Creative ways to pad your field service hours

by keyser soze 13 Replies latest jw experiences

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  keyser soze

  Did you have any? I was usually honest about my hours for the most part. But there was this one time....

  I was auxiliary pioneering back in April of 2000. That was also the month we had planned to go down to South Carolina to visit my brother, was living there at the time. The trip was the last week of the month. I was about 15 hours short. I was dreading having to make my hours down there. More to the point, I didn't want to spend every day of my vacation out in service. So I had a brainstorm.

  What if I could make my hours on the way down? My idea was that I would leave a tract, or old magazine, at the first place we stopped in Wisconsin. And then I would do the same at the last place we stopped, in South Carolina. I could count all the time in between, excluding stops for meals and gas. I did have scruples back then. I used the philosphy that our time started at the first place we stopped at, and ended at the last. It came to about 18 hours. I made my time for that month.
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  C. T. Russell

  You’re going to hell keyser
  
  I never padded my hours; I actually was counseled for “setting an unbalanced routine that could serve as a discouragement for others”. I was putting in about 160hrs a month.
  
  The worst thing I did from a JW perspective is that I started going out in field service without the Society’s publications. Just the Bible, NWT and KJV. I would make up the placement difference by dropping 50 old Watchtowers at the laundromat every once in a while.
  
  C. T.
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  jamiebowers

  I never padded my hours either. I didn't have to, because I couldn't wait to get out there and talk to people.
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  HintOfLime

  I actually was counseled for “setting an unbalanced routine that could serve as a discouragement for others”. I was putting in about 160hrs a month.

  I was counciled a few times while serving as a full-time pioneer. I worked my job 4 hours in the afternoon, and did service every morning, so I didn't actually need any hours on all weekends. So, I thought I'd take a day off on saturday to go on a long hike or something.

  Oh no. Oh no, no no no no. You see, it's very important that people see me pioneer. People other than the other pioneers. So, I was strongly encouraged to make every saturday, and if I wanted to take a day off... take a day off work durring the week, or move my schedule around. Gotta keep up those appearances.

  - Lime
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  WTWizard

  I never needed to pad my field circus hours--I simply refused to pio-sneer on the grounds that, if they were going to hound me about it, it would not count because I would be doing it solely for them.

  However, I would have some tricks to get my one lone hour per month (prior to 6/2005, after which I simply quit). I would sometimes take a walk along a street where there was obviously not going to be anyone, and pretend to offer the washtowels and asleeps. Of course, I had zero placements and still counted that as an hour of field circus. Or, we would drive across town on one call, stop at every red light, waste time hunting for the place, and the person is not home. Still, I would count that as an hour of field circus--and that would be all I did for field circus all month.
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  shamus100

  OH,

  The old drive from one end of the territory to the other. It cost money for petrol, but what the hell- better than knocking on doors we just knocked on three weeks before.
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  keyser soze

  The old drive from one end of the territory to the other.

  Exactly. I just took the concept to another level. And wasn't the whole world, technically, our territory?

  You’re going to hell keyser

  I've already been. It's called a kingdom hall.
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  rockmehardplace

  Once a month, my favorite is the one where we have a return visit in a far off territory (our territory covers an extensive area) and it takes a good half hour to just get there. but we know before we even leave, this woman will not be home. she never is on the weekends. so we drive out, knock on the door, leave a note to count the return visit, then stop for a bite to eat at this restaurant that has a wonderful brunch, and head back to town. by that time, we killed almost 2 hours of our 3 hour morning and we fill the rest with other "return visits"
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  Pandoras cat11

  When my husband became and elder and started giving the Sunday Talks, I found out that they get to count the time!!! The reasoning was that in the audience there were studies and that the "public was welcome" and therefore it was a public witness. As a female pioneer, I found that sexist. We were also told, by and elder, that the time you were on a "quick build kingdom hall" that could be counted as well. Yeah, right.
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  tim67

  i know i'm a bit late to the thread however ... we used to start counting time once the lead person prayed .. so after the sunday mtg we'd gather in the library .. pray .. start time .. setup groups .. go talk to others before they left the building .. eat lunch (sometimes mcdonalds sometimes a real resturant) ... travel to where ever .. knock on a door ... usually got 1 - 1.5 hours free time that way ... also coffee breaks / lunch breaks were counted

  there were also many times that i just put down 4 hours for the month when i did nothing just to make it look good and keep elders off my back