We’ll Bet They Just Drop In On Relatives, Too

At one company I worked for, there was a secure site I had to visit from time to time. It was a pain to visit because, before I even arrived, I first had to get written permission from an authorised person on-site, give a date and time when I’d arrive, and potentially be subject to body searches. The person I’d meet would have to come round and escort me. And there were various other restrictions. However, these were the rules for all outsiders with no exceptions, and the company was strict about requiring all staff to ensure that any potential visitors were aware of the rules.

On one visit, I arrived at the gatehouse with all my documentation, etc., in readiness to be escorted through. Ahead of me were two other visitors who were arguing with a security person.

Visitors: “We just want to do [certain physical work]!”

Security: “You need to have an invitation. You can’t come in without authorisation.”

Visitors: “But we’ll be done in twenty minutes, tops!”

Security: *Getting exasperated* “No, you have to get authorisation first. You cannot just turn up!”

That was just a summary of the back-and-forth discussion I overheard.

After a while, some phone calls were made, and someone was willing to give the visitors an authorisation there and then. The person escorting them said pointedly:

Escort: “We can’t do an emergency authorisation every time; you have to get authorisation before you come.”

Some weeks later, I heard that the two visitors had turned up a second time. Once again, they didn’t arrange an appointment and insisted on arguing with gatehouse security. Again, someone gave them emergency authorisation.

However, after they left, the company decided to simply cancel the whole contract. The two visitors had been doing some basic groundwork in advance of the installation of something expensive. The whole contract would have been a major piece of work for the contractor.

It seems senior management, on the basis of the haphazard behaviour of the two visitors doing initial work costing perhaps a few hundred quid, felt it was too much of a risk. The contractor had effectively thrown away a contract worth many millions because they wouldn’t supervise a couple of people doing a couple of quick and simple jobs.