subject: How To Protect Your Home Security From Employees [print this page] When you finally own your own house, one of your first concerns is how to protect it from the outside world. Some basic steps on this front are installing a home alarm system, building a fence, and making sure to lock your doors and close your windows at night. But all of these measures become useless when you hire virtual strangers to work in your home. These individuals can be anyone from a new babysitter, to a cleaning person, to a plumber, to a handyman, to a construction worker. Chances are, you will have dozens of times in your life in which you will have to do this, all the while having an uneasy feeling that you are giving someone you just met access to all of your personal and private belongings. Maybe they are not going to jack your stereo system (or maybe they are who knows, right?), but they might be willing to snatch that diamond tennis bracelet off of your dresser, or snatch the credit card you left by the computer, or pilfer some 20s out of the purse you left on the kitchen table. It is important that you keep this in mind when inviting someone new into the house, especially if they will be spending significant time alone or only with your children before you have time to develop a basic level of trust. Here are some tips for how to maintain your home security with strangers in your house.
1. Be specific about boundaries.
Tell the new house cleaner exactly which rooms she or he is allowed to enter. Let the babysitter know that your bedroom and office are off-limits. Tell the construction workers that they can enter through the backdoor and go straight to the basement. Setting clear guidelines will let them know that you are not a pushover, and will help you avoid awkward misunderstandings that could be interpreted wrongly, such as a nanny thinking it is okay to use your confidential work computer to check her email while the kids are at soccer practice. Whats more, setting specific limits will make it easier for your to know when a boundary is crossed.
2. Give frequent visitors guest codes with your home alarm.
If you have people who regularly enter and exit your house when you are not home cleaning staff, nannies, construction workers on long-term projects it may be tempting to turn off your home alarm system all together. But its this kind of thinking that sets you up for heartache down the road. Instead of giving up on setting the alarm, make sure you get a system that allows you to create special access codes for individual users. This way, you can let your babysitter get into the house using her specific code without letting her know the master code for the overall system. You can also track what times your employees have punched in and out, which can help keep them honest.
3. Put your valuables in a safe.
If you have a plumber or a construction worker coming over, take your most valuable items and lock them away so that theres no chance of them being snatched. This includes extra cash, passports, jewelry or sentimental heirlooms.
