What Message is the GB Giving Mature Ones at Bethel With a Massive Lay Off?

by frankiespeakin 40 Replies latest jw friends

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  luna2

  zagor said: Every other normal company would rather keep proven long term employees

  Actually, a lot of companies have NO problem getting rid of their older workers. They have to be careful about it or they'll get sued for trying to screw people out of some of their pension or whatever, but they still try. Its all about the money and older workers, in general, cost them more. More in pensions, health care, and higher wages. The Watchtower Bible and Crap corporation is the same...money is king. They are more fortunate, though, in that they don't have to follow the same rules as "normal" companies, being a non-profit, so they can spew some bullsh!t to their brainwashed slave-class about the great honor they are doing them by making them leave the place they've called home for decades to go preach the word while kicking their costly, old butts out onto the sidewalk. Praise Jah!
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  greendawn

  JW facts are you sure about that? The Bethel boys prefer field service to working at HQ? They lose lodging, food, and pocket money and their accustomed environment and way of life.
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  jgnat

  zagor: Every other normal company would rather keep proven long term employees...

  On the contrary. This kind of cost cutting was very popular in the eighties. I've survived several downsizing attempts in my twenty year career. The difference with secular downsizers is that they will "sweeten the pot" by offering a generous severance package. My dad (different company) took the "golden handshake" at 55, much to his benefit by the way. The smart companies will also offer exit and career counsellors to help these people get back on their feet.

  This sort of downsizing is losing it's popularity. Corporations realized too late they just waved goodbye to their corporate memory, and there are few left behind who know how things are run.

  So the WTBTS imitates the worst of corporate America without offering any of the benefits. I say, more power to them. They are signing off their own demise.
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  uwishufish

  Good point jgnat.
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  Honesty

  Interesting that you should ask because I was just about to start a topic on the same subject.

  I found this on a pro-JW board and it appears the deluded dubs of Doofville are being spoonfed another load of manure disguised as a 'spiritually uplifting banquet.'

  Do you feel it? Lately it seems to me that we are gearing up for one last push before the end. Jehovah is "speeding it up" in its due time. Some people seem to be responding to the message more rapidly now. One of the brothers at our meeting tonight (when we read the branch letter,) that in one of our publications (9/98 KM) awhile back they had a point that "within the last 3 years" we have added a million newly baptized ones. Of course it hasn't been 3 years ago from today, it was three years ago from several years back (1998).
  
  I asked him about this after the meeting and he had some very interesting things to say about congregations, and maturity and how most of the congregations aren't like ours. We have some very stabilizing people within our congregation because we have some people who have been in the truth for decades and decades. (He mentioned that we have "9 elders, and 18 regular pioneers". I was surprised there were so many. He also said that in some places there is like ONE elder and him old and about to die).
  
  But his point was that many congregations in other places don't have that. That nearly everyone within them is new or fairly new. That can make for some weaker and less stable congregations. His point was that he thought the sending out of many of the more mature Bethelites into some areas was to help with that situation. Create some stabilizing effects elsewhere.
  
  Interesting idea. He said that he thinks the brothers are "gearing us up" for the end. Seems like it. All these new campaigns lately. And other changes that are happening. We live in exciting times. I really think we may be in the final push to find those Jehovah will show mercy upon. Not much time left.
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  blondie

  The Bethel schedule for men consists of working 3 out of 4 Saturday mornings; when then turn 50 they get 1 more Saturday morning off. This makes supporting Saturday morning field service difficult. If they have to travel any distance to their congregation, that makes afternoon service difficult too. Women get 2 off until they turn 30, then it is 3, then at 40 they get all Saturdays off. You can see how this impacts on married couples. Does a wife go in field service on the Saturdays she is off but hubbie has to work? Especially if she has to travel some distance and go by herself?

  Except for a few diehards, many Bethelites opt of most door to door. To stay regular many go out after the Sunday meetings for an hour before traveling home. I have known a few Bethelites who came home after a long stint in Bethel. It was an adjust to finding a secular job, finding loding, shopping in a food market, etc., especially if they had been then since they were 19. I don't think many will relish door to door much either.

  Blondie
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  Mary

  frankiespeakin said: Tax Free Corparation is all that we are, not some sort of "True Religion" that looks after widows and orphans in thier tribulation.

  I think that just about sums it up. If the layoffs have nothing to do with the Almighty Dollar, then why don't they just let these Bethelites continue to live at Bethel, where their food, clothing, shelter and medical expenses are paid for, while going out to their local territories and pioneer?

  zagor said: Every other normal company would rather keep proven long term employees who demonstrated commitment to the company over the years, only WTBS kicks their ass even more.

  No necessarily. As it's already been mentioned, corporations in the business world generally have no qualms about laying people off after 20, 30 or 40 years. The difference is: these companies don't claim to be the sole channel of communication with the Supreme Being of the Universe, and they generally at least give you a bit of a severance package.

  jwfacts said: Generally Bethelites preferred preaching to the factory work, so if the WTS says efficiences mean they can go back to the field they would not see anything unusual about it.

  I doubt that they prefer knocking on doors to their work. Even if they did, that's not going to provide the necessities of life to the poor buggers. That's the real kicker. It's expensive to live out in the real world and many of these people have lived in a plastic bubble for so long, they haven't a clue how to even proceed. Some of them may have never even filled out a job application. Not that the GB gives a damn.

  Do you feel it? Lately it seems to me that we are gearing up for one last push before the end. Jehovah is "speeding it up" in its due time. Some people seem to be responding to the message more rapidly now. One of the brothers at our meeting tonight (when we read the branch letter,) that in one of our publications (9/98 KM) awhile back they had a point that "within the last 3 years" we have added a million newly baptized ones. Of course it hasn't been 3 years ago from today, it was three years ago from several years back (1998).
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  Gerard

  That is what all money-making corporations do: Automatize equipment, stop duplication and downsize.
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  sspo

  At least with corporation you get severance pay, like Ford Motor com. right now in the news.

  If you have 20 years of service and they let you go, you could get $70-80 thousand in your pocket.

  How much are the bethelite getting after decades of work? A kick in the ass and being told that we need to move forward with God's heavenly chariot.
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  Honesty

  IT's 1975, again:

  Oh, xxxxx ? I SO agree with you! You know what I found to be of such great interest? The way the 1974 Divine Purpose District Assembly parallels (on a few levels) the Deliverance Is At Hand assembly of this year. A headline in the Milwaukee Journal (back in 1974) read ?The End is Near, Witnesses say.? The article noted ?there is a feeling of urgency . . .? The drama emphasized that we should listen only to proper authority. It was based upon 1 Kings Chapter 13. Sound familiar?
  
  Indeed, I feel it. There is something ? something in the air. It is exciting. It is ominous. It is . . . deliverance. And it is glory for the true God! Sanctification of his name and vindication of his universal sovereignty!
  
  I had no idea that ? as you pointed out -there are many congregations composed of those who are fairly new ? from publisher to elder. I believe too that we are in the final push. I also believe that the final pruning is occurring within the congregations, xxxxx. Do you know what I mean? In this connection, I found the article Take Care of This Vine in the June 15, 2006 issue of the Watchtower particularly applicable, especially the last seven paragraphs in the article. It mentioned that the vine goes through a few prunings a year ? one of them severe (John 15:6) - and even perhaps a later pruning (John 15:2). WE are in the harvest time, yet we are also in the ?year of goodwill? on the part of Jehovah. So I am with you . . . the indication is strong that we are so far along in the stream of time that there is not much time left. And it is by all means exciting!

  This is from the same pro-JW board and topic earlier popsted on this thread.

  Poor dubs don't even have a clue that the 1974 Divine Purpose District Assembly is the reason so many JW's bailed out of the Watchtower ship of fools in the aftermath of their False Prophecy.