Archi­ves

Secu­ri­ty ser­vice provider

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.

How much money does one earn as an employee in the secu­ri­ty ser­vice with a cer­ti­fi­ca­te of competence?

How much money does one earn as an employee in the security service with a certificate of competence?

Tal­king around it is use­l­ess. One thing is clear: The tra­di­tio­nal secu­ri­ty indus­try is a low-wage sec­tor!
Nevert­hel­ess: the secu­ri­ty indus­try offers varie­ty, respon­si­ble, exci­ting and also quiet jobs. And if you’­re smart, you can make ends meet. But — what do you earn as a secu­ri­ty guard with a cer­ti­fi­ca­te of competence?

What mat­ters when it comes to ear­nings in the secu­ri­ty industry…

If you deci­de to work in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty sec­tor or are loo­king for a new employ­er, the finan­cial aspects cer­tain­ly play a major role. The­re are seve­ral fac­tors that con­tri­bu­te to a good hour­ly wage. The most important aspects for a more attrac­ti­ve sala­ry are lis­ted below.

Level of edu­ca­ti­on and training

Obvious­ly, the bet­ter trai­ned you are, the hig­her your ear­ning poten­ti­al. As an unskil­led secu­ri­ty guard only with trai­ning accor­ding to § 34a GewO, you will very often not be paid much more than the mini­mum wage. With the expert know­ledge exami­na­ti­on, you can achie­ve a good bit more basic hour­ly wage with mana­geable effort.. You can go even fur­ther with fur­ther trai­ning to beco­me a cer­ti­fied pro­tec­tion and secu­ri­ty worker or with trai­ning to beco­me a spe­cia­list for pro­tec­tion and secu­ri­ty. Inci­den­tal­ly, the mini­mum wage nati­on­wi­de has been 12.43 euros per hour sin­ce 1 Janu­ary 2023. The increase to 13 euros per hour from 1 April 2023 has alre­a­dy been decided.

Addi­tio­nal qualifications

Addi­tio­nal qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons, for exam­p­le in first aid or fire pro­tec­tion (e.g. as a fire pro­tec­tion assistant), are very hel­pful and increase the mar­ket value of secu­ri­ty staff. The­se do not always have a direct effect on the hour­ly wage, but they are always a plus point in job appli­ca­ti­ons. Addi­tio­nal qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons include the following:

Inter­cul­tu­ral skills and know­ledge of for­eign lan­guages, espe­ci­al­ly at least basic Eng­lish, should also not be underestimated.

Acti­vi­ty

The secu­ri­ty indus­try has many facets and the­r­e­fo­re the acti­vi­ties that secu­ri­ty workers per­form are also very diver­se. Accor­din­gly, the­re are some­ti­mes serious wage dif­fe­ren­ces. Secu­ri­ty acti­vi­ties such as sepa­ra­te guards and simp­le guar­ding acti­vi­ties are often rather poor­ly paid. Jobs that requi­re spe­cial skills often pay well. For exam­p­le in the Avia­ti­on secu­ri­ty, in the ran­ge Cash and valu­ables trans­port, during the acti­vi­ty in nuclear faci­li­ties, in which Under­ground and sub­ur­ban rail­way guar­ding or as an NSL spe­cia­list in Emer­gen­cy call and ser­vice con­trol cen­tres the ear­nings are often signi­fi­cant­ly hig­her than the indus­try avera­ge. The exact amount of the wage for the job can be found in the Coll­ec­ti­ve agree­ments take from them. If they have been declared gene­ral­ly bin­ding, which is usual­ly the case, they app­ly to all employees. (It is best to add the fede­ral sta­te to the Goog­le search to nar­row down the results).

Working hours

Anyo­ne who is alre­a­dy acti­ve in the indus­try and works in shifts knows it: Often, bio­rhyth­ms and pri­va­te life suf­fer from the chan­ging working hours. Howe­ver, working night shifts, Sun­days and public holi­days often offers decisi­ve finan­cial advan­ta­ges. Depen­ding on the fede­ral state/collective agree­ment, the fol­lo­wing bene­fits can be ear­ned Night, Sun­day and public holi­day surchar­ges that are well worth see­ing. What’s more, the­se tax-free! On public holi­days in many places 100% Surchar­ge pos­si­blei.e. in addi­ti­on to the actu­al dai­ly wage, you recei­ve the same amount again — but tax-free! View­ed over the month, depen­ding of cour­se on the amount of night, Sun­day and public holi­day hours, the fol­lo­wing can be achie­ved Seve­ral hundred euros on top earn. Espe­ci­al­ly around the turn of the year or at Eas­ter, this can be a lucra­ti­ve affair.

Overtime/overtime

Over­ti­me is, of cour­se, a par­ti­al aspect of working hours. Nevert­hel­ess, I would like to devo­te a sepa­ra­te point to this aspect here. Why? Becau­se expe­ri­ence shows that a lot of over­ti­me is work­ed in the secu­ri­ty sec­tor, often much more than is legal­ly per­mis­si­ble and with too few breaks bet­ween assign­ments. Think careful­ly about whe­ther you want to go along with this and should actual­ly work 200, 220, 240 or even more hours per month. My tip at this point would be to invest in fur­ther edu­ca­ti­on and not to trade so much time for money: Memen­to Mori — your life­time is also limi­t­ed. Set prio­ri­ties and make a good decis­i­on for you, also for your future.

Sta­te

As in other indus­tries, the­re is a West-East divi­de in the pri­va­te secu­ri­ty sec­tor. In the past, the­se wage dif­fe­ren­ces were real­ly gla­ring. Secu­ri­ty workers in Ber­lin ear­ned in some are­as not even half of tho­se who work­ed in Bava­ria.  As a rule, the best-paid fede­ral sta­tes include Bava­ria, Baden-Würt­tem­berg and North Rhi­ne-West­pha­lia. Among the lowest paid are still the new fede­ral sta­tes, for exam­p­le Bran­den­burg or Meck­len­burg-Wes­tern Pome­ra­nia. Just a few years ago, one could bare­ly keep one’s head abo­ve water with a job as a secu­ri­ty guard in the East Ger­man sta­tes. Howe­ver, the mini­mum wage and the gra­du­al con­ver­gence of coll­ec­ti­ve agree­ments are incre­asing­ly put­ting the dif­fe­ren­ces into per­spec­ti­ve. In addi­ti­on, one should not for­get that whe­re peo­p­le earn more, they usual­ly earn less. Cost of living (espe­ci­al­ly rents) are hig­her. So think careful­ly — if you are toy­ing with the idea — whe­ther a move is real­ly worth it for you.

Indus­try

Many peo­p­le think of secu­ri­ty ser­vice jobs in the clas­sic way, as the secu­ri­ty com­pa­ny that as a ser­vice pro­vi­der exter­nal cus­to­mers. Whe­re­as in the past, vete­ran employees in fac­to­ries came to the plant secu­ri­ty ser­vice towards the end of their working lives to spend the last years of their care­ers doing less stre­nuous work, the situa­ti­on has chan­ged con­sider­a­b­ly nowa­days. Pro­fes­sio­nal, exter­nal secu­ri­ty ser­vice pro­vi­ders look after a lar­ge num­ber of com­pa­nies from busi­ness and indus­try or the public sec­tor as cli­ents. But they still exist, despi­te the deca­des-long trend towards out­sour­cing. The Inter­nal plant secu­ri­ty. Espe­ci­al­ly in indus­try, pro­per­ty and plant pro­tec­tion acti­vi­ties are when you are direct­ly employ­ed by the manu­fac­tu­ring com­pa­ny, very well paid. Der Grund hier­für ist, dass Sie nach dem Bran­chen­ta­rif bezahlt wer­den, dem die Mas­se der Beleg­schaft ange­hört. Wer­fen Sie einen Blick in die Rate tables for the metal and elec­tri­cal indus­try! The­se month­ly sala­ries are in a dif­fe­rent league.

Allo­wan­ces

Allo­wan­ces regu­la­ted by coll­ec­ti­ve agree­ment are usual­ly paid for guard/shift lea­ders, for dog hand­lers or in cer­tain faci­li­ties such as mili­ta­ry pro­per­ties. Like­wi­se, the­re are often allo­wan­ces for on-call duties, e.g. for (addi­tio­nal) work in the plant fire bri­ga­de. The­se ran­ge from a few cents per hour up to over 10% more pay. In Bava­ria, the­re is also slight­ly more money if you work in the grea­ter Munich area.
Secu­ri­ty com­pa­nies or their cli­ents also some­ti­mes pay Vol­un­t­a­ry (revo­ca­ble) allo­wan­ces. Manch­mal gibt es auch Ein­mal-Prä­mi­en für beson­ders erfolg­rei­che Ein­sät­ze oder für her­aus­ra­gen­de Arbeits­leis­tun­gen. Lei­der sind die­se Art Zula­gen aber eher die Aus­nah­me. Immer häu­fi­ger vor­zu­fin­den ist aber eine Wech­sel­prä­mie, also so eine Art „Begrü­ßungs­geld“. Das allein soll­te aber aber nicht unbe­dingt der allei­ni­ge Grund für einen Arbeit­ge­ber­wech­sel sein.

Con­cre­te numbers

You would like to know con­cre­te figures?
If you have read the artic­le up to this point, you will rea­li­se that this is dif­fi­cult, as it can depend on a num­ber of fac­tors such as the fede­ral sta­te, the job, the working hours and their (addi­tio­nal) qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons. Nevert­hel­ess, a con­cre­te example:

This results in approx. 2520 euros of taxa­ble inco­me (gross) and just under 420 euros of tax-free supplements.With inco­me tax class 1 and no child­ren, a sin­gle per­son thus recei­ves approx. 2170 Euro net trans­fer­red. Howe­ver, this cal­cu­la­ti­on is for illus­tra­ti­ve pur­po­ses only. Your actu­al sala­ry paid out may depend on num­e­rous factors!

Hint: This artic­le was last updated in Febru­ary 2023. As the­re are regu­lar adjus­t­ments to both the mini­mum wage and coll­ec­ti­ve agree­ment regu­la­ti­ons, the frame­work con­di­ti­ons may have chan­ged in the mean­ti­me! (All infor­ma­ti­on wit­hout guarantee.)

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