Counting service time in a creative way

by nevaagain 41 Replies latest jw friends

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  Dagney

  There were pioneers who decided to take up various languages, Italian, French etc., as well as sign language so they could "enhance" their pioneer hours with the travel time by following up return visits spread out all over the LA basin.  I kid you not.  Since the end was coming at "any minute," it seemed like a good idea at the time I guess.

  @Phizzy: I too was very honest about reporting my time.  I wasn't a pioneer, and had low hours anyway, didn't think it was right to exaggerate...even though I was told MANY times by elders to count the time I spent looking after the elderly ones, picking up various ones for the meetings/assemblies...  I didn't.  
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  FayeDunaway

  The publishers are just trying to appease the elders who are just trying to appease the c.o...who is just trying to appease the d.o. Who is just trying to appease the branch overseer who is just trying to appease the GB. And the gb is probably trying to appease eachother, because each of them have different duties, don't they? It's just a big business. 
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  neverendingjourney

  I've written about this extensively in my prior posts.  It was realy eye-opening to me to realize that most pioneers were either lying on their time cards or using ludicrous "creative" techniques that were patently against the rules to pad their field service reports.  There was one regular pioneer whom I never saw out in service.  Yet he once told me that as long as your neighbors saw you with a tie on you could count your time because you were giving testimony by the simple fact of being in service clothes.

  I wasn't the type of guy who carried around a stop watch, but there were clear rules on the subject.  Almost all pioneers found it perfectly acceptable to keep counting time even during a 2 hour lunch break.  If I ever questioned them about it, they would find ridiculous way of justifying it, such as saying that so-and-so 5 year old was present and you could keep counting time so long as there was an unbaptized person present and obviously the 5 year old qualified as such.  Most of the time, though, there wasn't even an attempt to justify themselves.
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  Finkelstein

  One thing the WTS should have never has started is enforcing the counting of how many hours a person has to report every month, this is so much against preaching the good news as instructed by JC , its more structured in adverse commercialism not in works of personal faith.   

   
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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  What was the "pioneer spirit" that WT always talked about? Walking slow and rounding up.

  There were many times that I was very conscientious about only counting the time that really counted. Those times were generally during the first week of the month.

  Around the middle of the month when I was getting a little behind on my number of required hours, I was counting more of the travel time.

  By the end of the month it usually become "rounding up". For example, if somebody in the group hit the first "always NH" at 9:45, and at the last RV the sisters in the group got back in the car at 12:10, that was parts of 4 hours. Just like Jesus was in the grave for parts of 3 days and it counted as 3 days, same went for my time... 4 hours. Whew, and putting in 4 hours like that, you can't go running from door-to-door!
  
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  Brokeback Watchtower

  I'm sure Anthony Morris the 3rd sock puppet Jehovah is very sad about all this creative time counting that is being turned in for credits to the Corporation in fact I bet Jehovah is crying his eye out right now.
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  Rattigan350

  This all goes back to the days when there was a pioneer discount on the books and meal tickets.  Pioneers had to count that time and do it properly to make sure that they earned that discount.

   

  There has been no pioneer discount since 1989 but people still think they  need to earn it. 
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  konceptual99

  I just make up a figure and put it down.  That saves even having to do anything.  To be fair I do turn up at one meeting for FS a month or so just to keep the elders off my back.  I then do some "calls". At my house. 
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  Ding

  Doesn't exactly sound like people who truly believe they are engaged in an urgent, last-hour, life saving work, does it?
  
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  WTWizard

  Toward the end, I would take a walk in areas where there were few or no pedestrians, and call that street work.  And that would be all they got for the month.

  Maybe I could try something like that for the Israel mission?  Such as going online, watching a video of the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, watching a video of someone driving to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv (and enjoying the collage of 1972-vintage pop music within the video), then watch a video of the Mea Shearim neighborhood.  Then counting that as my mission.  No wastes of paper placed.  No monster box of silver's worth of funds wasted.  No bedbugs picked up.  No black magic on the whole human race from the wastes of paper I was supposed to place with the rabbis.  And no getting stranded in Tel Aviv because the dollar became toilet paper while I was there.