TIME WILL TELL (Did you fake your hours in Field Service?)

by Terry 37 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Terry

  I know for certain that brothers in our congregation often lied about their time on field service reports. (Yes, we had to fill out quota reports back in the old days).

  One brother, Harry, would dump magazines in the storm drains! I watched him go up to people's houses and just stand at door after door without actually pushing the doorbell!

  Others claimed magazine placements they never made, bible studies that did not exist and time spent talking to other brothers and sisters as Field Service.

  This is not unlike businessmen who pad their expense accounts or politicians who use their office for perks like travel and vacation delights. Except, the poor idiot JW has no perks and must pay for everything on their own.

  I suspect that is why this problem (false reporting) is not made into a special focus of attention by the Governing Body:

  As long as the (pseudo)publisher is PAYING for the (so-called)literature; the money keeps rolling in. The money in hand is really the bottom line.

  Did you ever fake your hours or magazine placements just to get somebody off your back about it?

  How much fake witnessing goes on because of the pressure?

  How much of the Society's worldwide preaching figures are BOGUS?

  Terry
• 

  TweetieBird

  It's that time of month again. I figure I've spent at least 4 hours on this site, does that count?
• 

  IP_SEC

  I havent actually been out more than 2 hours since January. Damn work keeps coming up. But if I dont put 10 hours I'll get a talkin too by the elders, an that would probably do me in because I wouldnt be able to keep my mouth shut.
• 

  gumby

  This topic has been discussed here several times, but with all the new ones here, it will be intresting to see what they say.

  I was always honest with my hours even when an appointment to serve hinged on it. I always knew Jehovah knew the truth about my hours. I may have stretched a half hour to an hour a few times, but that was it.

  Gumby
• 

  IP_SEC

  Dammit gumby,

  Now you made me feel bad.

  ?cause I?m a liar, yeah, I?m a liar
  I?ll tear (rip) your mind up, I?ll burn your soul
  I?ll turn you into me, I?ll turn you into me
  ?cause I?m a liar, a liar, a liar, a liar...
  I am a liar, yeah, I am a liar, yeah, I am a liar
  I lie you, I feel good, I am a liar, yeah
  I lie x4 ooh, I lie, yeah, I lie
  I?m a liar, I lie, I like it, I feel good, I like it, and again
  I like it again and I?ll keep lying, I?ll promise
• 

  Chia

  Wow I'm impressed that you never lied. I lied all the time. Especially toward the end there. I know my book study conductor caught on too, because toward the end he'd say, "I lost your time. Can you turn it in again? Can I have your time for the last 6 months?" I'd say, "What? I don't have it! I don't know where it is!" He said, "Don't you keep track?" To which I replied, "Don't you?"

  But now I take great pleasure in letting them know I haven't been out in service in months. Not a single hour.
• 

  luna2

  Hmmmm....In the beginning, when I was still studying, but had progressed to going out in service, I didn't report any time at all. I'm not sure what the requirements are now, but when I went to discuss baptism with the elders, I was slapped on the wrist for not having turned time in and made to wait for a period of time before I was allowed to be baptised. Nobody had ever bothered to let me know that I should have been doing that as an unbaptised publisher. What's funny is that I was going out 20 to 25 hours a month (not working full-time yet), which is the most I've ever done on a regular basis in service.

  The first few years after baptism, I was meticulous about reporting time to the point of under-reporting because I'd rather err on the side of absolute honesty. There was allowable time that I could have reported I guess, but it seemed like "cheating" to me, so I didn't. Once I started working more, my hours dropped because I could only go out on weekends...and, really, Saturday service was a joke. We'd be out all morning, having gotten up at 7:30 in order to have breakfast, get dressed up in service clothes, prepare our presentations and get to the Hall by 9:00. The meeting for service would last anywhere from a half an hour (rare) to 45+ min., driving to the territory could take another 15 min. to half an hour, and then we'd usually take a McDonald's break which could easily last an hour. Some Saturdays we'd be out until noon and have less than an hour's worth of countable service time.

  After being pressured a couple of times by the elder I worked for, I started rounding my time up. I didn't lie, but I counted every scrap of time I could; informal witnessing, bible study with my kids (which I hadn't counted previously), dropping mags off at the laundromat to start my time...all the stuff I'd looked at as padding before.

  That couple of months in the beginning, where I counted no time at all, was the best time I ever had in service. Having to record everything and turn it in, and worry that it wasn't enough really sucked the joy out of it.
• 

  rebel8

  Well to tell my story again, briefly after high school I was enrolled as a regular pioneer. (I say "I was enrolled" rather than "I enrolled" because I was told I was to become a pio, it's not something I chose.)

  In the beginning, I'd fake my hours. I would only get maybe 20 hours in a month and I was supposed to do 90. After a while, I stopped lying and put the correct #, which dwindled each month. It got down to 5, then 0. I was wondering when I'd be kicked off the roles as a pio, but never was. They just kept calling me a pio. I finally told the copsElders that I would no longer be attending meetings. They asked if I wanted to pioneer anyways! Gimme a break. Must have been desperate to claim they had a pioneer in the cong. Then they demanded my pioneer ID card....I laughed. As if I was going to go around showing it to people.
• 

  tetrapod.sapien

  i lied about my service time for years, but kept track of it hoping to make it up to jah in the future. even when i was a regular pioneer, if i only had 67 hours, i would "round" it up to 70. what a joke.

  whew! now i can go hiking on saturday mornings instead!

  How much fake witnessing goes on because of the pressure?

  How much of the Society's worldwide preaching figures are BOGUS?

  personally, i think a lot.
• 

  tetrapod.sapien

  (I say "I was enrolled" rather than "I enrolled" because I was told I was to become a pio, it's not something I chose.)

  rebel8, same thing happened to me. i took it instead of my dads offer to fund me through university. i thought what a wonderful sacrifice i was making, and that YHVH would reward me greatly for it. and then i ended up getting depressed and faking my hours anyways!