What Muppet came up with this idea? What self respecting door staff would want to be associated with this circus act, most of the teams I have worked with (and I have been in the industry 28 years) would never have had anything to do with this crazy idea (yes, even before licensing, contrary to public and government opinion there has always been professional door staff, let down by a small minority).
Anyone one who takes part in this needs their head testing and I can honestly say they would never work for me or any other self respecting company again (that’s if there the type you would employ in the first place). Not only are they going to bring the Industry into disrepute they are also going to put any team, venue, venue staff and venue customers they work with at risk, every two bit hard man in the country will be gunning for them on the doors so they can say they have had a pop at the hardest Door Staff in Britain. This also goes for those contestants that do not win the ‘title’.
“The idea that to be a door supervisor you have to be "hard" is nonsense”. Yes totally agree, personally I don’t believe there is any such thing as hard, there are just ego’s the size of houses, because they have nothing else to offer. Isn’t it about time this type of macho crap was dropped from the industry? Don’t get me wrong controlled use of physical intervention is a pre requisite of the job and you need a certain type of personality and confidence to do it. Confidence comes from training, experience and the knowledge that you have a good team behind you and that you have the mental and physical skills to deal with the situation. One of the down sides to the SIA licensing is that there are far too many jacket fillers now a day’s, badges who will never make good door staff and employing them leaves everyone at risk. In fact I’m at a loss as to how they ever got badged in the first place.
I also think that the whole licensing system needs to be tightened up, physical intervention and physiological assessment should be part of the exam process and trainers should have had to worked the doors for at least three years on a regular basis. Much of the training system at present is geared to putting through quantity rather than quality and is simply a money making exercise as far as many of the companies are concerned. There should also be some type of provisional licence or apprenticeship served before a full badge is issued, just like us older ones served to learn the craft. After all this is supposed to be part of the NVQ system, i.e. work based training.
I am also extremely heartened by the responses to this ‘event’ on the forum, this Industry is continually undermined by a very small minority and it’s great to see the Professional voice of the Industry being heard.