Denied

I am not a happy person at the moment. The first inkling of this came at 9am when Pia decided she didn't feel up to the final coffee tasting because she couldn't handle a double espresso (FYI I am writing a story about coffee in Chatswood and Pia is my taster because I can't drink espressos, which are the staples of a good barista). I did understand, but felt frustrated because was one more thing that wouldn't be finished. No matter, it was a grain of sand on a dune.

At lunch time, however, I headed out to do some photography at the Mandarin Centre and the Westfield for some other stories. I managed to get around the Mandarin Centre okay, but at Westfield was accosted by a security guard while taking a picture of the Hoyts box office. He told me that I wasn't allowed to take photographs. I argued with him saying that still photography was permitted in a public space (of course, it could be argued that the shopping centre was not a public place but he wasn't astute enough to argue that point). He said I would have to see centre management about a permit.

So I went down to centre management. The receptionist was lovely but as soon as I saw the marketing exec I knew I was in trouble. You know the type, she dresses sharply, smiles sweetly and extends all sorts of platitudes to prop her position while effectively saying "no". I hate that.

She couldn't fault me with the photos I'd taken because none of them contained the Westfield logo but the upshot was that I had to ask each and every one of the retailers for their written permission to photograph their shop, simply because it was in a Westfield Shopping Centre. And also inform centre management that I was doing it so I wouldn't be accosted by security again. For example, if I'd wanted to take a picture of the Boost Juice Bar in the Westfield, I'd need written permission. If I went to the one on Victoria Ave, that's public land and I wouldn't need to. Corporate bureaucracy!

I can't afford the time to chase down permission from every single shop - at the moment I'm getting 10c/word for the articles and giving the photos for free so it isn't economically viable for me to wrangle with the red tape.

BESIDES WHICH, Westfield doesn't even have a publicly accessible policy on still photography so it's a bit rich of centre management to say it's against their policy when there isn't one! Outlawed in the wild wild Westfield.

This put me in a foul mood back at the office. Then I remembered I had to ask for an hour off in the morning to do Appen's typing thing (I mentioned a research thing last month) because they were doing third sessions. Lizzie was away (unsurprisingly), so I went to Naomi.

Now, "asking permission" is never really more than a courtesy thing to say "I'm going to be away at this time" and making provisions for that time by taking leave or making up the hours some other way. So I was surprised when Naomi made a face. Over the past six months I've started to dislike Naomi, mostly for her defection to management with not even a half-hearted attempt to remain in touch with the worker class. The face just let me know that she didn't think much of me either.

She reluctantly gave "approval". Then two minutes later Phaedon came over and they conferred in the boardroom for five minutes, which I was positive was about me and more than the Appen thing. After they emerged I received an email from Naomi saying that I couldn't go and to reschedule the time. Grr! So frustrating!

I'd offered to make up the time by coming in early and leaving late (which I'd been doing for the past three weeks anyhow) but apparently they didn't like the fact that it was at 9am (which is peak "looking like we're working" time). The irony is, of course, that Lizzie would've let me go. I mean, she let me go to a Sydney Film Festival screening for 2.5 hours in the middle of the day. But she wasn't there to be lenient. (I should also add that I spent $5.60 and 5 hours of my time last Sunday at the Education Expo and I'm never going to get that back).

OH MY GOD I HAVE TO GET OUT OF THIS PLACE.