Guy Murphy

His Work: Security and Compliance Specialist

“It’s me that makes the space, not the space that makes me.”

Guy Murphy says that his workspace is “pretty spacious.” He tells me “I’m very comfortable with where I’m sitting.” He says that “we’ve got a big huge window in the back that we can open up the blinds and get plenty of light” so I ask him if the window and natural light is something that is important to him. He replies “honestly, for me? No. I’m very ‘Zen’ in my way of thinking about things. The environment is not what makes the person for me. I know that people like natural light or they don’t like any light at all. It’s just a workspace for me and I make it.” One of the things that he emphasizes is “I’m able to face the door, that’s something that is big for me” and being so well trained in security I wouldn’t expect any different. Mr. Murphy tells me that he likes to keep order in his office but ends of having a bunch of things on his desk. He says has a weekly routine of cleaning and organizing every Monday morning and then restarts the cycle.

Since he does monitoring and overseeing both in person and on the computer his desk space requires a certain amount of privacy. When I ask him about an ideal workspace he does say “I would prefer a more private workspace” but he immediately says that “people know that they only go so far in the room because we may have private information up on our computer screens, so no one but our boss goes past the first set of desks.” So the current set up seems to work well.

The Security and Compliance department consists of Mr. Murphy, his co-worker who specializes in fraud, and their boss who is the facilities director who has 20 plus years experience doing investigations, security, and safety.

Many people become friends with co-workers and see them outside the office but because of the nature of his work Guy Murphy does not see anyone outside of the office because if someone gets let go, he is likely the person escorting them off the premises. He also deals with investigations and problems at work. He tells me that it’s important that he maintains a neutral perception.

I ask him how he ended up working in Security and Compliance and he tells me a little about his story. “I was raised by a marine corps drill instructor. And I was a courier in the military so I had to deal a lot with security and stuff like that. I just fell right into it, didn’t really ever want to be a police officer but I still wanted to be in the field.” When I ask him what he thinks about all the different things involved with this career in security he tells me “I like to think that I was born and bred for it” He tells me more about how he got into security work. ”Before here, when I started my own business, I did Bond collections, repos, security escort, security consulting, asset and liability consulting, you name it and I did it.” He tells me of some shocking experiences and the amount of stress that was involved with working for himself through his security business. “I’ve been shot twice, I’ve been stabbed twice. So the stress was very much there. Because I’m the type of person— I have the chivalric mentally. I’m the guy that will step in front of somebody else to have the gunman point at me instead of them.” He says that his current job “on the physical part, it is night and day to what I used to do” and that “the physical part of dealing with employees here is more of an education and re-education.” So he isn’t in the same amount of physical danger.

When I ask him to put his experience with his work into a few words he says “Challenging, accomplishment. I like to know that people feel secure and safe and that means a lot to me. I want people to feel that they can come to work and not worry about anything.”