armed security officer

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armed guard

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Top Guard Security

TOP GUARD gives a false impression that they care and have new and current employees interest at heart. When you interview and fill out paperwork with them  management in the Hampton Office will do fast talking the whole time of all the opportunities they have and how fast your going to move up with them. Well the circus with management starts the moment you take home the 2 sets of uniforms they give you. And mind you, you may not be on a full schedule yet, other than an site location for one day of that week with promises that they are going to try to give you as many hours , then they give you a form saying your full time with the pay, then verbally tell you your not full - time, and they just going to have you fill in if anything for a site comes in. So now your home back looking for full time employment, but remember you have their uniforms and have yet to start at a Top Guard site location.  Top Guard management will call you at the last minute and expect you to bounce to a site where they already know you won't be there for no more than 3 hours or less by the time you get there, and when you decide not to fill in for those couple of hours they get real nasty with you, and talk to you like your obligated to fill in at a location.  They will try to nickle and dime you, you will not get the full time hours you applied for , and when you let them know you been offered a full - time position else where, before even starting with Top Guard, their management will get even more nastier talking to you as if you owe them the obligation to still be available to fill in at site locations, they will try to guilt trip you while talking talking to you.
When I read all the reviews about Top Guard Management and how they treat employees, I should have paid attention to it. But having myself been subjected to Top Guards Management disrespect in their attitudes, I am thankful I am one of the ones that did not have to face that at a site location had I did them a favor and accepted to fill in at a site. Since Top Guard management is very nasty and disrespect to  new and current employees I can only imagine how it would have been  with Top Guard, had I not been blessed to receive a full time offer at a professional company one day after being hired for Top Guard.  Remember, it took Top Guard Management only 2 days to reveal their unprofessional, disrespectful attitudes to me. No wonder they cannot keep employees, no wonder they are always hiring! So, I caution ANYONE WHO IS THINKING ABOUT APPLYING WITH TOP GUARD DON'T DO IT, IF YOU WANT TO STAY SANE MENTALLY!!!


I work at a place where the Security is a private entity of the company. Unfortunately when our manager left, the director decided he didn’t want to step up and take charge, so he pushed contracting the security out, unfortunately the company took the bait.  Top Guard was the selection (probably because it was the cheapest) for the contract. When the owners came to our site, they danced around and did their little dog and pony show trying to make them selves look and sound good, however no one was impressed with them.  We all left that meeting feeling betrayed by the company we had been working for, some for 20+ years. They offer no Paid Leave until after an entire year, after that point it’s only 5 days. The benefits are awful, the manager lied to one of our officers face, telling him supervisors start out at 16.00hr flat, then offered someone else much more than that because they desperately needed to fill the position by a certain time. They wouldn’t match what the employees of the current company were making but then expected us to stay and apply with them. The guy in charge of the company reminds you of a little kid who got picked on in school so he becomes an authoritive figure later in life. They offer no shift differential for evening or night shift. They ask for physical requirements, yet hire people who can’t see their toes.  The turn over rate is outrageous, they had people shadow our officers, of the 6 people that were here with TG, none of them had been there much longer than 6 months. But come on, who am I kidding, with a name like “Top Guard” they have to be the best... “Top Flight Security Of the world, not just the city the whole world” 

Don’t waste your time folks!!

The sites, coworkers and some clients made the job bearable. The worst thing with Top Guard has to be management, during my time there upper management was extremely incompetent and played favoritism. I was forced to switch from a decent site and schedule when I told them clearly I didn't want to transfer, another incident was being scheduled after my usual shift to work an event until midnight that I was never informed about, when I called and said I couldn't do it I was threatened with a write up along with other disciplinary action even after I helped cover shifts in the past. After years of working for this company I never received one pay raise, the pay I made was nowhere near a livable wage. One thing that broke my heart was one of my coworkers who was a full-time employee was staying in a veterans homeless shelter or sleeping on site before his shift while the Owners of Top Guard live a life luxury. Turnover was very high due to alot of employees here including myself felt unappreciated, not valued, under paid and taken advantage of, which unfortunately was true working here. If you are still considering working for Top Guard I recommend using this place for experience and getting out quickly because you can find an employer who appreciates, values and compensates you what you are worth. Don't make my mistake and give years to a company that doesn't care about you. 

I interviewed with them a while back and was offered 11.25 to start, what they don't tell you, until after the interview is that you can't  work for another contractor if you work for them and if you do you can be terminated for it. I had been made an offer elsewhere and decided to go there. As an experienced person in this field I noticed that this company claims to be basically a mom n pop type organization due to the gimmick about it being minority owned by a woman, they also claim that they are very professional and care for their officers and like all companies swear that the officers are their life blood LOL. problem with that statement is that they have a very sneaky way of retaining officers against there will by offering to pay for the officers classes as long as they sign a contract stating if they break contract the classes will be deducted from their payroll. Now to the desperate guard, inexperienced and eager to work armed he will sign right away and regret it later. all of their positions pay no more then 12.00 an hour and that's because they literally under bid other prominent and professional companies in order to stay afloat. what it causes over and over again is the constant revolving door of turnover's and for the clients they end up with poorly trained and unprofessional officers. any armed position should pay no less than 15.00 an hour to start. stop taking the lowball offers and they will stop offering it!

I left G4S to work for Top Guard. I was asked how much of a pay cut I would be willing to take. I told the lady that interviewed me no less then 11.00 an hour. She set me at a site that paid 11.00 an  hour. I explained I wanted to give my other company my 2 week notice, she said no problem. Once the 2 weeks was up, I had to call her several times in order to get my assignment information. She was never there, and would not return my calls. I ended up losing a week work waiting for her to contact me back. Once she did, she sent me to a site that only paid 10.00 and it was only supposed to be for a couple of days. Months later,I was still there. Being made to work with people who would go in the bathroom and talk on their phones, watch tv, sleep while they worked, and working my site by myself. I made complaints about becoming armed, so I was put into a class and became armed, with once again being promised to work at the shipyard making 18.00 an hour. Once other officers at my site found out I was going into class to become armed, they were put at the top of the line to go into the class, and even 2 of the 3 were placed at sites where they were making the money they were promised. It took me a better part of 2 months to receive a weapon, yet these other officers got their weapons right away. I was placed at a site that only paid 10.50 after that. I was ignored and looked over because I am older. There were a lot of promises they could not stand up to. I would never recommend working here to my worse enemy.

If I could give NO stars i would have. Ok finally I have been able to tell you all what Top guard security in Hampton/Norfolk, Virginia is really about! First of all i want to say Im happy to see some reviews about this company!  For starters, if you have ever worked there you may know how they are and for some who have never worked there PLEASE DON'T!

This place doesn't care about you. Yes I used to work there. I LEFT! If you are an officer with 10 plus years you may be ok because you are considered a little veteran but they talk about you anyway. And if you are sneaky and you'll do anything to get to the top and be in their little circle then YOU'RE IN! They don't care about their security officers they treat them like sh I know because I have heard it all. I can tell you they only care about money. I knew security officers who never had a break, got fired for someone lying on them, got fired for so called being late, got fired just because someone in the OFFICE STAFF didn't like them or because they spoke up when something wasn't fair. Look I can go on and on and on. If you have any questions about them let me know so we can all discuss what happened and put them out there for the public to know how this business really is!!! 

Don't believe me go work there yourself and find out!

I worked as a Security Officer for over a year, and overall, it was a positive experience. The job provided stable hours and a reliable paycheck, which is a big plus. Training was thorough, and I felt well-prepared to handle various situations, from routine patrols to responding to incidents.

The work environment was generally professional, and I appreciated the sense of responsibility that came with the role. Depending on the site, the job can be either fast-paced or relatively quiet, so flexibility is important. Management was supportive in most cases, though communication could be improved at times.

One of the best parts was gaining real-world experience in conflict resolution, surveillance systems, and emergency protocols—great stepping stones for a career in law enforcement or private security.

My main critique is that upward mobility can be limited unless you're in a large company with multiple contracts. Also, pay could be more competitive given the responsibilities and potential risks involved.

Overall, if you're dependable, detail-oriented, and looking for a structured job where you can make a difference, security is a solid career option.

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Would you like a more casual tone, shorter version, or tailored to armed/unarmed, hospital, or event security work?


I used to work out of the Hampton office and during my time with them, I voiced my concerns regarding officer safety, officer training, communication, professionalism, accountability and the respect coming from the management staff, or I should say, lack thereof. They would work officers outside of their availability and then accuse the officer of not paying attention to their schedule. Complaints from officers are either ignored or disregarded. This is just my opinion of what was going on, however, if you choose to work here, be ready to have information willfully withheld from you and your schedule changed any time of the day or night, and you will not be notified. The training provided is exactly what is required by DCJS, no more. The best people to ask questions of are the Quality Assurance Officers, being as you will have an extremely hard time getting ahold of someone in the Hampton office. Bottom line is this, if you want your Unarmed and/or Armed certs then you can get them very easily here, but if you want to grow with them and stay here for any length of time, go elsewhere.

This company charges a fee for everything that you require to work with. They are very untruthful with fees related to becoming armed through their school, they use spite against you if you dont agree with them, they disregard rules and regulations of dcjs, and are very quick to lie in front of your face as welll as behind your back. They want to signify that they receive all these so called accolades pertaining to military hire, or some sort of fitness whatever, when in fact they are a useless company that make their money off of the employee. They charge a fee to get a paystub and also charge a fee for your w2. Typical workday was waiting to see what orders officers had to take from company who contracted the security company. As i stated above management is very spiteful and will retaliate by not giving work, job was not enjoyable at all,  hardest part was going to site to work. There was not a workplace culture at all, because management did not know how to do the job nor speak out against unfair responsibilities that officers received outside of contract.

After arriving to work, I would always greet the shift that's being relieved, as well as the clients that are on shift. Patrolling was always needed to be done so mobility was always great. 

I've learned to use surveillance tactics in different orders as not to be tracked by a strict patrolling schedule.

The management was not so great because there would always be chaos and the passing down of information of one shift to the other was always lackadaisical and not properly administered. 

The co-workers varied from site, Most were always great at their job, others were not on-time(which was vital to relieving another officer), would not complete their tasks correctly or at all.

The hardest part of this job was keeping up with scheduling, seeing as though it was never more than one week in advanced of where the officers would receive their placement.

The most enjoyable part, was protecting the naval and marine officers within the building and being able to communicate with them on a daily basis.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Armed security officer 56 salaries reported	$19.15 per hour
Security officer 33 salaries reported	$17.65 per hour
Armed guard 26 salaries reported	$17.50 per hour
Security guard 4 salaries reported	$17.88 per hour
Patrol officer 8 salaries reported	$24.20 per hour

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