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Old 04-30-12 | 12:52 AM
  #20  
threecarjam
Senior Member
 
Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 213
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From: Chicago!
Originally Posted by hiyer1
The policy makes sense, they don't want a bunch of people bringing bikes in on a busy day and cluttering up the place. However, the security guard should have realized that the rational behind the policy did not apply in this case (the building was empty), and so an exception was called for.

Some people are bound by rules and policy - they are simple, and can't employ reason. Sometimes if you are calm and patient with these people you can make them understand, usually though it's like reasoning with a brick wall.
Yes, some people are bound by rules and policy - that is, most people who are doing a job. Don't assume that someone is "simple" because you can't bring your bike wherever you feel like - security guards have a job to do, and shouldn't be expected to potentially risk those jobs in order to make your day a tiny bit easier.

Case in point - in my office building, policy was, in the past, not to allow bikes inside the building. Some idiotically over-entitled people went so far as to berate our security guards about this rule, to the point of belittling them personally. Our security guards are not only generally well-known and liked in the building, they are also people with a job to do - and, as in many publicly accessible buildings, have the added layer of security cameras around the building which will enable their supervisors to discipline them when they're not following the rules exactly.

Solution? I had our office manager speak to the management company and request that bicycles be allowed in the building. That required neither giving our security guards a hard time, or any assumption that they were too stupid to realize that I am entitled to do anything I'd like in the building where I work. Now our building allows bicycles inside - though I generally still lock mine up outside, at the bike racks, like a normal person.

Changing a school policy in Peoria may not be as easy as it was for me to do in my office building in Chicago - but politely asking facilities management will probably go a lot farther than calling someone an a-hole on the internet.
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