Reprimanded!

I recently related an event that happened last Thursday in which I was called out on my day off to shoot a "Pedex," what our station calls a pedestrian accident. You may recall that our on-call system has all the photographers on-call all the time, except on our off days. When we're off, they're supposed to leave us alone. Since I was off Thursday, I theoretically shouldn't have been called, so I reminded the producer of that policy. She told me she needed me to shoot it anyway, and I did.

This morning I was back on dayside again for live truck training. Again it didn't happen, because the van is still in the shop. After the morning meeting, my news director called me into his office.

"I'm a little concerned about what I'm being told about you shooting spot news," he said.

"What's the problem?"

"Wendy said you refused to shoot the Pedex Thursday night."

"Uh, no," I said. "I did shoot it."

"But she said you gave her attitude about coming in," he said.

"No, I didn't give her any attitude, I--"

"Did you tell her you didn't have to shoot it because it was your off day?" he interrupted.

"No, I didn't put it like that. I just reminded her it was my off day. I didn't refuse to shoot anything. I didn't say I didn't have to--"

"Look," he said. "If we call you out to shoot something, we expect you to shoot it."

"I DID shoot it," I said.

"What I mean is that we expect you to shoot it without giving us any attitude about it. I don't care if it turns out to be nothing, you go when you're called."

"I didn't give her any--"

"I don't think you're listening to me," he said. So I was quiet. He continued, slowly and deliberately, as if talking to a child or an idiot: "You're new here. It might take some time for you to get used to the way we do things. I expect that. I just want to make sure you're not getting off on the wrong foot. This is a 24 hour business. Sometimes we're going to ask you to make sacrifices. We won't ask that often; but when we call you out, we expect you to jump, even if it's your day off. Do you understand?"

"Yes, but the way Rick explained things to me was that the station didn't call people out on their days off," I said, making an effort to stay calm. "I figured Wendy forgot it was my day off, so all I did was remind her."

"It's not your place to tell her who to call," he said. "That's my job. If Wendy calls you out, you go. If you have a problem with being called out, you tell me, and I'll deal with Wendy. But I'm telling you right now that sometimes we're going to need you to go above and beyond. If you have a problem with that, we need to get it out in the open right now so this doesn't become an issue later on."

"No," I said. "There's no problem."

"Okay. Just so we're clear. I expect good things from you, and I just didn't want you to get a bad reputation around here this early in the game."

A bad reputation? Refusing to go on a call? Giving attitude? What the hell?

I have to say that I was REALLY pissed off. But what am I going to do? I have no power in this situation, so I just have to bend over and take it.

I am, however, glad to have learned what an evil skank fuckwhore piece-of-shit bitch this Wendy is before she had a chance to REALLY fuck me over. Why the hell would she run off and tattle on me for something like that? What did I do to her to deserve this?

I try not to hold grudges, but I don't always succeed. I know now to be careful. I wonder if she does.