Bethel

by freedom96 9 Replies latest jw friends

  • freedom96
    freedom96

    What does a typical day consist of for a bethelite?

    What hours?

    Do they have any time off? Is there a curfew?

    Vacation time?

  • onacruse
    onacruse

    free, I know things have changed a bit, but when I was there (not totally sure about the times, but pretty close, I think):

    Up nlt than 6:30, last warning at 6:55 (building buzzers), breakfast table at 7:00, text and comments till 7:30, eat like a banshee and at work-station by 8:00 (factory guys hated it, since they had to walk quite a ways). Lunch (1/2 hour??) and work until 5:30. Then either KH meetings, or new boy talks, or Monday night Bethel WT study...or get drunk.

    1/2 day on Saturday. Sunday, get down to dining room and grab as much meat and cheese as you could carry back to your room; if lucky you had a little 1/2-size fridge. Oh, and of course, service and meetings (I had a 1.5 hour subway trip to North Bronx).

    After 1 full year, got on the roster for vacation (1 week??) and an annual clothing allowance ($120).

    No curfew (?); after hours access was by key to the gates.

    Ha! The memory fades...

    Craig

  • micheal
    micheal

    That's pretty much it in a nutshell just as Craig described. Only thing I can add was when I was there, there was 1 whole hour for lunch then worked until 5:00. And of course that dredded entry school which was Monday night after the wt study.

  • onacruse
    onacruse

    michael, now that you mention it, I do think it was a 1-hr lunch when I was there (1971-2). And I think since then they went to something like a three-Sats-on, one-Sat-off cycle for the bros, and no Sat work for the sisters? They've also upped the monthly allowance (from the $14 we got).

    Craig

  • micheal
    micheal

    That's right Craig on all accounts. That whole Saturday off wasn't even a Sat off, went out in service instead. And the allowance was $100/month in the early ninties.

  • Room 215
    Room 215

    My recollection of Bethel's work schedule was 8:00 a.m. to 5:40 p.m. weekdays and 8:00-12:00 Saturdays; once-a-month assignments included dish duty and reception duty.

  • rocketman
    rocketman

    Man, that's practically slave labor. That's one reason I never went. You work all those hours, then have the meetings and all that other stuff to do "spiritually".

  • shotgun
    shotgun

    What are you guys complaining about...a hundred bucks a month, free food, free rent, yearly clothing allowance, a rewarding job working for Jehover and up the butt sex if you get the right roommate.

    Then on weekends you could go down to the library Dave mentioned and have a seyonce.

  • Joyzabel
    Joyzabel

    When I was there the monthly allowance was $14 a month. Sheesh, who got $100???

    Entrance school was Monday and Wednesday night. (yak, yak, yak)

    Our congregation assignment was an hour away, one way, by either subway or car.

    I would remember us getting home from the meetings around 11:30pm and have to get back up the next morning @ 6:30am. We had one of those d*mn bells outside our room.

    Remember you had to walk down more than 5 flights or up more than 3 flights to be able to use the elevator?!

    Also th envy was people who had a bathroom in their room. Try getting sick with a community bathroom down the hall. *yuck*

    Oh but the view we had from our room was breathtaking! Does that counter all the negative??? (lol)

    j2bf

  • benext
    benext

    They've recently given the brothers a second Saturday a month off with the instructions that it be spent with the local cong. in FS.

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