by beavis 49 Replies latest jw friends
Not sure if anyone heard this either, but supposedly those that are staying at Bethel, have "worldly education", whether it be a degree, lawyers, doctors, nurses, you know the drill. But this goes contrary to the recent "educational"studies put out in the Watchtower. I thought wordly education was refuse and not needed. The right way, the wrong way, and then the Bethel way is what we were always told. So many contradictions, I think I need to vomit now.
so many contradictions indeed...
I guess the market for cleaning personel will soon be inundated in the US. Seriously though, this is totally unloving for them to do this to people who, as was already mentioned, gave up their prime working years to slave for a lie. I am so glad I was outta there while relatively young.
So it seems that the news is hitting the congregations as the ones asked to leave start to scout around for jobs and homes. It will be interesting to see how the collective witness community reacts to this information.
Perhaps this downsizing is in direct relation to the potential new light that we may see.
Don't feel too sorry for those asked to leave Bethel. Many of them will land on their feet nicely, simply because of the "currency" that having been at Bethel give them when they settle in a congregation somewhere.
Two missionaries and a CO and his wife left the "work" because their spouses had health problems They gravitated to a congo where they had family or old friends and soon had jobs or were involved in business, thanks to their family or personal contacts or in many cases simply because they were revered by the local dubs who then went out of their way to connect them to some gainful employment.
The CO started a subcontracting business with other members of his family, opened a showroom that was run by the missionary, and eventually hired and trained half the pioneers in the congo to do installations. For many years, they have been making money hand over fist in a booming economy in a location where home-building has exploded. These are people who pioneered right out of high school and were at Bethel or in the special pioneer work by the time they were in their late teens or early 20's. Most had no marketable skills except for one member of the family who had learned the building trade from his contractor father-in-law. But the CO experience paid off. The guy is a natural salesman. Both men are elders, held in high esteem in the circuit, and pretty much own the circuit assembly with respect to chairing the event and presenting talks.
I agree with Willyloman, they usually do fine. Also, family members usually give them money to get on their feet as well.
As for "worldly education", I remember specifically that one of the bethel meeting's I attended (you know the one during the assembly that they say 'hey if you want to go to bethel there is a meeting in the clubhouse, so be there at 12:30') and they essentially said, unless you are a guy from this age to this age or you are a woman who is a professional (i.e., lawyer, doctor, nurse, etc.) if you are a chick we don't wan' cha. So even 20 years ago, they did not say that if you were educated you were evil. What they were saying was, we need to bring in educated people because we don't encourge our own to become educated.
And as an interesting side note - there was a study that came out years and years ago that said the most educated religious group were LDS and the least were ... you got it JWs. They could have saved money on that study, because ex-Jws could have told them that!
So I just got off the phone with my mom, who had just returned from her yearly mecca to the WTBTS various compounds in NY and NJ. Anyways, she called to tell me about the whole "pink slip" thing. She was mortified. She said that when the 20 year old kid was giving them the tour and telling them how loving it was for the WTBTS to send out special pioneers to areas where the need was great, she said out loud "your too young to understand this kid, but these people thought they were going to be lifers and now they are getting kicked to the curb. it is the same as working for a company for 25 years and then being told - sorry no retirement plan for you because we are too cheap to pay you what you deserve." She stopped talking when there was an audible gasp from the group. She said she thought they were going to lynch her.
So after the tour was over she said to the group she went with that she thought it was evil for the WTBTS to pull a stunt like that and that the higher ups should be ousted first so they could see what it was like. Her friends are use to her, so they did not say anything but merely changed the subject.
She said it was her guess is that there was going to be a lot of bad blood over this, especially for the Baby Boomers that right now are always terrified that they are going to get "pink slips" at any given point in time. This is a very personal thing. She did say that after a couple of days a few of her friends (that are her age ... around early 60's) did say to her privately that they thought it was a bad move that it was big corp. v. little man, considering many of these people came in young with no training and are leaving middle aged and still have no training other then being grunts at Bethel. Interesting to see how this plays out.
Pick fruit
Or own their own cleaning business (which translates into having three or four cleaning jobs but calling it a business)
I'm a newbie here and an Atheist, but have a wife and four kids fanatical JWs. Last Fall I toured the facilities at Paterson and the Farm with the family. Was very inpressed with the printing facilities. However the talk at that time there was about the Brooklyn staff and what they did if anything. I'm not sure if it has already been mentioned on this thread but could the layoff be mostly at Brooklyn because all the printing is being done at the Farm? I'm a little curious about it and why it's happening if true.
mckay
According to my mother who just returned, she was at all the facilities, they told the group that the "reassigning" was going to be across the board because with all the new technology manual labor was not as necessary as before. How that translates between all the various facilities, I don't know. What is interesting is that they are not letting the new people go (you know the whole last one in first one out thing) but rather the older ones.
My mother's theory was that it was because these people really believed that they were going to be lifers there and thought the new system was going to come, but it looks like it ain't happening any time soon. The WTBTS realized that they might be responsible for these people as they age and the cost for keeping them v. the labor they would get out of them was not in equal value. So they are reassigning them to areas where the "need is great". Keep in mind this usually means that the reason the need is great is because there is no work to be had and these faithful ones are being tossed out before it becomes too costly for the WTBTS.
