Posts by StephaneLaliberte

10

My Eyes, My Ears ... arrrrrghhhh!!!!

by RolRod in

just saw this ..... https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/uzfp4q/what_in_the_hell/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share.

StephaneLaliberte

That song from Airplane is 100x better than that JW video.

30

Some Jw's are the worst employees

by Foolednomore in

jw
friends

i found a company and employed an elder as an underwriter and two ms as sales and marketing.

anyway, this elder will delegate his work to the ms in sales and marketing, so he can go home early.

he knew when he got started that this would be a 10 hour a day job with some saturday.

StephaneLaliberte

It's true there is good and bad in all. But Jw's stress how they are the best this and that.

Its true that if you base it solely on their teachings, JWs represent themselves as the best employees while this isn't true. I'd say that while there are many differences among individuals, if you treat them as a group, you will see some common patterns. Some positive, some negative.

Positive:

They usually dress well, clean with good hygiene
Don't use foul language, polite and very often encourage others to do good.
Honest and reliable. They often take pride in being good to the specific role that they have within your company.

Negative:

They often uphold the rules/law to a fault. If a company’s rule says one thing, they will blindly follow it without asking first if its either moral or even practical. They will use the law at their advantage if they see an opportunity, even if they know its not “right”.
They avoid making friends at work and don’t participate in social gatherings, impacting team spirit.
They will preach to their co-workers. Sharing your belief at work is not bad in and of itself. However, even though they don’t realize it, their approach is often condescending. This also impacts team spirit. Just take a look at WT produced videos of such “fine examples of preaching at work” to understand the issue.
They will tell on other JWs who they suspect might be doing something wrong at work, bringing external religious influence into your company
They are not invested in their professional career, they boast “working class”. While this isn’t a problem in and of itself, if you have too many JWs in your company, it will limit your ability to promote from within.
They often equate reproach with religious persecution.

Of course, these are broad generalizations. But then again, many of these observations can likely be attributed to other religions as well; such as the Mormons, Muslims, Adventists, Pentecostals, Baptists, etc. Are you going to filter them out? Nonsense! People are people and all come with their set of flaws and set of advantages. One thing for sure though, they are not the “best employees” in the world… far from it.

30

Some Jw's are the worst employees

by Foolednomore in

jw
friends

i found a company and employed an elder as an underwriter and two ms as sales and marketing.

anyway, this elder will delegate his work to the ms in sales and marketing, so he can go home early.

he knew when he got started that this would be a 10 hour a day job with some saturday.

StephaneLaliberte

Some are thieves and some aren't. Some cheat on their mates and some don't. I guess they are just people.

Yep! Here is an example comparing my mom with an elder in my congregation. Both had cleaning business. The elder would pay minimal wage and give long working hours to his employees, many of whom were JWs.

My mom on the other hand paid twice as much for the same kind of work and made sure employees weren't overbooked.

Both were paid about the same by their clients.

My mom's reasoning was that while money is important, it is even more important to live your life knowing you did right to people. She knew, by looking at the profit margin, that people working for her deserved more.

Both JWs, one took advantage of others, the other treated them right.

30

Some Jw's are the worst employees

by Foolednomore in

jw
friends

i found a company and employed an elder as an underwriter and two ms as sales and marketing.

anyway, this elder will delegate his work to the ms in sales and marketing, so he can go home early.

he knew when he got started that this would be a 10 hour a day job with some saturday.

StephaneLaliberte

10 hour a day job with some Saturday.

Your business model is wrong. Sure over time may be needed from time to time, but if this is the norm? You're doing something wrong. Happy people produce more in less hours than those pulling long hours for a boss. Did you make him a partner or something? If its just an employee... you're fostering a bad environment and your business will suffer for it.

10

Mind control

by joao in

wt has really been doing a great job at mind-controlling their members.

how can people who say they are your friends not even want to know why you're leaving when you want them to know?!

eh!

StephaneLaliberte

How can people who say they are your friends not even want to know why you're leaving when you want them to know?

Leaving your religion is not a simple process to undertake. It takes a whole lot of work and effort. In my case, I can say that it resulted in 1000s of hours of research and introspection. In the end, I lost most of my friends, many members of my family, changed the way I live my life and how I perceive the world around me. It’s a lot to deal with.

Undertaking something like this needs to come from within, not outside. If you try to push someone into this without them being ready, consequences could be dire (depression, mental break down, medicine, drugs, suicide). I still have some friends and family in the JWs and I don’t try to “burst” their bubble. As long as they are in a somewhat “good place” in their lives, why would I try to interfere?

So, today, I have some very limited friendship with some JWs. I would say that I agree, at this time, they are not the best of friends as we no longer have many things in common to talk about. Still, the fact that I understand that they do not want to hear anything to burst their reality doesn’t make me think less of them as individuals. They need this at this time in their lives and the fact that they don’t outright shun me is enough.

134

How far do we get away from 1914

by PimoElder in

how far do we get away from 1914 before they have a new light and admit it was all wrong?.

they cling to the old theory of the 77 week prophecy from the wrong date that jerusalem was destroyed .

with the overlapping generations nonsense still we are getting too far away from 1914. what will they say if we get to the 2030s and they still cling to 1914?.

StephaneLaliberte

Having grown in the 80s when 1914 was still thought as fact, I never imagined that I’d finish high school before Armageddon. By the time they got to changing the meaning of the word generation, we were in the mid 90s and everyone was expecting it. It wasn’t a surprise. By than, many people, like me, didn’t believe in that prophecy anyway and saw the organization’s willingness to change as a good thing. I rationalized my faith on the thought that the JWs were the closest to what the Christians were in the first century. I didn’t see where else I could go and so I stayed.

I imagine that a lot of JWs are in this spot right now. They already don’t believe in it and when they drop it, it will be a small talk in a convention, and they will carry on to the Sunday drama like nothing happened. People will stay thinking they are in the best religion.

In my case, that bubble burst when my kids started repeating things we talked about at home. I realized that if my kids ever told anyone about how their father didn’t believe in the prophecies, that I could be disfellowshipped for apostacy. Worst, the religion I grew up in would, in time, instruct my own children to shun me. How could a love-based organization treat a father like this, for something as petty as not teaching frivolous believes? This practice alone proved that the religion is not based on Christian love; it will step over your Christian conscience attempting to survive and there is nothing Christian about that. That’s not love. So, without prophecies and without love, I ran out of excuses to stay there. I left, along with my wife and kids.

23

What are Jehovah's Witnesses' stance on home ownership?

by timothytha in

what do people usually think of when they buy a house?

"i will probably live here for a long time" (you're invested with your time), "i will save money by building equity over time".

(you've invested in yourself financially for the long run) of course, i wouldn't be able to list the numerous reasons why people want to buy a house.

StephaneLaliberte

A weird dynamic I have observed in the JWs is that the people with money actually do sustain the corporation through their donations but are generally judged for working full time and succeeding in this wicked world. On the other hand, pioneers spend hours upon hours in field service with little results and some don't even give financial donations reasoning that their time is enough. These are praised as spiritual and the pillars of the congregation!

14

Encouraged to do something = forced/intimidated

by neat blue dog in

in a recent article there was this experience from el salvador:.

"during the meeting, brother baltasar perla, sr., who later became a member of the branch committee, asked all the elders present to give him their government-issued identity cards.

he then informed the elders that their names and addresses would be included in a written request to the government for legal recognition... then explained to us that since our names and addresses would be in that document, if the authorities ever wanted to ban our work, we would be the first ones they would come after and the first ones to be thrown in jail.

StephaneLaliberte

Well, I guess that the persecution complex is still real and alive. Some people deliberately want to be martyrs. For the elders that were put in that position, well, they lack character. Even when I was a firm believer, I would have called out how stupid that plan is. I would even have called that brother a traitor.

Even to this day, I'd rather die then name people to an authoritarian country. Without any persecution in place, that guy decides to go ahead of the curb and name people?? What's wrong with him?

39

Who says the Pandemic didn't wake up a lot of people!

by pistolpete in

there are actually tons of these experiences.

i wanted to post this one because it involved all the family of born in jws.. post;.

all my freakn dreams came true.

StephaneLaliberte

We need to promote the idea that people make deliberate choices based on rational decisions.

This is actually something I've seen on this board through the years and one of the reasons I like this place soo much. From time to time, we see young folks ask questions on these forums and plenty of us make sound advises. I don't know if these advises are followed, but at least, this is a place they can come to in order to be shown things in a perspective they are not used to.

For instance, one of my favorites that I've seen plenty of time: Young ones that no longer believe should keep attending the meetings and go out in service and play along until they are done with college and then leave everything behind. Not simply go out in a blaze of glory, but carefully prepare their exit plan.

39

Who says the Pandemic didn't wake up a lot of people!

by pistolpete in

there are actually tons of these experiences.

i wanted to post this one because it involved all the family of born in jws.. post;.

all my freakn dreams came true.

StephaneLaliberte

Sorry, but this is childish and stupid. If you want sex, have sex. If you want to leave the WTS, just leave.

I understand what you mean Simon, people often take roads they don’t have to take and when others look into such stories, they can easily point to the foolishness of it all. However, the human mind is much more complex than this. These “choices” are the results of individuals living with constant influences from school, media, religion, family and friends, and their own individual perception of all of these. These perspectives on life often lead them to believe that they have next to no choices, that there is only one door to walk through, one road to walk. While many options were or are available all along, their field of view is blinded by all these emotions and confused minds.

Growing wiser, we understand the missed opportunities, the wrong choices we’ve made. But it means more, it also means that we take a pause before acting out on our thoughts and deliberately seek out other alternatives that we may have missed. We try to logically look at things, stripped from our emotions and ask the hard questions. Once we’ve identified more choices, then we are in a better position to do the right thing. Unfortunately, for a great deal of young people who’s life is tightly defined by their religion, this is excessively difficult and mayhem often ensues.

And like many young people who go through a phase where they are lost, the OP seems to have eventually found a path. A path that has ultimately shed light on the rest of his family.