Photo ID to get into an *office building*?!

One Post St. in San Francisco. Sen. Feinstein's district office is there. Not the Federal Building, just an office tower that is the corporate HQ of McKesson.

You don't even need to show ID to get into most government buildings, merely submit to an airport-style security check (minus the groping :( ).

:wtf:

And why would the people's representative choose to locate in such a fortress (the bathrooms on the 24th floor were locked!) ?

Got fascism? :grr:

I believe it is more due to DiFi's office, than McKesson's presence.

It was a most entertaining building to work in - almost always some protest activity going on outside!

I'm sure she's gotten more than a few death threats. It doesn't make her a fascist. Most office buildings in Chicago check IDs to get to restricted floors. I can't just go walk into Rahm Emanuel's office.

I would want security as well, with all the loonies out there these days. What do you expect?

by ex-Supervisor Dan White, who would hardly have had to show ID in any case.

And I was in front of Pelosi's office earlier in the day. It's at 7th and Mission, also a mile away.

edit: I went to SF City Hall exactly a year ago, for the ADA celebration. Metal detector, but no ID check.

I don't know about SF, but a lot of corporate offices in NYC require photo ID/security cards for entrance, and have for quite a long time.

I'm a technical trainer. Most everywhere I go, whether it's a government or corporate building, I'm asked for a photo id.

One company (a well-known, not to be named, insurance company) required my Social Security number so that they could do a background check before I showed up. I refused, of course. They were going to cancel the education, until my company said that they would do the background check. I suspect that my company looked into my personnel records, decided that I wasn't a problem employee and sent the okay.

Id is required.

most state offices do have a guard desk where you have to sign in. it's nothing new.

This has been going on for decades. Security guards at every door, sign in sheets at the security desk of the main lobby where you have to say who you are, what office you're going to, who you are seeing there, sometimes even state what your business is with who you're seeing, time in, signature, photo ID, etc. The "courtesy" desk has long since become a security desk, and no one gets past it without checking in who doesn't work in the building. Workers in the building normally get issued data cards that have all their identification implanted in them and as long as they have their card on them they can go about the building generally as they please... most workers wear them around their necks for easy visibility and swiping. This sucked a LOT when I worked as a temp and was either never issued a temporary data card or it took them forever to issue one. Luckily, most of the security personnel in most of the buildings are very quick to identify faces, and I usually didn't have to remind them more than once that I was working at such-and-such office as a temp... still had to go through the sign-in ritual every day though until I was issued a card.

Every bathroom on every floor is locked, and workers either have their own bathroom key or there are a few issued for each business in the building which are normally kept at the business's reception desk for workers or guests to pick up and use when needed. Totally sucks when someone has the key and is taking their sweet time using the bathroom and returning it so you can go take a piss. Locked bathrooms apparently came about because the building didn't want homeless people using the bathrooms.

My particular pet peeve is locked stairwell doors. For fire safety, you can get into the stairwells from any floor, but once you do and the door closes behind you, you HAVE to go all the way down to the street, go through the alley and back through the front entrance to get back in the building because ALL the stairwell doors lock on the stairwell side, and no workers have stairwell keys. This is REALLY a pain in the ass for larger businesses that are spread out over more than one floor especially for people who get the heebie-jeebies in elevators. It always takes at least three times as long to hop from one floor up or down to the next having to use the elevator than if you could just run up or down one damn flight of stairs and it's a hell of a lot worse during peek times like the beginning of the day, the end of the day and lunch time.

Thankfully, most of this is only standard in the city office buildings rather than suburban office buildings, but a lot of the suburban office buildings have many if not all of the same crap.

Private buildings can do whatever they wish in that regard.

and anyone wanting to come in has to show some type of photo ID. If they do not have an ID badge, they have to go to the security desk and get one. If for some reason I forget my ID at home, I have to show photo ID to get in and then get a temporary ID badge. I've worked here for 16 years and we always have had to use our ID badges to get into the building. After the September 11th attacks, we have to show them twice - once to the guard outside the building and then a second time to the guard standing by the electronic badge readers, which we have to use also to get in. And we have to use the badge readers to get out as well. Pain in the ass.

why on earth would you NOT have to show an ID to get into an office building?

admittedly, new orleans, we're knee deep in drunks and crackheads but i don't see how you can throw open an office bldg in any large city to people w.out ID, wherever you have crack (or any smoke-able drug) being used you have fires being started, it just isn't tolerable to allow any and all to come wandering into a bldg of value

plus the mass murderers/crazies who from time to time get a gun and start shooting people at random, it's not just for the howard johnson's and post office any more...it can happen anywhere

can be stolen.

in a regular old office building and nobody gets in without photo ID - this includes messenger services, catering services, temporary workers and interns.

really?

You have to be buzzed in, then show ID. Then you have to wait for the person you're coming to see to come back to get you.

There are a lot of nutty people out there. My company is just trying to keep each of us safe. We all wear our IDs and they allow us access to the building.

in the last 20 years has either required that you check in at the main security desk or at the front desk of the office you are visiting to get your visitor's badge or sticker (I hate the stickers at one of my client's more remote offices, it leaves a residue on my suit if you don't get it cleaned off it leaves a permanent mark...lost a perfectly good suit jacket to a playing card sized stain on the pocket)

you have to be escorted the whole time by an employee...

And yes, they take a copy of your ID as well

Dem politicians are popular targets for assassins and wannabe "heroes".

I tend to doubt it's usefulness against crime though. I mean, if someone was planning something elaborate enough that would require them to gain access to a building, they'd probably go the extra bit to get a fake ID...

Not sure I get how that's related to fascism though.

without a photo id for the past 10+ years. :shrug:

and/or some sort of security badge at various offices in various cities since the 80s.

I'm in high-end sales, and make sales calls several times per month. In larger cities (San Fran, LA, Chicago, NYC, Dallas, Miami & Houston) I always have to go to the security desk, show ID, get a pass and have someone come down and get me before I'm allowed to proceed.

The cost of security is usually included in the building space lease - and in this day and age many corporations want that extra layer of security. Especially in high-rise buildings.. it somewhat improves a sense of security for employees.

I don't have a problem with it. There's wack-o's everywhere.

First, the driveway into the "campus" was blocked by a security gate that required me to buzz security & state my business before being allowed on the grounds. Next, I had to ring a buzzer at the front door and speak to a second security guard & again state my business before I was allowed into the building. Last I had to sign in at the security desk, was assigned a visitor's badge, and had to wait in the lobby for someone from the office I was visiting to come to escort me to where I was going.

I didn't bat an eye. This is pretty much SOP in corporate America and has been for years.

My office building has a security guard at a desk the minute you get off on our floor, and I'm happy we do. I would expect security at a building that houses the offices of a U.S. senator to be even tighter. What's the problem?