When should Security be fired, and how far should you go?

[Streaky Haddock]

SOP states the following as good grounds for dismissal:

• Any medium-severe breach of Standard Operating Procedure without proper cause;
• Any medium crime or higher;
• Critical incompetence at a given job;
• Refusal to follow legal and relevant orders by the respective Head of Staff. Legality and relevance of said orders are to be judged by the Captain or Head of Personnel;
• Creation of an abusive and/or unsafe work environment. Personnel consistently berating, insulting, belittling, or otherwise treating their coworkers like dirt, should be immediately disciplined

So when should the HoS, Warden or Security be fired? Particularly with the last two. If you're the HoS or Captain security should be relied upon to follow your orders as you give them, but in firing an officer you inevitably tend to make your security force weaker. When i've played HoS, I've told people to diengage or pull back or stay out of maint and then end up getting robustred/stripped/killed and cloned for their troubles. However, if they manage to make their way back after defying orders odds are good I've lost a good 2-3 officers and I'm reluctant to really lose more for what could easily be perceived as a petty act of vengeance. When there are likely three other major crises going on at once.

In addition, when does toxic behaviour cross the line? Is it continuing an argument in sec radio even after you've told them to cut it out? Is it talking shit about other officers or even the HoS/Magistrate over general radio? 

Also when does misconduct cross the CRITICAL incompetance threshold? 

 

If things are REALLY bad, are you better off firing every officer and then trying to replace them? Even if you have to wait ages for more to arrive from central, or want to risk hiring from manifest?

Edited September 21, 2017 by Streaky Haddock

[Kyet]

It is hard to replace officers that are fired.

• Security is often the last department to fill up, and the department most likely to end up short-handed.
• One sec officer being fired, unless they obviously deserved it, tends to lead to other officers cryoing, further reducing manpower.
• While the HoS can ask the HoP to prioritize Sec Officer job slots, or open more, they're still dependent on people joining as those slots, as its generally a bad idea to accept transfers into Security. Sec thus suffers from the double penalty of recruitment issues and lack of transfers.

Given this, the bar for firing a security officer is, in practice, higher than some other departments.

The HoS often asks themselves "yeah, this person is terrible, but can I afford to lose the manpower?". Often, the answer to that is no.

In general, HoSes are better off asking for an ERT than trying to find a replacement officer. ERTs are stronger, more numerous, and sometimes easier to get than a replacement officer.

 

Often, HoS' decisions about whether to fire a Sec Officer have more to do with how easy they think it will be to replace that person, and the person's attitude, than they do with what the person actually did.

[Streaky Haddock]

So if it's so hard to get new transfers; even though the risks for recruiting from manifest are real, do you really have any other option than to accept transfers from other departments?

[Kyet]

Yes.

[Streaky Haddock]

What options are those?

[Kyet]

Request an ERT.

Use borgs to supplement the organic security force.

Request AI assistance.

Arm the heads.

Wait and hope more officers arrive.

Etc.

[Streaky Haddock]

How do you feel about recruiting non-humans from Hydro and Xeno?

[Kyet]

What are they going to do? Slash the suspects?

[Someonewithapen]

Most of the good points have already been brought up above, and it's things like this that make me prefer the roles that advise security as opposed to leading them. The hard line I would draw is if you're blatantly being a burden on the team and/or to the crew, then you're out on your ass. I won't waste equipment and won't have the Brig Phys/Medbay wasting their supplies on you if you're just going to go out and try to smother the enemy in your corpses.

[Streaky Haddock]

I was mostly talking diona and golems, tzo.