The Lot video shows what most elder’s offices are like. Actually it a pretty well-equipped one and with the video context is, without a doubt, org-approved.
But let’s face it. There’s a big problem. Any discussion in this office is not confidential.
This family is well off compared to what ours was. My elder dad would just pull the telephone cord into our hall closet. I think we would have felt it was sinful to glue our ears to the paper-thin closet door but we didn’t have to worry about it. We overheard most of the conversation as if we were in the same room with the elders. Our whole family knew pretty much everything going on in the congregation, or at least all that was discussed in my dad’s ‘office’.
I remember being quite traumatized when I once overheard dad delivering a 6 month committee’s menace to the father of 2 very young girls who I considered my friends. The family had immigrated to Canada and bought a bakery. Dad’s conversation indicated they had been reported to have sold cakes decorated with pagan icing and chocolate Santa Claus’. The committee was giving them 6 months to sell. It was the reasonable and loving thing to do. They were already missing a lot of meetings just to keep the bakery going. Now they missed even more. I worried as the clock ticked. The family didn’t sell. The reason isn’t clear. It wasn’t discussed in dad’s ‘office’. Perhaps there were no buyers. Probably it was their only income. The mom and dad were disfellowshipped. The family stopped attending the Hall all together. I felt really bad but asked Jehovah to help me harden my heart against the wicked.
The lesson, which I’ve shared over the years…refuse to discuss anything you don’t want overheard and repeated over the phone… and don’t meet in an elder’s ‘office’.