Fibbing about your time (page 2)

Gozz

Outright lying, bad. The things is about being creative about what counts as time. Some Reg Pio taught me some, stuff they learnt while at Pioneer's school: hand out a tract to neighbour next door; ask a kingdom question during lunch; write a letter for your NAHs: letter to be handwritten, counting every minute all the time; you get to learn some when you get on the Internet too, researching WT stuff and writing a few posts to argue with apostates; and, well, your dad was being creative about good conduct counting as time, so far he's conscious of if well, just so Brooklyn knows their touting 1 billion and more hours means nothing.

asleif_dufansdottir

my mother gave me a down-the-road on how I should not be questioning my father's time

Well, tell her you don't care if he lies on his own behalf, but that it bothers your conscience that he is lying in your name! That should make her think a bit.

And besides, he didn't put down 15 minutes or a half hour or even an hour for you...which you could consider more of a 'place holder'...he put down 3 hours!

Heatmiser

Welcome SC_Guy. I wouldn't worry about it. You should feel EXTREMELY LUCKY that you don't get dragged out in service every sat., sun. and holiday. If your dad wants to be creative about his time, so be it. The bible doesn't talk about reporting your service time. That is the WTBTS Corporation putting pressure on the rank and file to sell magazines and books.

Heatmiser

Sentinel

As for me, I was totally honest about my time in actual "service". Unlike many that I knew, even some elders, I did not count from the time from when I arrived at the KH to meet for service until I was returned there after service. I only counted the actual "time when I knocked on my first door, until I left my last door".

I found there was a lot of descrepancy as to how time was properly counted. I could have turned in many hours more, had I followed what others were doing. My conscience would not allow me to do that. It would be so strange to go out with other friends, who were told at the end of the morning: "well, now you can count three hours of service on your report". I thought to myself, "how could that be, when we only actually went door to door half that time?"

This is why it was so difficult for me to Pioneer. My partner would count the time differently, and therefore, she would always be at or above the 100 hours goal. I struggled towards that goal, but fell short. The brothers were constantly after me to "keep up". I became discouraged at the constanct attention to "time", and that is one of the reasons why I discontinued being a Pioneer.

/<

got my forty homey?

What I use to do was place a magazine underneath a door in my apartment building when I left at 6AM. Thus I counted the time walking ot the train where I did streetwork till 8AM. This was two hours. Then Hour hour in field service with the group and I had my three in for the day! Its so silly when I look back at it because it seemed as if there was no incentive's for "quality" time just "time".

I use to try to explain this to my Father who use to have a calalender in the kitchen that he would figure how much time I was doing as a pioneer. He would rant and rave when I fell behind. I guess it would be a mortal sin if a elders son would not make 90 hours or he felt as if he was being a pioneer by figuring out MY time!. I would explain to him that there were days I may only have done a hour or hour and a half but I had a great time, either with my fellow pioneers or meeting a interested person in the ministry. Then there were days that you did a marathon day, doing five or six hours in one day but accomplishing nothing! And I tried my best to have good introductions, present my literture in a unique manner, approach people on the street or Staten Island Ferry.

But after the way my Father just kept pushing me and pushing me I lost a lot in interest, then you add Bethel and my bad experiences there and I became inactive real fast.

CruithneLaLuna

What I have trouble with is the percentage of JWs who do street work in Sacramento on Saturday mornings, who just walk around looking businesslike, displaying the magazines and talking amongst themselves. Relatively few actively try to engage people in conversation. I was relatively proud of one "brother" who had a fairly engaging conversation with a bus driver (who had arrived at the stop early and was waiting for the appointed departure time) and placed magazines with him. "Proud" as in, this person was doing what he was supposed to be doing, as opposed to just "counting time." I hope he went home with a clean conscience; I have to wonder about the others - unless they are leading double lives, and don't really believe that the witnessing work does any good or is needed, etc.

As far as I am concerned, I can't see how reported time could possibly give anything remotely resembling a true picture of the amount of witnessing actually being done. If the Society truly cared about accuracy, they could hire (appoint from among suitably trained brothers [wait, there aren't any!], or whatever, but I think an independent entity would do a better job) a team of analysts to develop a statistical profile of field service reporting inaccuracies, and adjust their reports to the world and the brothers (and sisters, who although they do most of the work, aren't directly mentioned because the masculine term is intended to include them as well, by implication) accordingly. One wonders, if the Society KNOWS that the reports coming in are grossly inaccurate, why they wouldn't just make up whatever figures they want to show, as many of the friends in the field are doing? (Is it possible that they do this ... to some extent? What would prevent them from doing so?)

Cruithne

module

Umm!!! You father is going to Hell!

Just joking. There is no such thing. ;)

Personally, I would not go too hard on him (assuming he is an otherwise good guy). What he is doing IS fibbing, but he is no doubt doing it because he feels the pressure of the Society's unrealistic demands on it's publishers. As a the head of the houshold, he does not want to look bad to the Service Overseer (probably a friend of his, or someone he feels the need to impress), so he is upping you guys' average hours, probably each month. It is not easy to be a Witness, and the unbiblical requirement of counting your hours each month is a literal, quantifiable inicator of how much you suck (spiritually), and you have to do it each and every month. I would cut him some slack.

As for you, if you are still going to meetings and calling yourself a witness, I would quit hanging out in here- we are mostly apostates. Come back when and if you have made a clean break.

:)

wednesday

If I had a month were I had not actually went door to door, I used to count 1 hour. I , and many others i knew, reasoned that surely over the period of 30 days, i had mentioned jehovah to a coworker, salesperson, whatever and surley it amounted to least 1 hour.(that is approx 2 minutes a day-surley in 24 hours i had given jehovah at least 2 minutes somewhere) I did this as long as i was still generally an active publisher. When i finally decided i could no longer bring anyone else into this org. i just went inactive and did not bother to explain. No one really cared.

Mysterious

Well I always got hauled out at least 3 saturdays a month. More on holidays and months with those magical "5 saturdays". If I ever turned in anything with less than 6 hours I got a lecture, it seems even illness isn't good enough sometimes. Mom always went out with me so there was nothing to fudge. She was always so strict about the minutes too. You carried them until they made another hour to report.

Maverick

Though as a dud I tried to be honest about my field peddling, after being here a while I see I was just a dopey dreamer. Many J-duds fudged their time reports. And if the quality of what "time" they did put in is considered, very little productive work is done. It is all a work of fiction. So why worry about it? The WTS is living in a fantasy world. Pushing mags and books is sacred service which has to be reported to your J-dud Masters. But looking after widows and orphans, helping your neighbors in need, or doing charitable acts is not counted as sacred service. Even when the first are never mentioned in the Bible and the second are repeatedly mentioned.

Let your father be. The whole field service system is foolish anyway. Maverick

Fibbing about your time

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