NN said:
stay in the Kiddies' Wading Pool as provided by the Faithful and Discreet Slave.
Wait till I dig up my notes. One of the suggested projects was actually proving to ourselves that God is using a "slave class" on earth.
Analysis of a Time Consuming System: Shocking Numbers about JWs
by drew sagan 52 Replies latest jw friends
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Tristram
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M.J.
this bascially works out to a full 51.8 full 16 hour days of activity per year
or, 103.6 eight hour "workdays", or 20.7 forty hour workweeks per year.
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under_believer
Nice thread, Drew.
I'd like to partially confirm Terry's comment, too: Think if those hours were spent on something productive that would actually enhance Jehovah's Witnesses standing. Think, for example, if every Witness devoted that much time to some imaginary Witness-run charity, can you imagine how much good could be done in this world? For that matter, imagine if the Witnesess actually had a marketable message and had efficient, modern, non-early-20th-century methods of spreading it!
In reality, all that time is just pointless busy work. One of the reasons I think Witness depression is so common is that most of them realize that it's all a huge waste of time, just spinning wheels to keep anybody from thinking. -
SirNose586
Nice calculations. Let's see what differences I've got. I think they will be in prep and surround time.
Weekly Meetings
School and Service: 1.75 hours (mine runs from 7-8:45)
P. Talk and Study: 2 hours
Bookstudy: 1 hour
Field service: 15 min. (my average is 3 times a month)
Required Meetings: 4.75 * 52 = 247 hours per year
F. Service Meetings: 15min. * 3 per month * 12 months = 9 hours per year
Weekly Study Prep for Meetings
Family Watchtower study: 1 hour (conservative)
School and Service prep: 5 minutes
Book study: .5 hour
Field Service prep: 15 minutes
Study Prep per year: 95.16 hours, or 95 hours and 10 minutes
Weekly Surround Time for Meetings
Sunday and Thursday meetings
Getting ready at home: 25 minutes (conservative)
Travel to hall: 10 minutes
Time before meeting: 12.5 minutes (average estimate)
Time after meeting: 25 minutes
Driving back home: 10 minutes
For Book studies, travel both ways is 3 minutes and time before and after is reduced to 5 minutes each.
Surround time for Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday per year: 3.43 hours per week * 52 weeks = 178.36 hours per year
Monthly Field Service
4 hours per month (average)
Last year I auxed in December and got a legit 52 hours. So for last year 44 regular hours plus 52 aux = 96 hours in 2005.
Field Service Surround Time
Getting ready at home: .5 hour
Travel to F.S. house: 10 minutes
Chatty time (before we leave): 10 minutes (average)
Break time: 15 minutes
Taking people back to their cars: 10 minutes
Back home: 10 minutes
1.42 hours per fs meeting * 3 per month * 12 months a year = 51 hours per year
Special Yearly Activities
I will keep Drew's calculations. 47 hours per year.
Special Y.A. Travel
S.A.D. travel: 45 minutes
S.A.D. travel home: 1 hour (extra for dropping off people in carpool)
S.A.W. travel and return both days: 3.5 hours
District Convention travel: 15 minutes
D.C. Return: 1 hour (for traffic). So 3.75 hours for all three days.
Yearly Special activity travel: 9.25 hours
Study prep time is all the reading I do of the publications. I don't read yearbooks. Family Study of magazine is all the magazine reading I do, aside from F.S. study prep. Daily text is 3 times per month, for 5 minutes each time, so that is 3 hours per year. (15 min. * 12 months = 180 minutes)
I will include Book Study conducting prep. I've filled in 3 times so far. I imagine it will be 15 fill-ins per year. Book study conducting prep takes at least 4 hours. So I will add 60 hours per year.
The Grand Total
Required and F.S. Meeting time: 256 hours
Study prep for all meetings: 95.16 hours
Yearly surround time for meetings: 178.36 hours
Actual F.S. time: 96 hours in 2005
F.S. surround time: 51 hours
Special yearly activities: 47 hours
Special yearly travel: 9.25 hours
Daily text: 3 hours
Conducting prep: 60 hours
SIRNOSE'S TOTAL TIME IN ORG SERVICE PER YEAR: 795.77
Pretty close... -
parakeet
"For My yoke is easy, and My load is light."
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Seeker4
Nice job, Drew. I also was noting that that is over 100 normal working days, and I agree that you were conservative.
I was thinking of this very thing this past Sunday morning. Lori and I were on a long run in the woods - for us at least, about 50 minutes. I was thinking how good it felt, how great to be surrounded by the woods, running along a river, seeing wild animals, the sun, the great clean air. It's a good experience, physically and spiritually, ande even soically, running those trails with someone you love.
In the middle of the run, as I was enjoying all these things, I thought of how guilty I would have been doing that run when I was a Witness. As a Witness, my Sunday would have been getting dressed by 9, at the kingdome Hall by 9:30, meeting from 10 to noon, taking care of responsibilities until 1. That meeting would have eaten up at least 4 hours of my day. And that was every Sunday for decades.
But last Sunday, I was up and drinking coffee on the deck, enjoying the great view by 9, in the woods and running by 9:30 and hitting the shower by 10:30 or so - feeling better in many ways than I ever did as a JW.
What a huge amount of "keeping busy" time is spent as a JW. I think about this often. The h to h ministry in particular is just such a huge waste of time and energy.
Thanks for reminding us of how much we have now that we didn't have then.
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willyloman
It's works out to almost 16 hours per week!
God, no wonder dubs are all worn out!
Your post is perceptive. We did this exercise once and concluded that we put in about 20 hours as week for nearly 30 years, the equivalent of working another half-time job (in addition to 40-50 hours a week spent on "secular" work).
I can see now we were waaaay low in our estimates. Counting down through your list I would easily double many of your line item estimates. The numbers are even worse when you are an elder because, unlike a lot of dubs you probably really are spending all that study and prep time plus shepherding calls, talk preparations, and answering those "short elder's meeting" calls after the Thursday night meeting. And mothers caring for children can probably double or triple your "surround time" estimates. Looking back, I don't know how we did it.
I second the motion of the poster who pointed out that had we spent this time productively, the world would be a better place.
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SirNose586
"Keeping busy" is often encouraged. If you follow what they say to the letter, you will have no time for TV or internet or anything else you want to do. That's why people can "simplify" their lives--because soon they have no life outside of the Org. Next thing you know, they've got you listening to magazines on tape, trudging out into FS everyday, studying in your "free time" until late in the night (one recent picture has a "loving elder" studying at 11 pm), and preparing for and attending those meetings. They would like everyone on a non-stop WTS mind control binge.
Pyramid schemes do the same. -
drew sagan
Filling in the chart to see how much time you spent! What a good idea. The numbers I supplied really wern't based on my own expierance, instead they where based on low estimates of what I guessed the averages would be.
What's was your total JW time spent per year? Any takes? -
truthsetsonefree
I deeply believe that this is one of the strongest indictments against the WT. What could people be doing with this time? Taking care of their health? Drawing closer to their families? Reading the Bible? Whatever it is, it is fair to say that they are killing those who follow their policies. Literally. And particularly for those who don't understand the doctrines, this may be the very thing that will turn them against the WT.