by Lost-In-Translation 40 Replies latest jw friends
A letter was read at tonight's meeting announcing that the Governing Body has decided to stop work on Saturdays at all Bethels worldwide. Bethel workers are encouraged to now spend Saturdays with their local congregation in field service. The new arrangement goes into effect June, 2009.
What do you think are the motives for such a change?
Hmmmm, maybe boost morale. No can't be that. Maybe this is the first step to kicking them to the curb.
Motives? Obviously the Governing Body has recognized that more time needs to be devoted to the field ministry, especially on the part of those serving at Bethel. No doubt their example will impel others to follow their example and have a greater share in the ministry each Saturday, especially as we recognize just how close we are to the end!
But seriously.... somewhere, in some jursidiction, there has been, or will be, a change in how "volunteer" workers in religous organizations are viewed re employees, deserving of minimum wages, or overtime pay, something like that. Every thing they do nowadays is driven by how it will affect them legally/financially. Just ask the Bethelites at the Spanish Branch.
No Apologies
I think they've significantly reduced the amount of literature being produced just with all the changes that have been made in the last few years - 1 awake per month instead of 2, 1 big run of WTs and 1 much smaller members only WT, less reprints of books for the book study since the books are covered much slowly now due to the change in the meetings.
There's really no reason to make those volunteers work the extra 4 hours. I wonder if they aren't going to eliminate one of the magazines. I think the next to go would be the public WT. They could just produce Awake at 1 issue to offer to the public and have the WT as a members only rag.
Next up will be tract campaigns increasing that will take the place of any book campaigns. I honestly don't pay attention to the offers of the month any longer but next time I pick up a KM, I'll take note of what those offers are. It used to almost always be a book, but that could easily change.
It's all about saving money and utilizing assets most efficiently. I agree with loosie that more layoffs must be in the works.
This was rumored the other day on JWN. Interesting confirmation.
The reason the letter gives for this change is, as you might have guessed, so that Bethelites can spend more time in field service. Of course, I cannot see how anyone can possibly believe that this is the only reason.
At first I thought that it must be getting too expensive to keep Bethel up and running six days a week, though it seems just as likely that this could be tied to concerns over the situation in Spain.
The letter also mentioned that the Bethel switchboard will be closed for the entire day on Saturday. Will Bethelites still be able to make and receive calls if the switchboard is off?
There will be no more tours on Saturdays either, so everyone had better start saving up their vacation days.
jabberwock
Let's not forget the obvious: It's a cost cutting move. I was wondering what took them so long. I guess they finally realized that from a printing standpoint they get more bang out of modern technology and for non-printing operations...well it's an open secret that many Bethelites don't do much on that half day anyway. At least not the ones I knew and worked with.
Will Bethelites still be able to make and receive calls if the switchboard is off?
Yes. They each have direct numbers.
Not sure if this is true or recalled correctly but apparently Bethel did not always work on Saturdays. Alledgedly in the 60's(?) a group of Bethelites were in a car accident causing serious injury/death, which prompted Saturday work. I do not really buy this, as when I was there we hit the road at quitting time and just drove faster to make up lost time... Another reason I heard that is more plausible was for tour groups. Towards the end of my time there they did allow you to have one Saturday a month off, which seemed that most took off the last Saturday every month, which made it pretty unproductive.
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