@Vidgun - Well, I guess that makes me a girl's man :/ because I am very empathetic, but I agree with you guys, there didn't seem to be much empathy in the cong.
@sabastious well, he was very happy, but not very sensitive, seemed to have few emotions, and just lived in his little world of whatever the Watchtower said he should think, and that was exactly how he would see things - he didn't seem to be able, or perhaps willing, to look 'outside of the box'.
I don't think it was his fault; it's what the Watchtower does to you - it stops you thinking for yourself. Met him again when I was an adult, and I noticed that he can be a very cold in dealing with people, sticking to what the Watchtower/DO etc. says, blind to peoples' feelings.
He was fun, constantly cracking jokes, even doing practical jokes, but he seemed to have no idea where to draw a limit, often with little regard for the feelings of the 'victim' - he did offend a few, so a bit selfish, but if someone just spends everyday banging doors, well, it's going to affect you - we know!
He was a bit surpised when we kids played a practical joke on him at a meeting; won't say what because I'm sure many remember, and it might give away who I am and I want to keep contact with my family. Fortunately, the CO thought it was funny, but some elders still look down on me for it.
Yes, I agree - I wouldn't say the circuit overseer job is exactly mentally-challenging. Just lots of paperwork; forms, etc.. I have been 'groomed' at times by MTS brothers, and encouraged to 'reach out' by many elders, have appointed men in the family, family in Bethel, met many missionaries, but despite all this talk of hard work, and things being so difficult, what I noticed is that a lot of things are really hyped up.
The job of the secretary is time-consuming, and tedious, downright boring, hence no elder really wants it other than to be on the Service Committee, but not exactly difficult. The jobs of CoBE and service overseer seem to be the most aspired to, and well, they are clearly highest positions of leadership in a Kingdumb Hell, but actually require little work.
In one foreign-language group, which had a serious shortage of appointed men, I was looking after territory, but the service overseer didn't get involved in the foreign ministry. I was assigned various tasks he would do. It wasn't that difficult. I had to make sure the maps were together (well, I was also doing territory anyway), work with those that struggled on the ministry (big deal if you are a pioneer! got to do those hours somehow!), and have a schedule of ministry groups of which I conducted most of them. I did some shepherding with another pioneer, because we were the only 'spiritually strong' ones who knew the lingo.
Ok, there are a few more things, such as make sure the literature and magazines were being ordered for the ministry, in line with offers for the month, etc., but we had no servants in our group, so I just did these myself. It's time-consuming, but it's not 'rocket science'.
It really used to annoy me when if I asked an elder what I had to do to reach out to be one, he would say to wait for a while, to gain experience, to be ready, that they would train me in time, and I would be thinking, I'm doing it already, just without the title! It seemed to me that they were protecting their positions. Too much about power.
I just read the pages in the Organized book, that little green one, and also some Kingdom Ministry articles and did what they said. I then started to notice that most service overseers like to give the impression they are amazing, but don't seem to be sure what they are doing, bumbling along, disorganised, often not doing parts of their assignments, and found it even harder to look up to them.
There was more politics than work; I think the difficult was putting up with all the stress. After that, I didn't see the elders as so hard-working; well some were working hard to provide for their family, and being an elder really was trying to do too much, perhaps proud.