Dear Editor,

What baffles me is the way people in general look down on security workers as if they are worthless, unambitious members of the proletariat. Imagine, proletariat!

We are members — women and men alike — of the security sector’s working class yet are still being looked down on as unambitious individuals.

Many of us security officers have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 high-level subjects, and are able to be matriculated and go to college or university. Some of us have diplomas and are qualified to get into other areas — if only the jobs were available.

I recall vividly a situation when I was working in Ocho Rios about two months ago at Jamaica Money Market Brokers, overseeing an ATM machine on Milford Road. I was working on the night shift and a man came there. The first thing he chose to say was, “Security work is despicable, you need to go and learn electrical installation or something, and send yourself back to school.”

Those words, paired with others, indicate how much we are being looked down on. This man was judgemental although he knew nothing about my academic qualifications.

Security officers are not as “little” as people may think, in spite of certain conditions we may work in. We deserve as much respect as any so-called top-notch workers are receiving. Frankly, most of us are awaiting higher positions and are very interested in different areas of work. We seek different areas of interest, not because security work is “detestable”, but because we seek to capitalise on experiences we’ve had to better ourselves, and as such, we should not be judged easily.

I must say that at one point nothing could have got me into a security officer’s uniform. When I first put on the uniform, knowing that I represented a company (ATLAS), I felt good — well, maybe because I wasn’t working and it was the only thing that was available at that time. Whatever the reason, it felt good. I suppose I said to myself it was beneath me, as others do now, but I’ve recognised that it’s more than just the physical. For us it represents our livelihood, our self-esteem, a sense of pride and should be regarded and rated highly. It is undoubtedly the threshold of a better future for men and women, so the work and the people who do it should not be belittled.

O Sappleton

Odeane_sappleton@yahoo.com