A power play that I recently encountered was with the Baruch security guards just downstairs from our classroom. To be candid its more of a consistent pattern of extremely bizarre power plays, but in the preservation of good heartedness I will not pick out all of their sometimes enigmatic “security measures”. The most recent one, however, stuck out to me –It was this week right before class. Upon arriving downstairs to the 23rd Street building I closed my umbrella, shook it out, and began to wrap the velcro loop around it as I walked through the revolving door. In about 2 seconds a security guard was yelling at me to shake my umbrella out over the carpet for before proceeding. At this point my umbrella was shaken dry, wrapped closed and halfway into my backpack, so I took a few seconds to explain to her that I had already shaken it out and just need to get to class. When I looked up she had been busy yelling at someone else and then turned her sights back to me, and of course, began yelling. Long story short I unwrapped my umbrella, shook it once, and walked to the elevators. The overall takeaway from this story is that authority sometimes just can’t be reasoned with, not for lack of caring about the well being of others, but for lack of checking ones own ego.
One Response to Online Post 2/27
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After reading your post, I noticed that you and Lawrence had a similar power play situation, involving the Baruch security guards. In both situations, the guards seemed to act with reason, caring way too much about the small details, like your umbrella, or the coffee cup in Lawrence’s situation. I understand that in these situations, and possibly others too, that Baruch security guards are being too cautious, to the point that they are being silly. However, they are security guards, and they keep the buildings secure, so they are just trying to make the buildings safe and secure for everyone. For example, in your situation, perhaps the guard thought your umbrella was still a little wet, and didn’t want the floors to be slippery to cause someone to slip and fall. Though in Lawrence’s situation, I do not understand why the guard scolded the person about the coffee cup.