I know VERY few apostates who are mentally diseased. If the org can get away and GENERALIZE words about us, then I do not feel at all bad in the slightest about generalizing that the majority are window washers.
I know very few JW window washers and cleaners
by MC RubberMallet 60 Replies latest jw experiences
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Bungi Bill
snare&racket,
I know that this isn't directly related to the topic, but warrants a comment anyway.
In our part of the world (The South Pacific) and during the years leading up to 1975, we were even warned against learning a trade:
i.e. "Tying up five years of your life, when the system is almost finished."
That only left "career" options like commercial cleaning.
Following that debacle, I consider myself lucky to eventually qualify in one of the mal-aligned trades, namely, electrician:
- after having 40 years ago been ordered to abandon the Telecommunications Technician apprenticeship that I started out in.
Over the years, one of the tests I have had to carry out on Primary High Voltage Plant is the "Hot Collar" test - and I do continue to get rather hot under the collar when I hear them trying to dictate their career choices on their young people!
Bill.
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Amelia Ashton
We had lots of window cleaners in our congregation and the next most common profession was Postman!
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dozy
I certainly wouldn't knock window cleaning as a job - occasionally I would help out a JW on my day off & found it hard work.
There always seemed to be 2 classes of window cleaner in my experience. The one who took it really seriously , invested in a lot of equipment including the vans that sprayed de-ionised water at windows and had a lot of commercial contracts , often employing other JWs. One guy I knew started as a one man business as a teenager & built up his business , eventually he diversified into cleaning ATMS & got contracts to clean all the Link ATM machines in the UK - literally tens of thousands of them. He employed an army of people ( often pioneers ). Last I heard he had sold up & retired with the proceeds - probably lying on a beach in Barbados as we speak.
Then there were the ones who just messed about on a part time basis- did it for cash ( often not declared to the taxman ) & were usually to be found still in bed at noon & playing computer games or just chilling around town. They sometimes would go out on the ministry mid-week so that helped their "spiritual progress". One brother I know works the minimum 16 hour a week so he can get all his state benefits & volunteers at Hayes Bridge assembly hall in London a couple of days a week on the ongoing rebuilding work there.
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Leolaia
This isn't some apostate generalization; it was kind of an in-joke in my congregation about that profession. I don't think it was meant to be taken entirely seriously, of course its an exaggeration, but there was kind of a point to it for it to have its humorous effect. I remember well-off brothers with well-paying jobs joking about being window washers. So it was clearly a "meme" within the JWs, going back to the 70s. I heard that window washing thing for years and years.....from other JWs.
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nugget
I was a JW window washer and worked with 3 other JW window washers and in the same congregation knew another 6. There were a lot of us about. In that particular congregation jhanatorial services and window washing were the most common occupations. There are other congregations with fewer cleaners and fixed glass maintenance specialists but I have always know there to be a few.
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fresia
nearly half the brothers I know are window cleaners, working for brothers that are window cleaners, very rare an elder is a window cleaner, most seem to have their own buisness work for themselves, have mortages, or own their own home.
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fresia
nearly half the brothers I know are window cleaners, working for brothers that are window cleaners, very rare an elder is a window cleaner, most seem to have their own buisness work for themselves, have mortages, or own their own home.
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Broken Promises
In inner-city Sydney there were a large proportion of window cleaners and general cleaners in the congregation, compared to other congregations I'd known.
They tried to talk me into doing it, but as a single adult female I didn't see the point of giving up a good paying office job to work long hours in all types of weather, with no holiday or sick pay.
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keyser soze
Not every JW I knew did cleaning work. But most of the ones I knew who pioneered did. My oldest brother, and both of my sisters are regular pioneers who sustain themselves this way. I did too, when I auxiliary pioneered. It's work that was easy to get, and you could, for the most part, set your own hours. My sister, and brother-in-law, do quite well financially in their business.