Monday 7 September 2009

The value of ID badges

Following on from yesterday's blog, when I pass hospitals I see a lot of people who wear identity badges. They are not just near hospitals - they are everywhere. Now these badges only have a photo on one side. Another recent blog concerned the disabled driving badges that have information on one side only and it is an offence to place this badge upside down.

I started writing this blog because I was thinking why do we have so many people wearing these badges. These are people, many of whom have gone into the same office for years. Many of them may not come into contact with the public but only see work colleagues. So why do they wear them. The answer is simple, because terrorists have won. We are all running scared so managers feel that something has to be done in order to say something has been done.

I am not too old to remember when people used to say "hello my name is..." and there was no need for a badge. If you want to test how worthless these badges are then just check on the number of people who wear them the wrong way round. This is partly because there is no control over which way the ID badge hangs, but I have heard many times that it is deliberate because they don't like their photo. It is a useless piece of jewellery that is costing us in financial terms but more importantly leads of to a sense of insecurity. We cannot trust anyone.

Change the world

1 comment:

  1. How true.
    Where I work we were all issued with magnetic badges, but many of the staff have photocopy cards, with magnetic strips! Some of the male members of staff put their badges on their left jacket pocket, with their wallet in the inside pocket.
    The magmnets holding the badges inside de-magentised the strips on these cards.
    So, now we are supposed to be having an all singing, all dancing card on a lanyard, except they are having trouble making it a swipe card as well.
    I have an issue with both styles as the clip on and magnetic tend to fall off, and the lanyard ones dangle. I work with food and machinery as part of my job, and they are a hazzard. I don't wear mine.

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