The reporting of field service time

by lepermessiah 26 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  pirata

  MS' and Elder's typically need to meet or exceed the national average or congregation average (whichever is higher) to be considered for appointment. In some congregations in Asia all of the MS' & Elders pioneer, so you also have to be a pioneer in order to qualify. Rationale is that you need to set an example relative to your local congregation to be appointed.

  One elder I knew used to get his wife to go out in service for him at the end of the month so that he could fill out her hours on his report.
• 

  Simon Morley

  I always found this aspect troublesome - after all Jehovah reads hearts correct? See our motives? bock recommendations if somethingwas not right? I recall as a young elder that I stated that if Jehovah's holy spririt appoints MS & Elders that what part do we really play? If the spirit could controlled the entire universe then it would control who or who was not appointed and our comments would be irrelevant because we cannot see hearts. I was quickly put in place.

  I remember the discussions on potential recommendations coming down to appointing the bum washers without question and finding reasons to not recommend the others. If a brother had low hours that was the reason, when he brought his hours up - elders questioned when he was out to get such him hours - they imputed wrong motives - if the RV's and Mags were low they used that. They began establishing rules such as Aux Poineering at least once a year, if he was oyun why is he not a pioneer? I repeatedly stated that the requirements found in Timothy and Titus were not that restrictive - why should we?
• 

  dandingus

  I was a pioneer for years, and I can tell you that a lot of pioneers struggled to meet the quotas, myself included. I can honestly say that I never fudged my time, ever. But it certainly did put pressure on you. Because you knew if you missed a month the elders were definitely watching and would soon approach you about it under the guise of wanting to help you meet your pledged amount.

  Of course, I was what many would call an "uber" witness, so I was happy to "do more". I always liked talking to people and trying to show them how the bible could help them with their problems. Often I wouldn't even take literature to the door, just my bible. I was the exception here of course, since most publishers just focused on selling I mean placing literature.

  But I often felt that a lot of the time we were focusing on quantity rather than quality. We (I'm including myself here because I was guilty too at times) were so focused on meeting an hourly quota that half the time we were looking for "shortcuts". I know a lot of publishers and pioneers alike that loved to be in elder so-and-so's car group because he would do his own return visits all morning and they/we could just go along for the ride. It's sad really. We were supposed to be helping people. Or so I thought at the time...
• 

  JWoods

  One elder I knew used to get his wife to go out in service for him at the end of the month so that he could fill out her hours on his report.

  Well, I thought I had heard just about all there was to hear on JW elder hypocrisy - but that is really rare and special. This is better than making up his time --- HOW???

  So, what did he say to the CO when they asked why good wife was low on her hours some months?
• 

  dissed

  dandingus - On time fudging?

  I never really cheated either, but, when short, I thought nothing of streeettttcccchhhhiiing the way of counting time. Like hitting Laundrymats at 2 AM in the middle of the night, or not really necessary letter writing.

  Doing all for the sake of time reporting.
• 

  dandingus

  dissed - You got it. That's exactly what I was talking about.
• 

  Broken Promises

  I was so naïve. I never fudged my hours (until maybe the last couple of months I was in) and it never occurred to me that others were doing it. I may have suspected it, but I didn’t think it ever happened.
• 

  dgp

  Marked for reference.
• 

  garyneal

  These are good tips that I may be able to use to help my wife with her field serve-us hours. I don't condone the activity but anything that I can suggest to make her feel like she is adequately counting her time while being able to spend a little more time doing things with the family is indeed a good thing.

  Plenty of laundromats in our apartment complex. She can probably count at least an hour placing mags in each of them.

  I've seen mags placed at a Wal-mart store. So spend two hours grocery shopping and place a mag, count up to two hours for field serve-us depending on how honest you want to be.
• 

  babygirl30

  I have always thought it was sad that people (who claimed to be family) and KNOW that Jehovah can read their hearts - no matter how much or little they did - would count people as a NUMBER (time in service...amount of publications sold...number of rv's)! It has never made a bit of sense to me because it's so impersonal. Corporate America recognizes people as 'numbers' - they don't care what your name is, how old you are, where you live or your personal situation. ALL they care about is how much money you make them! The society seems to be the same way...it's not about WHO you are, it's about how many hours and placements!