. The chan­ces are quite good due to the situa­ti­on on the labour mar­ket. It is also cal­led an employee mar­ket — mea­ning: the­re are hard­ly enough qua­li­fied appli­cants for the cur­rent vacan­ci­es. You have — depen­ding of cour­se on some fac­tors like your edu­ca­ti­on and the desi­red place of work — in prin­ci­ple a good choice!

In this artic­le we will give you tips and advice on how to suc­cessful­ly app­ly and find your dream job in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty industry.

10 appli­ca­ti­on tips for secu­ri­ty guards in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty sector

  1. Crea­te a meaningful cover letter

The cover let­ter is the first impres­si­on you make on a poten­ti­al employ­er. It is important that you take time to crea­te a strong cover let­ter that high­lights your expe­ri­ence, skills and moti­va­ti­on. Make sure you tail­or the cover let­ter to the com­pa­ny and the secu­ri­ty job adver­ti­sed and that you find out about the com­pa­ny and its activities.

  1. Update your CV

Your CV is your most important appli­ca­ti­on docu­ment and should show­ca­se your work expe­ri­ence, skills and qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons. Update your CV befo­re you app­ly and make sure it is clear and easy to read. Use bul­let points and clear for­mat­ting to high­light important infor­ma­ti­on. Also include what trai­ning and cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons you have com­ple­ted and what expe­ri­ence you have had in the secu­ri­ty indus­try. Pro­vi­de your cer­ti­fi­ca­tes of com­pe­ten­cy, refe­ren­ces and any trai­ning cer­ti­fi­ca­tes. Do not include Fake docu­ments and con­vin­ce you with a pro­fes­sio­nal cor­rect expres­si­on.

  1. Empha­sise your skills and experience

As a secu­ri­ty guard, you should be able to quick­ly reco­g­ni­se dan­ge­rous situa­tions and react to them appro­pria­te­ly. In your appli­ca­ti­on, empha­sise your skills and expe­ri­ence in the field of secu­ri­ty and make sure to high­light your com­pe­ten­ces in the are­as of com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on, con­flict reso­lu­ti­on and de-escala­ti­on. Howe­ver, do not exag­ge­ra­te, e.g. by eccen­tri­cal­ly spraw­ling nar­ra­ti­ves of your past exploits as a secu­ri­ty employee!

  1. Be pre­pared for the interview

An inter­view is your chan­ce to pre­sent your best side and con­vin­ce the employ­er of your skills. Prepa­re for the inter­view by rea­ding up on the com­pa­ny, pre­pa­ring ques­ti­ons and thin­king about the ans­wers you would give. Make sure you are on time and well pre­pared for the inter­view and that you cle­ar­ly pre­sent your qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons and experience.

  1. Stay posi­ti­ve and confident

As a secu­ri­ty guard, it is important that you appear posi­ti­ve and con­fi­dent. Be con­fi­dent in your skills and expe­ri­ence and con­vey to your poten­ti­al employ­er that you are the best choice for the job. Remain pro­fes­sio­nal and poli­te throug­hout the appli­ca­ti­on pro­cess and make sure you lea­ve a posi­ti­ve impres­si­on. At this point, plea­se do not bad­mouth your old or pre­vious employ­er. This does not make a good impres­si­on and the manage­ment staff in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try are often bet­ter con­nec­ted than you think!

  1. Use your network

Use your pro­fes­sio­nal net­work to find poten­ti­al employ­ers and learn about job ope­nings. Talk to for­mer col­le­agues, super­vi­sors and other cont­acts in the secu­ri­ty indus­try and ask for recom­men­da­ti­ons or infor­ma­ti­on about vacan­ci­es. Online plat­forms such as Lin­ke­dIn or XING can also help you find poten­ti­al employ­ers and make cont­acts. You can also indi­ca­te the­re that you are open to offers. Some­ti­mes head­hun­ters also get in touch who can be hel­pful in fin­ding jobs.

  1. Be fle­xi­ble and open to new challenges

In the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try, the­re are a varie­ty of tasks and posi­ti­ons that requi­re dif­fe­rent skills and expe­ri­ence. Be fle­xi­ble and open to new chal­lenges and check whe­ther you are sui­ta­ble for other posi­ti­ons or tasks. You may be able to con­tri­bu­te your skills and expe­ri­ence bet­ter in ano­ther posi­ti­on or be inte­res­ted in a new challenge.

  1. Pre­sent yours­elf professionally

As a secu­ri­ty guard, you are the company’s figurehead and should the­r­e­fo­re pre­sent yours­elf in a pro­fes­sio­nal man­ner. Make sure that you wear appro­pria­te clot­hing and make a well-groo­med impres­si­on at job inter­views or other pro­fes­sio­nal occa­si­ons. Also pay atten­ti­on to your body lan­guage and appearance and make sure you com­mu­ni­ca­te poli­te­ly and professionally.

  1. Do not shy away from high demands

A maxi­mum of 20 years and 10 years of pro­fes­sio­nal expe­ri­ence — of cour­se that’s not pos­si­ble. Employ­ers often wri­te quite a few requi­re­ments in the job adver­ti­se­ments. Don’t be afraid of this, but be honest if you don’t (yet) meet a requi­re­ment. You can still gain expe­ri­ence in your new job, you can impro­ve your for­eign lan­guage skills by taking cour­ses on the side (e.g. at the adult edu­ca­ti­on cent­re) and you can make up for miss­ing addi­tio­nal trai­ning. Employ­ers are often more fle­xi­ble than you think, espe­ci­al­ly if it is other­wi­se a good (human) fit!

  1. Keep your eye on the ball and don’t be afraid of setbacks!

Landing a direct hit on your first appli­ca­ti­on and get­ting your dream job is the excep­ti­on rather than the rule. Don’t be afraid if you don’t suc­ceed with your first appli­ca­ti­on, but try again some­whe­re else. Often it is hel­pful to ask for open feed­back about why you did not make it to the short­list or to have pro­fes­sio­nal appli­ca­ti­on trai­ning, whe­re your appli­ca­ti­on docu­ments are also review­ed and opti­mi­sed. Just stay on the ball here, sub­scri­be to rele­vant job offers on job por­tals. You will then be auto­ma­ti­cal­ly noti­fied when new vacan­ci­es ari­se in your search radius.

Con­clu­si­on

A suc­cessful appli­ca­ti­on in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try requi­res time, effort and com­mit­ment. Use the tips abo­ve to opti­mi­se your appli­ca­ti­on and find your dream job. Stay on the ball and con­ti­nue your edu­ca­ti­on. Compa­re job offers and try to sell yours­elf in the best pos­si­ble way. Be con­fi­dent, fle­xi­ble and pro­fes­sio­nal and show your poten­ti­al employ­er that you are the per­fect choice for the job.

The infor­ma­ti­on por­tal on the 34a exami­na­ti­on is now multilingual!

The information portal on the 34a examination is now multilingual!

You don’t speak Ger­man, but ano­ther language?
Qua­li­fied workers are curr­ent­ly urgen­tly nee­ded in many are­as in Ger­ma­ny. One of the­se are­as is the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty indus­try. To be allo­wed to work for a secu­ri­ty ser­vice in Ger­ma­ny, you need the fol­lo­wing for many guar­ding acti­vi­ties Exami­na­ti­on of expert know­ledge accor­ding to § 34a of the Trade Regu­la­ti­on Act. You are then a qua­li­fied appli­cant with a 34a cer­ti­fi­ca­te of com­pe­tence and have excel­lent Job pro­s­pects with cor­re­spon­ding pay!

Infor­ma­ti­on on the Ger­man 34a-Sach­kunde­prüf­ung (Secu­ri­ty) in your language

You will find a lot of free infor­ma­ti­on on the Ger­man qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on exami­na­ti­on for secu­ri­ty staff here in the qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on info por­tal. Navi­ga­te via the main menu at the very top through our Infor­ma­ti­on pages, brow­se the cur­rent blog posts or make tar­ge­ted use of the Search. If you have an indi­vi­du­al request, you can also cont­act us at any time. Post your ques­ti­on in the help forum.

Available lan­guages in the Sub­ject Gui­de Infoportal

Nor­mal­ly, the sys­tem auto­ma­ti­cal­ly detects which lan­guage you are using and sets the 34a por­tal to this lan­guage. The fol­lo­wing lan­guages are curr­ent­ly supported:

You can always adjust the web­site lan­guage via the sel­ec­tion menu at the top left (flag and lan­guage code). Or sim­ply via the but­ton below:

Pre­pa­ra­ti­on and exami­na­ti­on in ano­ther language?

The expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on can only be taken in Ger­man. Howe­ver, the­re are cer­tain­ly some offers that sup­port for­eign lan­guage lear­ners in their pre­pa­ra­ti­on — e.g. lite­ra­tu­re, among others Lexi­cons with 34a tech­ni­cal terms and their trans­la­ti­on.

Your lan­guage is not available?
Feel free to wri­te a com­ment on this page below this blog post. Tell us the lan­guage into which you would like our 34a infor­ma­ti­on trans­la­ted. We will glad­ly take up any sug­ges­ti­ons for impro­ve­ment and imple­ment them if possible.

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