Why do people wear their work lanyards in the supermarket

[SplodgeWaddler]

Am I the only one that finds this odd? Lots of people seem to do this in one of my local supermarkets, mainly women of a certain age. Sometimes clearly identifying where they work. I always zip mine away in a pocket of my bag.

I never take mine off until I’m home from work and getting undressed. Any jobs I do after work - supermarket shop, grab a takeaway, browse the shops, get my eyebrows done, I’d never consciously contemplate to take my lanyard off. i barely even remember it’s there. Goes round my neck when I leave the house and comes off when I get in the house.

Threads like this prove that people really will moan about anything.

I need mine to show to several different clients in several different settings throughout the day. I put it on in the morning and leave it in a particular place in my car at night. If I ever took it off and put it in the house / my bag / an office, I’d lose it and wouldn’t be able to do my job (well I would but I’m meant to wear it at every visit.)

Why oh why would anyone notice or care that it’s round my neck on my lunch break is a mystery.

I wear mine when I go to Pets at Home because I get 10% off and I'd be quite annoyed if I forgot to present it.

I never wear mine at work (carry it with me), so certainly wouldn’t be wearing it outside work.

But I imagine the reason most people leave theirs on is because they’ve forgotten they’re wearing it.

@independentfriend

They're ignoring/don't know good personal security advice.

Nobody should be wearing a lanyard / name badge outside of doing their job. Traditionally, where I grew up, you could spot people who worked for the MoD in the local supermarket because you could see part of the plain lanyard but the pass was hidden in the top pocket of the shirt / inside the wearer's top. This is what you should do with your badge on leaving your workplace if taking the whole thing off is too hard and advocate for plain lanyards rather than immediately identifying ones.

• risk of the badge / lanyard being copied and an unauthorised person getting into the workplace
• depending on where you work, being identified as working for certain organisations is itself a risk to you / potentially your employer - think laboratories that store / work on potentially lethal things / do medical research on animals / anything in the defence industry / in some areas working for the police.
• risk of someone catching your name + workplace and social engineering information about you from whoever answers your work phones
• risk of someone up to no good, now having a reasonably good idea of where to find you during part of the week, and even if it's not as straightforward as an office working 9-5pm, if they know the workplace all they have to do is wait.
• if you work somewhere with disgruntled customers/clients, they might not care who at the organisation they target - they might consider you a legitimate target just because of who you work for - from a supermarket your next stop might be home. Do you want disgruntled customers following you home?

How much information you want to disclose about yourself to strangers in supermarkets etc is up to you, but wearing a work lanyard + name badge is potentially telling people a lot more about yourself than you realise.

My lanyard is a fucking bright rainbow and my ID cars is inserted backwards because I only need it to buzz into the building - it can be shown if needed but it is absolutely not in general display, neither is the company I work for and the ID is safer round my neck than anywhere else. It does lead people to assume I'm a big bloody lesbian though

Well it’s obvious

Especially if they are NHS

We just want to push to the front of the queue don’t you know !

Anyone in a job where you have security breaches if you know where you work is not issued with a company lanyard believe me.

I tend to leave mine on until I get home and leave it in the same place as I might take a different bag the next day and then will forget it in the morning. However it is on under my coat so you can’t see it. What a strange thing to be bothered to post about.

Has the OP's brain exploded at the marvellousness of the hundreds of lanyard-wearing-reasons described here?

@Nearlytheretrees

Because it's easier than keep taking it off and less chance of misplacing it

This. Definitely.

Because if I take it off then I will lose it somewhere while I fanny about in the shop.

HTH.

What the bloody hell does it matter if other people know where they work?

You've probably got the message by now but yeah, basically I forget to take it off but also I don't want to take it off and lose it! Mid-20s here...

I have been known to wear two lanyards at once, depending on what I'm doing. This is obviously really only to confuse anyone officiously staring at my chest.

I wear mine because I want everyone in Liddle Waitrose to know that I am Vice President in charge of Paper Clips at MegaCorp, and am therefore special and important. Or I just forgot to take it off.

This thread made me laugh. Good one OP. I mean that genuinely.

I'm more bothered by people that wear their lanyards at home tbh.

Pre-covid , a colleague of mine did this at home (we worked from home as part of our roles prior to lockdown). I found that amusing, and quite sad (she's one of those colleagues who sends emails at 6am, when she's off sick and late in the evenings even though her job really does not require this).

Pretty sure she still still wears her lanyard at home and lockdown was like heaven for her being able to do that EVERY DAY!

I had one in the past when I worked in a call centre. Many a time I headed to the pub with my colleagues afterwards to be asked why I'm still wearing it hours later. People can forget ffs

Mine just lives round my neck all day, you need the damn thing on every single door at my office, I literally do just forget it once it's on. When its round my neck I do at least know where it is!

I used to work at the airport; i never took my lanyard off until I got home in case I lost it.
Losing one of those airside passes doesn't bear thinking about!

@MrsTerryPratchett

Because I forget.

I once got a discount I didn't know about because of it though!

This happened to me too! Apparently we get 10% off in a local restaurant

🤦🏻‍♀️ Don’t mention the discounts

This really upsets some on MN 😬

Because a) I need it to open the doors; b) I don't want to rummage around in a pocket/bag while I've already got my hands full of bags/cups of coffee/folders/whatever; and c) if I've sloped off to the shop mid-morning for a Twix, it's harder to get away with it when I have to beg security to let me back in because I forgot my pass.

That and the fact that it's got my photo on and I like to gaze at pictures of myself.

What a wanky thread. Sexist, ageist. Are you sure it’s not women of a certain age AND a certain colour? You could cover all offensive bases?

Agree with a PP, it’s because they’re not as clever and amazing as you. Or, maybe it’s because they’ve come straight from work and haven’t got changed yet. HTH. Honestly, what a waste of internet

I'm quite aware that I look like a bit of a self-important knobber wearing my lanyard on the school run in the mornings. However, my badge acts as my office key and car park pass. Before I started putting it on in the AM on leaving the house, I would probably once or twice a month leave it in yesterday's bag/coat pocket, and have to travel back home for it. The new system works.