Are there more Bethel layoffs in the immediate future?

by LongHairGal 34 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Funky

  When they "reassigned" the bethel workers to the field did they continue to provide their health insurance?

  For a "lucky" few, yes they did. If they were reassigned as special pioneers, they were still in the "special order" and thus kept their health coverage.

  Not all were reassigned as SPs of course. If reassigned as a lowly regular pioneer, they were 100% fully cut off from any and all Bethel support.

  I think in general, the more Bethel seniority you had, the better your chances of being appointed as a SP. All the Bethelites in my orbit who were kicked out in the past 10 or so years were all in their 40s / 50s and had been there 20+ years - and all were SPs.

  Not that being a SP puts you in a financially secure position - not even close. But at least they did get a little money every month and health care and reimbursement for some expenses such as gasoline.

  I imagine if there are to be more layoffs, it will be something similar. Folks in their 50s, and/or those with 20-30 years of service or more, would get first crack at the (probably limited) number of SP slots the WTS will create.
  
  
• 

  lssjr

  Some of us did everything right. We followed the rules to the letter and at the end of it all, we had absolutely nothing to show for following the "Bible".

  Most Jehovah's Witnesses unfortunately do not value a backup plan, a contingency, for situations (disfellowship, fading, loss of religious privileges) in which things go south or sideways.
  
• 

  LongHairGal

  ISSJR:

  When you say you did everything ‘right’ you are referring to what you were told to do by the JW religion, am I right?

  The problem is that for people such as myself who were not raised in the religion - what the religion did was certainly not ‘right’ according to what intelligent people in real life would do. I am referring to them not believing in saving for the future, knocking college, retirement planning, etc. No backup plan for them! I always thought this was weird and I am so glad I never paid attention to foolish talk and kept my business to myself.

  In fact, doesn’t the Bible refer to the lowly ant in Proverbs 30:25 which stores up for itself?.. So, not only are they not sensible, they aren’t even following the Bible they brag about so much!
• 

  Faded4good

  Eventually bethel will consist of the governing body, and the few staffers necessary to support them and nothing more; everyone else will be sent packing. They can't afford to have all of those people around anymore. Also, over time, many branch offices may close around the world. If they had to the WTBTS could easily administer everything from Warwick, NY and let foreign congregations fend for themselves. I suspect that the Australian branch will close when the borg losses it's tax-exempt status in that country.
• 

  GrreatTeacher

  A solid prediction.
• 

  Overrated

  Faded4good- I would love to see that prediction happen in the USA We have enough clowns on tv.
• 

  JWTom

  Thanks for the tip that this was out there. Likely some changes are coming....exactly what is hard to say from anything in the meeting workbooks.
  

  I was at Bethel during the first real "layoffs" in the 90s. These work in fairly predictable ways: 1) Over 50 and <10 years bethel service typically end up with as SPs as mentioned; 2) Under 50 and >10 years bethel service were given like 1-3 months to make plans to leave, get a job, etc. Of course there were lots of exceptions to the above but that was a general theme. The "dead wood" was at the top of the list regardless of age/seniority and also people with consistent/chronic health problems.

  During this time there was a younger couple (40ish) with professional skills that filed a lawsuit related to being dismissed after 10 years of being at Bethel. They won a judgement of $175,000 related to their case that the "Living Together in Unity Bethel Manual" basically says "come here and make a career of being at Bethel", "stay forever, make this your home forever", etc, etc. And in the 90s it did say that. The couple alleged they did what was encouraged and after many years devoting their professional skills to Bethel they were being booted or something to that effect. Most Bethelites that are getting booted do not have the balls or resources to do something like this - but it was a legitimate complaint especially if you had valuable skills and were thinking you could stay at Bethel forever.

  Fortunately my wife and I left on our own terms after less than 10 years. We did not need help getting back into the job world or making money. However, this discussion is a cautionary tale on what the JW.org will do to you after it has decided you are no longer needed.
  
• 

  Faded4good

  I wonder how many (or how few) bethelites are truly necessary for the operation.
• 

  JWTom

  Faded4good:

  When I was there (1990s), there was so much fat related to people resources it was shocking. I came from working for a big company where they were constantly trimming departments to only have the needed people. Back then I estimated they could eliminate 30% of the total U.S. bethel population and still maintain the same level of services - mainly due to the fact that redundant roles were every where and also people that basically did nothing but live/eat at bethel.

  Going all digital as some have suggested will happen very soon would allow for the elimination vast swaths of the current org structure. I still know quite a few were laid off back in the late 90s or early 00s - some that are SPs and others that simply had to restart their lives on their own.
  
• 

  dozy

  From a UK perspective , I also wonder about the new UK Bethel - they have 584 apartments there housing up to 900 people. I am still in touch with a PIMO JW who has worked on the site & he is baffled as to what exactly the 900 workers will do , bearing in mind that no printing is taking place - a question also raised ( but not answered ) at a planning meeting with the local authority ( below ). He asked a member of the UK branch committee who said that "Jehovah will show the way."

  https://www.whpc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/MINUTESOPENMTGMASTER25.11.19-4.pdf

  My friend reckons as a distribution hub for German produced literature and a film studio they could probably get by with 300 maximum very comfortably - probably less.

  He reckons that in a couple of years a lot of these Bethelites will be getting kicked out - it would be very easy for the Society to sell off the accommodation blocks which are some distance from the HQ ( they also own 200 acres of non developed land and say they have "no current plans at the moment" to develop it so could build new accommodation blocks there if required ).

  584 studio style apartments would easily fetch over £100K each - that's upwards of $100 million from a build cost a fraction of that. The Society are already selling off the 18 flats in Wood Street , Chelmsford that supposedly was long term additional accommodation https://ibsaproperty.com/

  Increasingly nowadays the Society are basically a real estate development and trading company using free labour to develop property & free of capital gains tax to flip. It's such a simple model.