by joelbear 17 Replies latest jw friends
Think about it.
You have to be interviewed (baptismal prep questions)
You have to enter a contract (the two baptismal questions)
Everyone has a job description and job requirements (ministerial servants, elders, CO, PO, pioneer, publisher)
You can be written up for poor performance.
You can be fired.
Thats why for so many people of faith it has proven to be a great disappointment and for some a harrowing experience.
Joel
Too true joelbear.
Also you have to fill a timesheet (Field Service Report), which you have to fill in to get your spiritual credits. And then you have an Annual Performance Appraisal (Shepherding Call), where you are told how well you are doing, and if necessary why you haven't had that promotion you've been hoping for.
yes,
and you have your sales quotas and sales meetings, so you can improve your selling skills. got your sales territory which you should cover on a regular basis, are encouraged to develope a list of regular customers to call on frequently
Yes, and the bottom line tactic, used against miscreants is the 'hostage technique'. The renegade looses all access to previous fellow company reps, notwithstanding that they may be siblings, spouses, or lifelong friends.
Perhaps new laws are needed that would apply to businesses masquerading as religions.
SS
Yeah, worst of all is that when you get fired, you aren't allowed to speak to anyone else who is still working for the COMPANY.
That's what sets them "apart from the world"!
"Until they become conscious, they will never rebel. Until they rebel, they will never become conscious." - George Orwell
No wages for the R+F or redundancy.
ISP
The pay sucks though! So many are now going for other interviews and getting better jobs now!
Beans
Thanks, Joel - this is a good subject (hope you feel better today)
Some local jw's used to kid quietly that when in Service, we were "selling" - we just weren't charging for the product.
Same tactics, anybody in sales will recognize them. Eye contact, remember names, make sure they see pretty pictures, compliment them on something "good lookin' grass you have growin' Mr. Green."
Now, it's truer than ever, the local jw's supposed to PAY for mags at the KH, then turn around and GIVE them away to householder....so that the WTBTS doesn't have to pay taxes. Like most companies - shaft anyone lower than you. And can't get any lower than some little old lady delivering mags on Saturday morning.
However, a couple of differences - my aunt was a Special Pioneer since age 16. She's now 85. No significant SS because she never really worked and no company retirement benefits - no pension plan. The local congregation doesn't look out for her (but they're nice at the KH.)
I would suspect there are at least a million of jw's who are in this predicament - maybe more, since a lot of children have left. The Baby Boomers will bulge this number probably more than double, perhaps triple. Little Social Security, little savings or IRA's, and no company retirement. Zip - and a life gone, all but the old age.
Damn! This is depressing!
waiting
Not only was I, from birth, and my father, mother, brothers and sisters, as Jehovah's Witnesses, employee's of the WTBTS Corporation with a deferred ‘income’ scheme payable only once one ‘snuffed it’, we were also, by far, the major consumer of its products because regardless of who's dusty shelf or trash can the WTBTS bi-monthly magazines and hard cover publications ended up in, the fact is, every nickel was 'donated' or paid in advance, using our own after-tax, cold-hard cash.
The final irony, now that over the years the WTBTS has reached a state of financial self-perpetual motion, there appears to be less of a corporate need for families such as ours for little else than retaining a sufficient number to be used to maintain the corporation IRS tax-free 'religious' status on revenue generation.
Flip
"It's not a religion - it's a floor wax - AND a breath freshener!"
