The Pitcairn Perspectives by Philip Spires - HTML preview

Xenon Media Inc

Minutes of observation and appraisal meeting

Date and time - June 18 2021, 10:30

Present J Harris (recorder), W Singleton (director), F Wariuki (director), P Manze (executive director), Indra It (owner)

Agenda - Management appraisal of Annie Kuroshi, salary review and contract status

Task - Employee discipline

Format - Annie Kuroshi and the staff member in question occupied the adjoining room, which had its own separate entrance. There was adequate soundproofing, so no deliberation originating from the observing group could be heard by either party. The five participants listed above watched proceedings on live video. Occasionally Ms Harris was directed by the observers to include extra remarks and she has included these as comments alongside the recorded dialogue. The decision to be communicated had already been taken by the directors. It was Ms Kuroshi’s task to communicate it. Associated documentation, therefore, had already been prepared. The purpose of the exercise was thus specifically the appraisal of Ms Kuroshi.

The meeting room next door was set up as usual, with the standard-issue furniture, a plain office table and two chairs. No changes had been made to the room’s decor, which meant that the only object on display was the large abstract painting that habitually hangs in the room. Final arrangements of the furniture were left to Ms Kuroshi. She chose to place both chairs on one side of the table on the window side, opposite the door. The painting was thus on her left when she occupied the left-hand chair, meaning that the employee would be facing the painting when addressing her. Afterwards, Ms Kuroshi stated that her idea was that the employee should not be facing a blank wall. The employee knocked and entered the room at precisely 10:30.

AK Hi, Elsie. Good to see you. Thanks for coming on time.

EP I usually do. What’s this all about? If it’s about the Clifftop Project, I’ll have to go and get the file…

AK Don’t worry. It’s not about Clifftop. It’s about… well… something else.

EP Elsie’s something else. I’ve been saying it for ages.

AK Very good.

There was an extended pause here while Ms Kuroshi rearranged her papers. Mr Manze asked for it to be recorded, noting that it might indicate that Ms Kuroshi had not completely prepared her opening remarks. The pause seemed to be an unnecessary loss of momentum in her delivery.

AK I’ll come straight to the point. I suppose you have seen this.

Ms Kuroshi took from the pink folder before her on the table a photocopy of the article from the Hackney Post. At the top of the article was a poorly copied, almost solarised photo of Elsie Pitcairn being led away from East Park with her hands flexicuffed together, her hands apparently fixed at the level of her stomach since both arms were being held at the elbow, though not tightly, by the female police officers on either side.

EP Of course I have…

AK …and this? And this?

Ms Kuroshi placed four more photocopied A4 sheets on the table, arranging their edges neatly so no table surface showed through between them. One showed the same photograph beneath the headline ‘Hackney Riots’ and followed the format expected on an internet-based news site, with hyperlinks on the right of the page greyed out on the monochrome copy from their original blue. The other sheets contained copies of what were clearly cuttings from print newspapers, short columns of text apparently lost and waywardly wandering in the blank white of the sheet, with their attributions written in ballpoint across the top. One read ‘Telegraph’, the other ‘Guardian’ and both carried the date 16 June scribbled in oversized handwriting. On each of the four documents, every occurrence of the name Elsie Pitcairn had been highlighted in green. Also highlighted, but in pale red, was each occurrence of the name, Xenon Media.

Ms Pitcairn took some time to study the articles. Clearly, she had seen them all before. She was obviously flash reading each one, noting carefully where each highlight had been placed.

AK The main article, the long one from the Hackney newspaper states that you have been charged with resisting arrest. Is this true?

EP I have been charged, yes. But I expect it will be dropped when the dust settles. It was all a misunderstanding. We had permission for the meeting and the march. It will all become clear.

AK But Elsie, you are not charged with holding an illegal gathering, or with breaking Covid rules. You are charged with resisting arrest. My understanding of that charge is that once it is made, it will have to go through due process. That will mean a hearing of some sort. Will you plead guilty?

EP Of course not! I…

AK Just to be clear…

Here Mr Wariuki asked me to note that Ms Kuroshi should not have interrupted. An opportunity for Ms Pitcairn to provide her own version of events was therefore lost.

AK …you are not disputing that you were arrested? And are you disputing that the charge against you is ‘resisting arrest’?

EP Annie, it says that in black and white in the text. What kind of game are you playing?

AK I just want both of us to be clear, that’s all. Please, Elsie, please tell me why you got yourself arrested.

All the directors remarked on Ms Pitcairn’s change of manner. She suddenly became quite agitated, even angry. One specific comment was that this was a sure indication of her guilt.

EP Annie, you know full well that I have been involved with Off Uking Palace for a year or more. You have even been to meetings with me! You are fully aware of the issues, the environmental impact, the concreting over of spaces that are currently quite wild, the demolition of community facilities, not to mention the political favours, the corruption, the kickbacks and bribes. It stinks more than most sewers.

AK Elsie, my question was not about why you were there in Hackney East Park or why you had organized the march. My question was, “Why did you get arrested?”

EP Because a fucking pig cuffed me! Isn’t it obvious?

AK “Pig…” very seventies.

The diversion was noted by management as unnecessary.

EP The police told me the speeches could not go ahead. I told them I had written permission to hold the meeting, the march and the speeches. I had even dug out the official document from my bag. I was in the process of showing it to one of them when another police officer came up and announced that there was a scuffle in the crowd. The guy I was talking to started to walk away, presumably to check on what he had just been told. I was livid. It is what you expect from a policeman when he’s confronted with a woman. You are never more than the second most important thing on his mind after groping you. The guy just started to walk away, having specifically asked me to show him the permission. I had it, right there in my hand, and he just ignores me, barges past me, and sets off with his mate away from the stage. I was livid! It was as if I no longer existed!

AK And so you grabbed his arm.

EP All I did was take a half a dozen steps quicker than him so I could face him and then try to insist he look at the document he had just asked for. I was trying to get him to read our permission.

AK …and then…

EP He barged past me again. So, I grabbed at his hand and tried to make him take hold of the paper. He told me that physical contact with an officer was an offense. I said I wanted him to read the paper, not fuck me. He then turned, pushed me to the ground, sat on me and put the cuffs on, saying all the usual stuff about anything I said and all that shit.

AK ...anything you say will be taken down…

EP I know, trousers… It’s an old one…

The directors all commented here on the inappropriateness of the remark. They felt unanimously that Ms Kuroshi had allowed her personal relationship with Ms Pitcairn to surface at a time when nothing could be gained from the tactic. AK quickly regained her business voice and successfully re-established the gravity of the meeting.

AK But then why did you bring in the company name?

EP Look, Annie, I have no idea whatsoever where that came from. At the time in the park, all that was said was the usual. “I’m arresting you…”, “You are not obliged…” and all that shit. From start to finish, from the moment I started my dash after the policeman to the taking of that photo as I am being led away to the van, no more than a minute and a half had elapsed. It was all very fast, spur of the moment stuff. I never consciously thought, “Oh let’s throw in the name of my employer.” It was all over in a flash and the only thing at issue was the document giving us the right to protest, march and make speeches. But obviously by then, the police had already heard the alarm about the fighting. They were all on their walkie-talkies, or whatever they’re called. They just wanted me out of the way. But I wasn’t moving until that stupid officer had looked at the document he had asked for. I never said anything to anyone at the time of the arrest. There wasn’t time! And, frankly, I was being held down on the ground, with a big fat arse squashing my tits. I wasn’t in any sort of position to engage in conversation about my job!

AK So when were you asked about where you worked?

EP That was later, half an hour later, after I arrived in the police station. I had to make a statement, which was typed as I spoke. I gave my name, address, date of birth all that stuff, and then I was asked if I was employed. I said, “Yes” and they asked me where I worked. So, I told them. I have absolutely no idea where the reporter got that information. The company name will have been recorded on my statement, but that should have been seen only by the police. The reporter must have been given access to my statement, or the officers I spoke to must have told her. That, I think, is illegal and so the case against me is likely to be thrown out. She must know someone on the inside. Either that, or else someone has recognised me, a professional contact who also happens to know that particular reporter or someone else who works on that newspaper. I told no one except the police officer, who said the information was needed to complete my statement.

AK I’m afraid it’s a problem…

The management team remarked here that Elsie Pitcairn looked confused, as if she had no idea whatsoever that this could have negative implications for her employer or indeed herself.

EP I don’t really understand what the problem is. There’s no such thing as bad publicity…

AK Well in this case, Elsie, it is seen as precisely that, bad publicity. There is even one piece…

Annie Kuroshi again paused, this time to locate the exact document that would make her point. She selected one of the longer photocopied articles.

AK …here, this one, where the company is described as staffed by drug-taking, bonus-obsessed Islington yuppies who are intent on foisting their ideas on other people. It’s not good copy for a company that is trying to promote other people’s products in the media.

It was Elsie Pitcairn’s turn to insert a pause. Her mind was clearly turning over multiple possibilities. She was rather taken aback by the article, having obviously just seen it for the first time.

EP So I am going to get disciplined, is that it? Told off for being a naughty girl? Isn’t it enough that I have been manhandled unnecessarily, falsely accused, and libelled? One of those articles even uses the word ‘agitator’ to describe my work with the campaign. It’s disgraceful…

AK Elsie, you work with the media. You know what happens.

There was an extended pause here. One of the directors whispered. “…the penny has dropped”.

EP Annie, let’s just get something clear… You aren’t about to say that… Bad publicity… Are you trying to tell me…?

AK Xenon is going to let you go, Elsie.

EP Let me go? What if I don’t want to?

AK That is not an option.

There was another silence, during which the general consensus in the evaluation group was that overall, despite a couple of inconsistencies, Ms Kuroshi had handled things very skilfully, not actually saying the word ‘sack’ or ‘redundant’ but still communicating the message so effectively that Ms Pitcairn had absorbed the substance of the message before she had even been told anything explicit. We watched as Ms Kuroshi opened her pink folder again. She gathered the article copies together and replaced them into the pocket file and, in the same movement, extracted an A5 brown envelope and handed it to her former colleague. Elsie looked at the front of the thin envelope for a few seconds and then read out the single typed word she could see.

EP Elsie.

AK It’s got your P45, a reference, a cheque for your month’s salary plus a generous bonus and a letter of resignation. I would like you to sign that for me now and then I’ll make a quick copy.

EP You can take as long as you like. I have nothing on…

Ms Pitcairn extracted the single sheet that was the folded letter. Without even bothering to read it, she reached across to the central desk tidy, took a pen and signed the paper.

AK Thanks, Elsie. I’ll make a copy as we go out. And one thing more, thanks for making this easier for me. It’s not easy…

EP I’ll try harder next time, Annie.

As Ms Kuroshi and Ms Pitcairn rose from their seats and left the room, a very quick straw poll of the assembled group concluded that Ms Kuroshi had handled things very well and it was resolved to offer her a new contract with an associated regrading.