The point was that it's not the entire purpose of having the security guard. The building management wants to "provide security" to its tenants as a feature they are willing to pay for. The tenants, for their part, want "security" but not the inconvenience of being "harrassed" by the guards when they forget their purse or whatever.

Guards know this too, and given the choice between letting someone through who you are pretty sure is legitimate and potentially starting a fight which will generate a complaint, they'll "do the best they can" and just wave people through.

Motivations interact in funny ways, and the parameters aren't like software: they're hidden and surprising.

Not for a shared building guard who works for a property company. They are there to keep rifraff and salesmen out.

Look at government and large corporate entities for how to address this. Visitor conference rooms are on the ground floor or away from the office environment. There’s a receptionist who controls access to the employee area, and identification is captured and associated with a staffer for both signin and signout.

I was annoyed that security people are low in agreeableness, until I realized that's exactly the point.

Someone knows their Big-Five! :D