please empty your brain below
Hear, hear. I'm sure M. Foucault would have found this trend interesting.

Burntweenie | 05.10.18 - 7:07 a.m. | #

This is something that has consistently bothered and perplexed me. Where I work, there's no institutional pressure to display your card or dangle it around your neck, but at least half of the employees do it anyway. Are they asserting their identity/importance? I've asked a few and they say it's 'convenient' but as ours still have to be swiped through a slot rather than waved at a RFID receiver that doesn't wash - I've got mine out of my pocket and got the door open while they're still fiddling with their holder. Why oh why indeed.

Sarah | Homepage | 05.10.18 - 7:13 a.m. | #

Under GDPR rules, if you see information on a card dangling from a lanyard, you should tell the person what information you have collected, and how you are going to use that data.

*winking*

Greg | 05.10.18 - 7:15 a.m. | #

Where I work we are instructed to wear our id card on a lanyard or belt yo-yo clip in the office.
We are instructed to take it off display as soon as we leave the building.
Our id card has name only, no role or company. And we are instructed to use lanyards that do not have the company name or branding.

Colly405 | 05.10.18 - 7:17 a.m. | #

The lanyards issued to visitors for the Palace of Westminster and Portcullis House have a black nylon cord that could act as an emergency shoelace. The ends of the cord are joined together by a two-part plastic clip that can be linked/unlinked in a satisfactory fashion while listening to long speeches.

RayL | 05.10.18 - 7:19 a.m. | #

I never wear my lanyard at work, my pass sits in my pocket and I have never been challenged when not wearing one.

When I visit other offices I rarely where my visitor pass unless told to by security staff - I will visibly carry it in my hand if I pop out of a meeting to use the toilet just in case someone queries who I am. They never do.

I have asked many people if they can tell me whether a lanyard as ever stop any untoward event and no one ever can.

I must admit they are sometimes useful when a colleague whose name you have forgotten comes up to you and you can sneakily look at their name badge to remind you they are but that is subject to the 50:50 rule as you say.

Security is an industry that you can never roll back it’s only ever ratcheted up. There will come a day I’m sure when we are all microchipped which will then allow or deny us access and track our movements all to keep us safe.

[Redacted] | 05.10.18 - 7:24 a.m. | #

The thing I never liked about lanyards, apart from how uncomfortable they are, was how filthy they can get. It makes my skin crawl seeing an old, almost certainly never washed, lanyard being worn by someone.

Medford | 05.10.18 - 7:26 a.m. | #

Oh my gosh! I walked past the famous DG and didn’t even know it?! If only there was some visible way of identifying him/her...

Becky Penhallick | 05.10.18 - 7:29 a.m. | #

Nearly everyone voluntarily carries a tracking device - a smart phone, we have a high concentration of CCTV, many now have dashcams in their cars, any slip-up could result in you becoming (in)famous on Twitter or YouTube, but all these are invisible to us. The lanyard is a visible reminder of the loss of our anonymity.

Still Anon | 05.10.18 - 7:30 a.m. | #

@Becky Penhallick

Wow, I can't believe I walked past him too! Way cool.

Tajram Ahuja | 05.10.18 - 7:38 a.m. | #

I don't have a problem wearing mine

Leanne Yard | 05.10.18 - 7:48 a.m. | #

I’ve never had to wear one for work, but I do have to for conferences. They’re useful there because they tell you the person’s name (the conference I run has them double sided so 100% of the time too).

But I take it off the second I walk out the door of the venue. I hate having things round my neck like that, and I don’t need everyone to know who I am or why I was in that building.

I won’t lie - if I see someone wearing them in public I do tend to have a read just for the hell of it really.

Kirk | 05.10.18 - 7:53 a.m. | #

Many people seem unconcerned about broadcasting their identity to all and sundry. Or providing a continuous public narrative about their daily life. I don't really understand why, but perhaps for them privacy is overrated.

My children don't have lanyards for school. Worse, they use their thumbs to check in or out, or pay for lunch. Getting children used to providing biometric data for something as trivial as this makes my skin crawl. It doesn't take too much imagination to foresee the state taking DNA profiles and implanting RFID tags at birth, for everyone's security and convenience naturally.

Andrew | 05.10.18 - 7:55 a.m. | #

What "security's sake" is that?

My name, employer and picture are not secret, and trying to keep them so would be an exercise in frustration. This is, despite what you read in the papers, a safe country. Telling people to take their lanyards off is the same kind of pointless paranoia as introducing them was.

lmm | 05.10.18 - 7:56 a.m. | #

This is so me, I hate wearing the things round my nevk, mines usually to be found in my pocket :)

Rachel | 05.10.18 - 8:29 a.m. | #

So I immediately checked the etymology, thank you. Wondering where the "y" was coming from, since I recognized the French word "lanière". Apparently "lanyard" is the alternative (now dominant) spelling to "laniard". "y" came from thinking that "laniard" had something to do with "yard" (the measurement). etc etc. Thanks for the opportunity.

French reader | 05.10.18 - 8:44 a.m. | #

As a worker, my "badge", on either lanyard or a clip, mine used to live in my shirt pocket.

strawbrick | 05.10.18 - 8:49 a.m. | #

If you operate machinery and other equipment at work, I seriously hope you do not wear your id on a lanyard.

B | 05.10.18 - 8:58 a.m. | #

At an open university summer school, I was momentarily impressed by someone who told me that she refused to wear the provided name badge because "she objected to being labelled". I later realised that this was a very odd thing to say. "Being labelled" is objectionable, but it means being treated as (say) a black woman, rather than an individual.

Wearing identification is quite different. However, there are still grounds for objecting to it, which DG and commentators eloquently set out.

Malcolm | 05.10.18 - 9:12 a.m. | #

After a recent unspecified security alert in my office, our manager was reminding us of the policy but then realised the pass on his lanyard was hanging the wrong way round. He had the good grace to admit the system wasn't perfect.
Some people may wear their lanyards when out and about to avoid leaving them behind. I manage to leave mine at home about once a month and then have to lurk in the entrance waiting for a colleague to vouch for me. The security staff apparently have no way of looking me up in the system to check that l match my photo.

Andrew Simpson | 05.10.18 - 9:13 a.m. | #

I echo the safety point, though it also applies to ties (the daftest garment in existence, to my mind, with the possible exception of fascinators). I believe some lanyards have a special plastic easy-pull-apart link to alleviate this problem though.

Malcolm | 05.10.18 - 9:17 a.m. | #

"...times change, and risks heighten..." Is this really the case at school? Certainly, the perception of related risks has heightened - which among other things has given rise to the wretched "school run" to deliver and collect children to/from school in frequently unnecessary transport. However, I'm not convinced that the actual risks have increased.

Tim W | 05.10.18 - 9:21 a.m. | #

No comment yet from Toby or Esme. Don't da yoof read this blog then?

Andrew Simpson | 05.10.18 - 9:21 a.m. | #

That's funny. I've often wondered the same thing when out in town during lunch. Our company issues blank passes for access to doors within the building. No photos, no names - just the card. If it's lost we report back and the card is disabled and we get issued a new one.

They do provide lanyards but most don't wear them.

MIke | 05.10.18 - 9:30 a.m. | #

For one of my jobs, we are explicitly instructed not to use a lanyard, because we should be able to hand over our id card for inspection on request (to people we have not met before). For my other job (in adult community learning), everyone, including students, should have an id card... I've so far managed to avoid it as a casual staff member. Also, as an art model, I can't really wear or carry it most of the time I'm in the workplace anyway.

Catharine | 05.10.18 - 9:31 a.m. | #

Lanyards & ID passes are not really a security solution because they are too easy to get around. Check your companies process for people who forget their pass - in one company I worked for, you signed a form and they gave you a temporary all-areas pass, without even checking your name. Most passes are also relatively easy to clone, so won't stop someone serious about breaching your security. They stop people casually walking off the street, but that is about it. This is security theatre not real security, particularly when your name and company name are there for anyone to use.

The only place I worked where they were used properly, there was only a photo - no name or company name - and you additionally needed a personal PIN to get into the secure areas, so the pass was only one of two security factors.

When lanyards were becoming fashionable, it was seen as a something a "serious" company should have, but now it is just part of the workplace uniform, and everyone has them without actually thinking about their purpose.

Jimbo | 05.10.18 - 9:38 a.m. | #

Maybe inconsistently, I feel quite different about a conference name badge - if it's for introductory rather than pseudo-security purposes (and *never* on a lanyard) - my main concern then is that it has my title right :-)

Sarah | Homepage | 05.10.18 - 9:40 a.m. | #

I'm glad DG brought this up - a topic that needs airing and satirical ridicule.

I'm calling for a day of action which would involve everyone wearing giant ID cards to highlight their absurdity.

Patrick McGoohan might have said "I am not an ID card, I'm a free man!"

Ironicsteve | 05.10.18 - 9:56 a.m. | #

I feel totally worthless as I have never had a lanyard declaring to the world how Busy and Important I am.
In fact I am the only one in my family never to have had one!

Being lanyardless just confirms to society that I am a nobody. I feel the shame as the eyes of Greater London judge me every time I leave the house.

Cornish Cockney | 05.10.18 - 9:59 a.m. | #

Wear some sort of lanyard,a high viz jacket and carry a clipboard and you can usually roam virtually anywhere without question.

Jerym eedy | 05.10.18 - 10:13 a.m. | #

Another topic where DG's view and former practice completely coincides with mine.

I do find the proliferation of dangling ID passes most odd for the reasons others have already eloquently outlined. And as for school kids / students having the names on display - just no.

PC | 05.10.18 - 11:02 a.m. | #

Wore my first lanyard in 58 years earlier this year for a festival i was a judge at. I have to say i was inordinately proud of it. It had my name and title and a little photo and everything...

Milo | 05.10.18 - 11:13 a.m. | #

Anyone else find it impossible when sitting near someone wearing one (on the bus or tube say) to not try and read it?

Personally I've ALWAYS taken it off as soon as I was out of the door, it just feels weird to identify yourself and your employer to the outside world that way

Mikey C | 05.10.18 - 11:39 a.m. | #

In the 70’s we were issued with ID cards on metal clips just like yours DG, but they intended for visual inspection not swiping or scanning.

One of my colleagues didn’t like the idea at all, so being a black guy simply got the Tippex out and painted his photo white.

I never remember anyone challenging him over his ID card, in the 2 years we were there.

Ray | 05.10.18 - 12:05 p.m. | #

Compare and contrast Scott Ginsberg's "The Nametag Manifesto".
http://www.hellomynameisblog.com/2011/12/download-scott-ginsbergs-nametag.html

Nails UK | 05.10.18 - 12:30 p.m. | #

it's easy enough to tuck your ID pass into your bra strap when going out for lunch ... oh, maybe not for you DG

Caz | 05.10.18 - 12:32 p.m. | #

I take my ID card off and put it in my pocket when I leave the building. As a result, the photo has almost entirely worn off my pass and you'd struggle to confirm it's mine. I've yet to be challenged on this, because nobody ever checks it.

martin | 05.10.18 - 1:51 p.m. | #

Once I had a fellow commuter, who was an NHS scientist by day, and a pole dancer by night. How do I know this? A quick namecheck on her ID she wore on the train.

gs | 05.10.18 - 1:59 p.m. | #

When they issued staff with name tags in a library I used to work in the female staff objected. They kept getting proposition by men coming into the library and seeing the name tags felt they were on first name terms with them.

Tones | 05.10.18 - 2:41 p.m. | #

My shopping trip around Norwich today has nearly been spoilt because I just kept checking whether those passing by had name badges (security passes?) on lanyards.
Perhaps the wording on the badges/passes could be shown on both sides so we could always read it as they passed by or sat down nearby.
And I have a few lanyards from meetings and events that I have been to recently. Can anyone suggest a good use for secondhand lanyards?

popartist | 05.10.18 - 5:11 p.m. | #

I was issued my first US Navy id tag for a class in Washington, DC prior to transfer to London (the beginning of my long term interest in the great city).

Upon course completion, I had to go through the check-out procedure, which was like a scavenger hunt to get signatures at locations all over building, displaying my id as I went. At the penultimate check point on the ground floor, my id was collected, but the next location for check-out was on an upper floor where I had just been, but required an id to enter. So I had to wait patiently for an escort to complete the process. Such was the importance of the id tag (and intro to the "Navy way").

While in London, we were instructed to remove our id tags before leaving the building, so YOU couldn't see how many of US there were.

Larry Butts | 05.10.18 - 6:36 p.m. | #

We're told to take out lanyards off whenever in public.
My company has recently gone one step further and re-branded the ID cards and lanyards to a plain design that no longer bears any resemblance to the company logo. It might be better for security, but removes any sort of pride about working there.

Paul | 05.10.18 - 7:26 p.m. | #

@martin

Likewise, my pass lives in my shirt pocket when I'm not in the building. As well as being badly worn, the photo on my pass was taken when I joined the company more than 25 years ago, so I don't look much like my photo anyway - my son actually looks more like it than I do.

timbo again | 05.10.18 - 9:37 p.m. | #

I vote for don't care. I have no objection to passers-by knowing my name, but no particular desire that they should. This seems to me like a healthy attitude, so I wish everyone had it.

Anyone who has good reason for hiding their name (e.g. they have been the object of a stalker) can always wear a false-named lanyard if they wish.

Malcolm | 05.10.18 - 10:45 p.m. | #

I run outside events at weekends, and as part of the management safety plans, you are now expected more and more by councils to have staff with Hi Vis and lanyards with a name badge (also what you do). This is now seen as much more important due to " venerable people" policies. In my main work, I am required to wear a name badge, but you are permitted by law, only to have your first name on there.

david s | 09.10.18 - 3:27 p.m. | #











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