hmmm.... perhaps timing and differing perspectives makes a difference.
after the POOP hit the fan, it seems one of the first "knee jerk" responses was to raise salaries of those on staff at HQ. Of course, I was gone by that time, so I can't personally attest to it (although others that we were close to did.) And on the field, there was much (MUCH) greater flexibility and freedom, both financially and with pretty much a complete absence of personal (spiritual ?) oversight. So, I'm greatly inclined to see it the other way around...
Maybe timing makes a great deal of difference.
Greater flexibility and freedom? Financially? Absence of personal spiritual oversight?
I am not sure what experiences you are talking about here, but it certainly doesn't describe what I went through. Submitting weekly proposed and actual calendars for personal and ministry detail, needing approval for teaching topics, yearly calendars including all meetings, and all the vision and direction bs with planned classes and numbers and rosters, planned numbers for staff / outreach programs, fellowship meetings and teachers with teaching topics, then once all that BS is done translate that to a monthly printed calendar. Then people bug the cr@p out of you for getting it out to them so they can have full detailed knowledge of everything a month in advance. If they don't get it they are trained to bitch over your head and your "overseer" gets on you about it.
Financially, if you were salaried with a spouse basically it was 2 fulltime workers for 1 starting teachers salary. We shopped at Good Will, ate day old bread, and bought meat on the discount shelf. Any emergency expense you couldn't cover. If you weren't salaried it was a fulltime volunteer position in addition to needing a fulltime job. 80 hours a week of commitment all somehow sandwiched into whatever you could get away with sleep. Try not to get fired, and then there's the expectation of "winning" people you work with - the people who when you all get annual bonuses put them down as down-payments on houses and wonder why you don't.
I am not saying staff life was so much easier. The microscope there was inserted a couple of feet farther up the anus than it was for those on the field. Especially looking for hidden signs of disloyalty. But I would have loved the luxury of a 40-hr a week job, even that plus 10 hrs volunteering - none of it would have come close to the hours I had to put in on the field.
Staff life is easier now that the way international has learned they have to abide by the law or suffer being sued out of existance. Non-salaried staff at HQ had to work 46 hours, plus coerced volunteer time revolving around the sts. Basicaly, that's 40 hours of regular time and 6 hours overtime at time and a half. Most staffers may average around 10 hours a week "volunteer" time, but that can vary greatly. Twi figured out how to squeeze the most labor for the cheapest pay out of their staff. Most of their staff qualify for Medicaid based on income.
It's no secret amongst prez cabinet or the directors or most way corps that when you have a field assignment you can expect to work your a$$ off. Staff still sux, but not as bad as way corps field assignments.
The board of directors at the way international could care less how hard or long anyone works for them. According to twi doctrine followers should be blessed to serve and expect God to multiply their abundance while working for twi. Well, God will have to bless those who serve the way international since the board of directors have no regard for their fiduciary responsibilities towards those they employee (beyond what it takes to stay out of court).
As the years click by, it becomes more apparent to me that a solid foundation in life (so often neglected, or derailed by swindlers and carnival barkers selling their wares that deceivingly exploit the young and vulnerable) yields exponential benefits. And, when I say "solid foundation" that includes: 1) Faith, hope and charitable love, 2) Embracing family, friends and loved ones, 3) Educational and career paths of opportunity, 4) Church, community, club and/or neighbor associations, 5) Financial plan to strengthen equity/investments/pension/ira, 6) Live love, laugh often and 7) Stay true to yourself and purpose in life.
In re-reading the thread by Collateral Damage 30 years is MORE than enough ........ exposes the long-term plan of twi FOR THOSE ON THE FIELD.
Quote: ".........I realized how crumby the long-term TWI plan is for those out in the field. Find a menial job, work hard and don't rock the boat. Try to witness but we only need seats for the class- if it's just a connection, move it along. SELL SELL!!!! Find an apartment, move every few years, drive a 5 year+ model car (and keep that cardboard so you don't mess up the driveway). Long-term planning? You don't need that. God's got you. I woke up one day to realize my parents have no retirement and no equity of ANY kind."
Parents had NO retirement and NO equity of ANY kind.......[no pension or ira plan, no stock market investments, no home equity]. And, to think that some 22 years ago.....I, too, was heading DOWN THAT SAME PATH.
The twi corporation in Ohio is a self-absorbed, idolatrous-infested nest of carnival barkers. They live to serve themselves. The regurgitated swill that is sloshed forth each sunday is the vomit from a viper's vortex. Throughout the week, the "teaching" is scrutinized by the wierwille-legacy machine and then, said-"teacher" practices the delivery in the bowels of an empty auditorium. Singing ladies of the sway come out and perform their little diddlies as rosie-the-riveter points and directs. You see......the sunday teaching service is, now, the ONLY REAL CONNECTION with the field, the followers. Itineraries by "the president" have been discarded on the ash heap for over 30 years. Limb cities have been hollowed out as some 500 clergy and 3,000 corps grads have exited twi and re-built their lives from the ground up.
Heck.......if one delves into any research of the man victor wierwille, you will find: 1) He stayed on church payroll until August 1957 even though he claimed to have started "twi" in 1942, 2) wierwille's teachings, writings, books, and pamphlets were plagiarized from men like Stiles, Bullinger, Leonard, Clark, etc. 3) the pfal foundational class was wholesale ripped off from B.G. Leonard in Calgary, Alberta in 1953, 4) the advanced class had vast swaths of tangents ranging from the Marxists minstrels, the Thirteenth Tribe, None Dare Call it Conspiracy, The Hoax of the Six Million, the 16 Keys to walking by the spirit and much more, 5) the corps program was little more than wierwille-indoctrination-camp with snippets of cherry-picked scriptures, and 6) the sexual predation of wierwille/martindale [and others] and mystique persona of twi's founder has been totally debunked.
Just remember this: Twi is sitting on a nest egg of $64 MILLION that was amassed thru decades of exploitation --- so they, unlike what they preach, are VERY INTERESTED in watching their investments/monies accrue each and every year. They certainly don't mind that their followers drive oil-leaking beaters to menial jobs. Nor do they help to fund any type of witnessing or class events in your area. That dime is on YOU. They know how to shame and guilt the innies out of every last lingering penny. And so it goes...........
No retirement, No equity.......No problem.
At least, NOT for twi.
.
Sky, as much as I disliked the Navy, I got a better deal with them than I would have with TWI. Before I joined the Navy, a lot of people told me I should go Corps. I am so glad I didn't. TWI should be embarrassed how they treat/treated their people.
Staff life is easier now that the way international has learned they have to abide by the law or suffer being sued out of existance. Non-salaried staff at HQ had to work 46 hours, plus coerced volunteer time revolving around the sts. Basicaly, that's 40 hours of regular time and 6 hours overtime at time and a half. Most staffers may average around 10 hours a week "volunteer" time, but that can vary greatly. Twi figured out how to squeeze the most labor for the cheapest pay out of their staff. Most of their staff qualify for Medicaid based on income.
It's no secret amongst prez cabinet or the directors or most way corps that when you have a field assignment you can expect to work your a$$ off. Staff still sux, but not as bad as way corps field assignments.
The board of directors at the way international could care less how hard or long anyone works for them. According to twi doctrine followers should be blessed to serve and expect God to multiply their abundance while working for twi. Well, God will have to bless those who serve the way international since the board of directors have no regard for their fiduciary responsibilities towards those they employee (beyond what it takes to stay out of court).
OS, I am finding that out as I continue to read the GSC. And people wondered why I had no interest in going into the Corps.
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Maybe timing makes a great deal of difference.
Greater flexibility and freedom? Financially? Absence of personal spiritual oversight?
I am not sure what experiences you are talking about here, but it certainly doesn't describe what I went through. Submitting weekly proposed and actual calendars for personal and ministry detail, needing approval for teaching topics, yearly calendars including all meetings, and all the vision and direction bs with planned classes and numbers and rosters, planned numbers for staff / outreach programs, fellowship meetings and teachers with teaching topics, then once all that BS is done translate that to a monthly printed calendar. Then people bug the cr@p out of you for getting it out to them so they can have full detailed knowledge of everything a month in advance. If they don't get it they are trained to bitch over your head and your "overseer" gets on you about it.
Financially, if you were salaried with a spouse basically it was 2 fulltime workers for 1 starting teachers salary. We shopped at Good Will, ate day old bread, and bought meat on the discount shelf. Any emergency expense you couldn't cover. If you weren't salaried it was a fulltime volunteer position in addition to needing a fulltime job. 80 hours a week of commitment all somehow sandwiched into whatever you could get away with sleep. Try not to get fired, and then there's the expectation of "winning" people you work with - the people who when you all get annual bonuses put them down as down-payments on houses and wonder why you don't.
I am not saying staff life was so much easier. The microscope there was inserted a couple of feet farther up the anus than it was for those on the field. Especially looking for hidden signs of disloyalty. But I would have loved the luxury of a 40-hr a week job, even that plus 10 hrs volunteering - none of it would have come close to the hours I had to put in on the field.
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OldSkool
Staff life is easier now that the way international has learned they have to abide by the law or suffer being sued out of existance. Non-salaried staff at HQ had to work 46 hours, plus coerced volunteer time revolving around the sts. Basicaly, that's 40 hours of regular time and 6 hours overtime at time and a half. Most staffers may average around 10 hours a week "volunteer" time, but that can vary greatly. Twi figured out how to squeeze the most labor for the cheapest pay out of their staff. Most of their staff qualify for Medicaid based on income.
It's no secret amongst prez cabinet or the directors or most way corps that when you have a field assignment you can expect to work your a$$ off. Staff still sux, but not as bad as way corps field assignments.
The board of directors at the way international could care less how hard or long anyone works for them. According to twi doctrine followers should be blessed to serve and expect God to multiply their abundance while working for twi. Well, God will have to bless those who serve the way international since the board of directors have no regard for their fiduciary responsibilities towards those they employee (beyond what it takes to stay out of court).
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Grace Valerie Claire
Sky, as much as I disliked the Navy, I got a better deal with them than I would have with TWI. Before I joined the Navy, a lot of people told me I should go Corps. I am so glad I didn't. TWI should be embarrassed how they treat/treated their people.
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Grace Valerie Claire
I think he was a SAP, and a Dipsheet!
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Grace Valerie Claire
OS, I am finding that out as I continue to read the GSC. And people wondered why I had no interest in going into the Corps.
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