Tailgating is a problem for your physical security staff, not your run of the mill white collar employee.
I have zero experience with this, but I imagine the policy would be "Don't enter the building if someone is too close behind you."
If you don't feel comfortable asking for space (fine!), turn around, go back to your car, and call building security as necessary.
Is this shortsighted?
After the incident, he was contacted by the building management, who asked him what happened and warned him not to do it again.
This seems like a reasonable policy since many people would not have thought in advance what to do if a potentially threatening person tries to tailgate.
We have the advantage that all entrances end up going through a central area, and we have ample camera coverage, such that security can reliably find people who tailgated if they are informed.
Tailgating is actually a very frequent and problematic occurrence for us, sometimes by people who will be aggressive, and this has seemed like the safest solution for us.
If you’re just trying to ensure only employees are on-site, tailgating is less of an issue (unless somebody got fired but their colleagues were never told).
It's one thing to say "don't let people tailgate", it's quite another to actually enforce a policy that says that unless you provide proper physical security onsite. During security awareness training I always stress that people know who to notify onsite as well as telling them that they can choose to challenge them directly if they encounter someone tailgating.
99.99% of the time, saying to the tailgater "you need to swipe" is enough. If you do work somewhere where people are physically trying to break in often, then you ought to have real security personnel.
My employer recognizes this and uses mantraps to physically prevent tailgating at unguarded entries.
The implications are enough to make it a shitty situation for such a person have to turn around and say "sorry person that looks c-suite, you can't come in with me."
I’ve done it to VP level and I’d do it to my CIO too. I’d be that guy who badged the CIO but I try to take basic security and company policy seriously. I’d like an intern who is professional enough to “challenge” someone. Not sure I would’ve at that time.
We had a secure building with glass entry turnstyles. In my second week, a suited important-looking person was standing behind the gates at 8:20AM (we started at 8:30AM). It was busy and everyone was ignoring him (that seemed odd).
The suited guy picked me from the line of drones going through the turnstyles and asked if he could jump in behind me (he didn't even mention if he worked for the company).
I was still doing the HR training program stuff (the general wear deodorant, don't plug in flash drives from outside, don't ask for teamviewer, etc stuff) and the last thing we did the day before was end on the tailgating policy.
I told the suited guy that I couldn't let him in due to company policy. He smiled and said "all good" and went back to the corner.
He ended up being the head of logistics. Apparently, he liked to scope out the new hires and "test" their compliance. He tried this with 5 or 6 of the new hires and only managed to get let in once. The lady that let him in wasn't fired, but she did get a warning.
It’s also a safety issue. In a building evacuation, you should be able to account for every employee or visitor.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/tennis/not-so-fast-roger-fe...
Rules are rules in Australia, even if you are a 20-times Grand Slam champion and one of the most recognizable people on the planet.
Roger Federer found that out this week when he was blocked access to a locker room at the Australian Open by a security guard who took his job very seriously.
A video circulating Twitter on Saturday showed the Swiss double defending champion stalled at the entrance for lacking his tournament accreditation.
Electric mortise locks and strikes will click, though sometimes they are held in unlocked state for a few seconds so you won’t hear a second click, or the second click might be reverting to locked state. Depends on hardware and configuration, and maybe a what the person in front is doing with the handle, and when/whether the exit sensor trips. Different things on the door can make clicking sounds, they’re a bit different from each other, but pretty close. Magnetic locks, forget it. Sliding doors, forget it.
I’m an engineer interested in security, I pay close attention to these systems, I’ve run their cabling and installed their admin panels, and I doubt I could tell even if I were actively paying attention.
I wouldn’t expect any physical force to be used. If asking politely doesn’t work, call security. If they threaten you into letting them in, comply, then call security.
We don't actually. All sane employers have them record and report the incident and not engage, because petty shoplifting isn't worth somebody getting shot and it's built into the margins anyway. If the store is big enough, they may have "loss prevention", who are people who are very much not tiny and will verbally engage the shoplifter and pretend to be scary, but they are also not allowed to engage physically, because again, it's not worth somebody getting shot, and liability is going to be a nightmare even if they were stealing.
If building security matters you implement mechanisms to enforce it, not burden all your employees with taking up the shortcomings.
Tail-gating should be impossible if you care about security.