Concierge security in offices and apartment buildings: the job

1. Taking over: read what the previous guard left — open items, expected visitors, contractors, missing keys. See shift briefing and handover.
2. Front desk: greet people, ask who they are visiting, follow the building’s procedure.
3. Deliveries and parcels: receive, log, notify the recipient.
4. Keys and cards: every issue and return is written down.
5. Round: entrances, car park, emergency exits, common areas — whatever your post orders set.
6. Report: what happened, with times; see shift report.

How a building sets up its security — concierge or guard, rules, cameras — is covered from the client’s side in apartment building security and office reception security. This guide is about your shift.

• Greet first and look at the person, not the screen.
• Ask, don’t interrogate: “Who are you here to see?” is enough. The resident or host confirms the rest.
• Same rule for everyone: the regular and the stranger go through the same procedure, never judged on appearance.
• A “no” with a way forward: “I can’t let you go up without confirmation — shall I call Mr X?”
• Discretion: you never tell anyone who lives where, who is away or who came by.

Your ID card and badge are worn at all times, in uniform or not (Law 2518/1997, art. 6 §1). You never introduce yourself as “police” or use words suggesting you represent a public authority (art. 4 §2c).

• Visitor: confirmation from the resident or host, logging whatever the procedure asks, a visitor card if there is one, card returned on the way out.
• Courier: delivers to the desk and does not go up to the floors, unless the rules say otherwise. Anything that looks suspicious stays unopened — you report it as your instructions say.
• Contractor or technician: only if on the manager’s or company’s list, with name and time.
• Someone following a resident in: you politely ask who they are visiting, like everyone else.

If someone refuses the rules, they simply go no further than the desk: you explain calmly, call the resident or host and log it. The full process, from invitation to departure, is in visitor access control.

• You hand a key only to people on the manager’s or company’s list — not because you “know them”.
• You write name, time out and time back. A key not returned is an open item at handover.
• A lost card or garage remote is reported at once, so it can be deactivated.
• The key cabinet stays locked whenever you leave the desk, even briefly.

Article 15 of Directive 1/2011 of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority deals specifically with residential or office complexes. What touches your post directly:

• Who sees footage: the decision on the cameras sets which areas are monitored and who has access to the control unit (§1). If a resident or visitor asks to see video, refer them to the building manager.
• 48 hours: data is kept for 48 hours at most (§3). If an incident happens, report it at once as your instructions say, so the person in charge can decide before the footage is overwritten.
• Monitor: a continuously-on monitor is banned without real-time watching by security staff (§3). The screen never faces the public.
• Not the flats: cameras may not control access to individual flats, and the image is not transmitted to them (§3).

Never photograph the monitor with your phone or send a clip to anyone. Footage is handled by whoever the decision names, not by whoever happens to be at the desk.

• What guarding means: “surveillance or guarding of movable or immovable property and installations” (Law 2518/1997, art. 1 §1a). Security staff are those who carry out this activity or support it (art. 1 §2).
• At a security company: its staff guarding property need a category A work licence (art. 3 §1–2).
• In-house guarding: the same licence is required for the staff of any business who are given the guarding of its own premises (art. 1 §3 and art. 3 §2).

For a post with no guarding duties at all — only service, cleaning, small repairs — the law says nothing, and we won’t claim what it doesn’t say. If the job ad describes guarding, treat the licence as required. How to get one is in how to become a security guard.

• No searches: no provision gives a guard the power to search a bag or a person. If a visitor won’t accept the rules, they don’t go through — nothing more.
• No holding: for a crime caught in the act you have the same right of arrest as any citizen, no more (Code of Criminal Procedure art. 275 §1). Anyone arrested is taken without delay to the prosecutor (art. 279 §1) — so you call the police at once and hand the person over; you don’t keep them “until we see” and you don’t question them.
• No chasing: if someone leaves, you write down what you saw and report it. Nothing in the building is worth an injury.

These limits apply to every guard and are explained in what security guards can and cannot do. In a real incident the police decide; for a real case, get legal advice.