Earlier this week, I got myself a free ten day trial to on online training website so that I could take a course about Adobe Audition. Audition is a sound editing program and I wanted to learn it so that I could record and edit audio for a project I'm working on at BU.
While watching and taking notes about that program (it's a 6 hour lesson), I was fielding emails from potential participants in this year Finding Love on Comm Ave. This year we are looking globally, and will be hiring freelancers for the faraway participants. I do not want to travel all over for what ends up being on photo, and maybe even only a 20 minute photo shoot. I can't justify that.
I've also photographed two couples this week locally.
I've also been communicating with a writer at BU Research, and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, planning for the Women's March in DC in a week and a half. Shannon and I planned on going long ago, and now BU Today has tracked down some BU people who are going as well, so now it's business trip for me. The challenge, however, is that there will be a gazillion people at the event and cell phones won't likely work with that many people. So, we need to find a specific place to meet at a specific time. The organizers of the event have not announced any kind of schedule. It Will start with a stationary program, but if there is actual marching, the route has not been announced as of yet for security reasons.
Yesterday we had a building-wide, mandatory meeting. A lunch thing with lectures that ran about two and a half hours. During this meeting it was announced that our Marketing and Communications dept earned twice as many awards in the CASE district competition than any other entrants. Also, I got a bronze for my portfolio and Jackie got the gold. Good news.
We came back to the office and were called into out editor's office. She asked us what we were each working on these days, wanting to touch base and catch up. I told her about the class I was watching online, Love on Comm Ave, organizing shoots for the students, etc. She then said that Joel, a writer at BU Today was going to do a spring break story about Cuba. Cuba! She then announced that SHE would be going with Joel to Cuba, to cover the story.
I could feel a silent wave of confusion pass between Jackie and I. Why was the photo editor going on an assignment for BU Today, the department we shoot photos for? Janice has a massive job and she does it well, coordinating with all the different college publications and working with freelancers and designers to create the desired effect for each of the college's needs. She spends long hours in meetings and long ours out on campus scouting locations or going out with photographers to direct the shoots. But it's not her job to take assignments, let alone amazing ones.
Janice then pulled out two sheets of paper tri-folded. One had an A on it, the other had a B on it. This was an effort to make it seem more exciting than it was. She handed them to us - schedules of stock photos we are expected to produce until the end of the academic year. Classroom shots, sports, campus, etc. It is part of the job but it is challenging; you can't just walk into a classroom and start shooting. You have to contact the professor, explain what you're doing, get permission, determine which class you'll be attending, etc. I could email ten professors about coming into their classroom and, I kid you not, two might respond. Then, when I follow up to nail down a time, maybe one would get around to responding.
Congratulations on your photo awards! I'm going to Cuba! You're shooting stock for the rest of your days!
Blank stare.
By this morning, it had gotten back to Janice that Jackie and I were displeased (Jackie mentioned something to a higher up from another dept in passing on her way out the door last night), so we were called into Janice's office again.
Long story short, it sounds like Janice feels she deserves to go because she works her ass off. She does work her ass off, and I made a point to tell her that I think she is very good at her job, and she shouldn't take our reaction to this as a dislike to her. She was relieved. And it's true. Janice works very hard doing all the stuff i listed above, plus comes to us on occasion to let us know about out of town shoots that are happening and would we be interested in going? She's also started organizing and running a lighting workshop every Friday to help us get more creative in the studio. The challenge with this is, or course, we don't shoot in the studio and we aren't going to lug all those lights out into the field for a simple portrait. Regardless, I recognize she works very hard.
Hard working or not, it's not her job to take a plum assignment for herself. I told Jackie that had Janice said "So, Joel is going to Cuba on assignment. I have always wanted to go and I would really like to do this shoot. But I wanted to ask you two if you would like to go first" It would be very unlikely that either of us would take it from her if presented in that way.
She went on to tell us that if we want the great assignments we need to listen in the meetings and be more proactive. (I was on a shoot during the meeting that Joel brought up Cuba). She is not our assistant, she told us, and it's not her job to report back to us about what happens in the meetings. "If you want to come and sit in on five hours of meetings a day, go right ahead!" she said. This pissed me off but I kept quiet.
It's PART OF YOUR JOB to go to those shitty meetings, not to mention the meetings she's referring to have nothing to do with BU Today or BU Research, the publications that are my and Jackie's "jurisdiction". So we wouldn't be attending them anyway, or taking assignments form them.
And also? You're not a photographer!
She tried to explain that there was a lot of pressure with this trip (which we can't handle?), and that it needed to be very marketing-heavy in style and it would be highly directed. We wouldn't be able to be very creative with our shooting.
Yeah, I don't care. It's Cuba.
Our discussion was perfectly civil, and I made it clear we had no interest in taking the assignment from her, but I think the point was made that she didn't handle it very well.
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