Staff Memories

[Sai Ninja 2000]

i've recently been reading and re-reading a lot of people's stories on this board and others, and its brought up a lot of memories for me that i feel i never even went over when i told "my story". but really, i feel the need to write it all down and record it somewhere. these random, disjointed experiences are very much part of the whole of what i went through in scientology.

 

[Sai Ninja 2000]

events

my first experience with a scientology event was when i was probably about 15 or 16. i was taken to a new years event, and most of you exes will know what those can be like. for me, the regging hadn't built up enough "BPC" to be annoying, though i know that was a huge reason why a lot of public hestated to go to events. more on that later. anyway, so i was taken to this new years eve event. it was WAY long and i was bored and didn't understand most of what was going on. i dont even think we stayed long enough to get at the free food, which is why a lot of public show up late! but towards the end of it, i was like ok... enough.. i dont care for this. at the time, i didn't know much, if anything, about scientology. i didn't know it was a "religion" or even self-described religion, or philosophy, or anything like that. i think, actually i KNOW, that my presence was merely someone's stat. i was practically a raw public. i tried to be interested, and i tried to understand what all the stats were about, but i didn't really get it. the only thing i took away from that was that the events were long and boring, and then people try to sell you stuff afterwards and try to get you to sign up for stuff. i wasn't interested.

i never attended another event after that, even after i'd started going on course, and began to call myself a scientologist. i wouldn't even attend graduation. it was just an unpleasant prospect. later, though, when i joined staff, i was required to be involved with the events. i was required to work during the events, required to watch the events prior to the actual public showing, set up and clean up before and after. i was required to call people ENDLESSLY for weeks and weeks on end. i was met with a ton of hostility while doing this event call in, i hated it and the rewards were puny (a pencil, or a piece of candy for every 5 or 10 confirms). not to mention the fact that i, alone, was managing a whole department, with no juniors to help me, and this call in garbage was interfering with my actual post time. not that i wanted to be back on post necessarily, but that if i didn't produce, i was punished for it. not in the way you would think but again, thats another story. not to mention that many of the people i was calling, had been called a hundred times already, and if contacted, were asked by multiple staff members to confirm, and the closer we got to the event, the more annoyed people who had not confirmed got. it was a very uncomfortable and unpleasant experience, and it happened every month!

then there was the food. staff members in an org are very much like employees of a restaurant when it comes to free food. both groups work rigorously for little return, long and unpredictable hours with unpredictable income. when free food is offered in a restaurant to its staff, it is devoured as though it was the last meal they were ever going to get. the same is true of staff members, with the one difference being that staff members have to do it sneakily, and generally wait until most public are gone and the event is over. i remember a specific time that i had managed to get my duties completed before it was too late. in the beginning, before i'd gotten used to what i was supposed to do, it would take me a long time to finish the reports after an event. i would be there until about 3 am, and then was expected to return to post the following day at 8:45. nevermind that because i was not SO, i didn't live in or near the org, and had a long ride home. anyway, after a while, i'd managed to figure out only exactly what was needed. i stopped caring about how professionally it was, and only provided what was required. among other techniques, this helped me shave my after hours time down quite a bit. this one time, i managed to finish early and since there was nothing left for me to do i packed up and headed downstairs. i'd even checked with my seniors and the SO execs who were running the event program to make sure there was nothing more anyone needed from me, and that i was ok to go home. i changed into some street clothes, as dressing up for events was always a pain the ass, and it made me feel much better afterwards to just... not be a staff member for a little bit. OH another story concerning that... later. after changing, i went downstairs to check out what was left of the food table. the public had mostly left, and staff were at the table picking at what they could. i went up and stood with some of them doing the same. i took a cracker and a piece of cheese, and before i could even put it in my mouth, a SO member came up to me said "this food isn't for you." the tone of her voice really stopped me cold. it was filled with such malice. i looked at her in shock, looked around to see if public were still taking stuff from the table, realized staff were beginning to throw stuff away, and said as much, stating also that i was finished and off post. again she was very nasty to me, saying that didn't matter and i should be doing something and helping out instead of stuffing my face. she said "dont you think i'm hungry too??? but i'm not standing around doing nothing and eating food that is for the public only!" i was so sickened by her tone of voice and the irrationality of it all, i just threw the cracker and cheese in the garbage and walked out. that situation really bothered me, and has stayed with me since then. staff were THROWING THE FOOD AWAY! was it such a horrible thing that before i left i grabbed a piece of fucking cheese!?!? at least thats how i felt about it at the time.

after getting out, and reading and hearing about the horrible conditions and treatment SO members endured, i understand her resentment. i think perhaps they look at the staff with the same resentment that the staff look at the SO members. the staff mentality is "SO members get housed, clothed, fed, trained and processed, in exchange for being a staff member all day, every day. but WE have rent and bills to pay, travel and food and clothing expenses, some with children and families to care for. not only do we have to be here, sometimes 50, 60, 70, 80 hours a week, we also have to work in order to make enough money to survive because staff pay isn't enough! AND they get paid on top of it all!?!" that was the way staff felt about it. they dont know. i didn't know. how would we have known? SO members are made to reinforce the lie that joining the SO is the best thing you could ever do, and that focusing on your post is all you have to do and that its made easier since all your "mest" requirments are taken care of. we didn't know.

the SO mentality is that staff are only "part-time scientologists". they get to leave, and have time off, and aren't as on purpose. and after reading many awful SO stories, i realize, part of that was also the resentment of the choice. the ABILITY to CHOOSE. your contract was up in either 2.5 or 5 years and you were able to choose whether to stay or not, a staff member, essentially (though obviously not in practice) were given a choice whether or not to continue. a SO member was given the choice before they even knew what they were choosing, and once made, a SO member is unable to take it back. FOR A BILLION YEARS.

 

[EP - Ethics Particle]

Let it all out!

Good for you, Sai!

And - how are the kittehs doing?

EP

 

[Arthur Dent]

Hi Sai!
It is great you are posting the day-in day-out aspects of life on staff. Maybe some lurkers will see and learn from it. Most valuable!

Your take on the resentment between org staff and SO is right on.
I was not SO either and yes, we never knew! It is amazing to me how sheltered you can be from the truth about scn while so ensconced in scn. It boggles the mind.

I hope you're doing well. And tell more stories!!

 

[GoNuclear]

more inspiration

i've recently been reading and re-reading a lot of people's stories on this board and others, and its brought up a lot of memories for me that i feel i never even went over when i told "my story". but really, i feel the need to write it all down and record it somewhere. these random, disjointed experiences are very much part of the whole of what i went through in scientology.

We'll see if I can shoehorn "My Time On Staff" into the Barbara Streisand sung tune "The Way We Were" and satirically keeping to the general theme of the original lyrics.

Great war story!

Pete

 

[Lurker5]

Thank you

Great story(ies) - thanks for sharing. The stories make this place great. Keep 'em coming.

 

[Sai Ninja 2000]

thank you!

EP - thank you! the kittehs are doing wonderfully!! they are fat and happy! they have so much room to run around and climb on stuff, and have gotten very affectionate, especially the other one who was kind of distant for quite some time after the travelling.

Arthur Dent - i'm glad you were able to confirm what i always thought about the relationship between SO and staffers! though, i didn't really understand or realize the SO point of view until much later.

GoNuclear - that would be something!

Lurker5 - thank you! i have many more and i hope they can help or inspire others, or even just be interesting for others to read. its been an interesting experience for me writing all this stuff down!

 

[Sai Ninja 2000]

on anonymous

the first time i heard anything about anonymous was in february 08. there was a huge "mandatory" briefing about it given by OSA, complete with snazzy audio/visual aids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbwNyKXux70&feature=related

of course, all of us were totally shocked and disturbed. the OSA guy went on to tell us that these people were mostly college students who knew nothing about scientology, and were being paid by the pharmaceutical companies to protest against scientology, since scientology was against the psychs. saying it so plainly without all the showy hooplah and demonstration and false explanation, obviously seems so ridiculous, and i can imagine how it may seem that we were all so stupid for believing it. but when the information is coming from a "trusted" source, and it is being "supported" by "facts", and these were people who, according to OSA, were there to harm us, then it must be true. on staff, one is conditioned to accept the truth of "news" passed on to us from uplines. at the time, it made sense, after all that we were told about the "evil psychs" and the measures they were willing to take and "had taken" to "annihilate scientology". above all else, this briefing scared me, and i imagine, many of my fellow staff members. the memories are a bit jumbled up, i dont remember if i experienced my first protest before or after this briefing. i do remember the day that i was coming in to the org to pick up my then 2D. we had csw'd for some time off and were going to go away for a few days. when i spoke to him on the phone, he'd told me to be careful, as there was "a huge protest" going on outside. my idea of a protest, at that time, was a violent image of the protests from the 60's and 70's. i was afraid. i cant remember exactly, but i think it was the first protest at my org. when i arrived there, people were standing on the street, holding up signs and shouting in unison various things that i dont now remember, though i remember some choice chanting that occured later on that year while on post (my office window was facing that side, and they could be heard clearly). anyway, when i got to the door, there were big security guys standing outside, and an HCO staffer as well, who nodded to them that i was ok to go in. inside, various staff were standing around, trying to see out the window, and being told not to look out the window and to ignore them. "they are just trying to enturbulate you". i was curious, as i'd never seen a protest before, but many execs were around ushering me forward to get to where i was going. i dont remember what happened after that.

other anonymous experiences while on staff:
for a while, at the beginning of all the protesting, we were getting a lot of "briefings" during muster about what was going on. very much the "fill the void" technique, looking back on it now. we were all under the impression that these people knew nothing about scientology, other than what they'd read on the internet or information they'd been given in pamphlets handed out at college by agents of the pharmaceutical companies, and were just there to be doing something and to get paid. we were told to ignore them, to go around the other side of the building to smoke, if we had to, or not at all if we could help it, and for about a month, the public were given lunch within the building, so they wouldn't have to leave. of course the staff ate if they could get at it, which wasn't often, and i have another story about that whole subject. of course the org couldn't afford to provide free lunch every weekend, and that ended along with the mandatory briefings and muster updates. we were still getting "data" from OSA about what was going on every now and then, but not as much. as the year progressed, the protests went from a good amount of people to just a few people every day. the weekends sometimes had around 10, but not usually more than that. for us, that was a sign that "we were winning" and people were losing interest. most of all, the protests were more of an annoyance than anything else. i didn't like having to walk so far just to grab a quick smoke. the longer i was missing from the post, the more chance i had of getting in trouble for it. i also didn't like feeling like these people were watching me for no reason, taking my picture and video taping me. it felt like a total invasion of privacy.

there were a few times i was out there, and hid behind a corner instead of going all the way around the block. i would check out the signs to see what they said, and observe the protestors. for me, it was more to discover who these people thought they were, what kind of people they were, maybe some clue as to why they were bothering us so much. there were a lot of ridiculous signs. saying things like "hail xenu" and "honk if you hate scientology". these things never did anything to make me question what i was doing or why i was there. i had my own reasons for questioning it. i knew all about xenu, and i thought it was garbage, and all scientologists below that level think the same thing. it doesn't mean anything to them. it has no significance. they dont know anything about it! before i knew the real truth about scientology, anyone who'd come up to me, and accuse me of believing in aliens, was disregarded as a moron, because of course i didn't believe in aliens!

another time, i was in my office and i heard them chant, a la fight club, "her name is lisa mcpherson! her name is lisa mcpherson!" of course i knew that story, i'd read about it on the internet, pretty much every scientologist knew about her and what had happened to her. but i even remember reading about it long before i'd ever joined staff. i RATIONALIZED it, i put into scientology terms how what they had done could have been per policy, and even denied to myself that those reports were 100% accurate. i convinced myself that SOMETHING was missing from the reports, some crucial data about the processes they were doing or something. and thats what scientology does to you. after a while, you begin to do the dead agenting yourself, without realizing it. hearing them chant that made all of us in the office laugh, actually. because we thought they were retarded, that they didn't know what the hell they were talking about. another time, they were chanting "scientology kills!" and we were all like, "bullshit, you idiots dont know what the hell you're doing". and thats how we were taught to regard the protestors and think about them. they were a bunch of stupid young kids, who knew nothing about anything scientology. it was like a stranger coming up to you to argue how your beliefs were wrong without asking you what you believed. at least thats how we felt about it all, and thats what we thought about it, and thats what we were, inadvertently, told and taught and encouraged to feel and think about it. i didn't realize until i was already halfway out, that most of those people had been in my shoes.

 

[Lurker5]

Keep going

Keep going. This is incredible information. People here are always trying to figure out ways to open the eyes of scn'ists/staff/so - to get them to question it and start (secretly) looking for answers on the internet. Keep going.

 

[Wisened One]

Hi Sai: GOD to bring back those day-to-day memories of bein' a Staff!

I was also doin' the same things....steathily grabbing a bit of food from the Event Tables...etc..and that dreaded Call-In before (and many times during if not enough people were there)...and the holding of one's breath that one can actually walk outside the damn org and GO HOME AND HAVE SOME TIME OFF without bein' called back in to stay later and do some All-Hands or help some New Person that just walked in (even if org is closed for the night, etc).

And yep, the way we thought of SO...how they were provided for (supposedly, anyways) and could concentrate on doin' their jobs, where as we Staff (esp those of us who worked both Day and Foundation) had to figure out a way to find money to eat with, clothe ourselves, stay up on our rents, etc..and NOT Moonlight to do it...(as Moonlighting was frowned upon, ya know, even with Policy condoning it).

NUTS!!

YOU keep posting, Sai!

(Btw: My story is in my Profile, and highlights alot of the same points yours does).

 

[Sai Ninja 2000]

lurker5 - you know, its always been one of my biggest problems with the way the anons protested at my org. i do realize that a lot of it is meant more to keep new public out than to get old public/staff/so out.. but i think there are a lot of other things they could say. some ideas that i've had are things like "unfair justice actions? per policy?" or "you're not the only one who isn't winning" or "are you as happy as they promised you'd be?" or "what clear or OT do you know that can actually do the things dianetics said they could?"

because i think those are some of the major questions that people already have, and to have it reiterated by someone who supposedly "doesn't know" would have a big impact.

wisened one - OMG the all hands!!!! I HATE ALL HANDS!! like those stupid human chains... passing boxes back and forth for like an hour, up and down stairs, CLEANING THE CF!!!! UGH!! or being asked to come in early or stay late or come in on your day off because "the org is in emergency and no one is allowed a day off" PLEASE!!

there is definitely more to come i have a ton more that i've been writing like mad since last night!

 

[Wisened One]

lurker5 - you know, its always been one of my biggest problems with the way the anons protested at my org. i do realize that a lot of it is meant more to keep new public out than to get old public/staff/so out.. but i think there are a lot of other things they could say. some ideas that i've had are things like "unfair justice actions? per policy?" or "you're not the only one who isn't winning" or "are you as happy as they promised you'd be?" or "what clear or OT do you know that can actually do the things dianetics said they could?"

because i think those are some of the major questions that people already have, and to have it reiterated by someone who supposedly "doesn't know" would have a big impact.

wisened one - OMG the all hands!!!! I HATE ALL HANDS!! like those stupid human chains... passing boxes back and forth for like an hour, up and down stairs, CLEANING THE CF!!!! UGH!! or being asked to come in early or stay late or come in on your day off because "the org is in emergency and no one is allowed a day off" PLEASE!!

there is definitely more to come i have a ton more that i've been writing like mad since last night!

Keep

 

[Lurker5]

Pay Attention Anons

PAY ATTENTION ANONS

lurker5 - you know, its always been one of my biggest problems with the way the anons protested at my org. i do realize that a lot of it is meant more to keep new public out than to get old public/staff/so out..

but i think there are a lot of other things they could say. some ideas that i've had are things like "unfair justice actions? per policy?" or "you're not the only one who isn't winning" or "are you as happy as they promised you'd be?" or "what clear or OT do you know that can actually do the things dianetics said they could?"

because i think those are some of the major questions that people already have, and to have it reiterated by someone who supposedly "doesn't know" would have a big impact.

(snips)

 

[Wisened One]

Good ones! Anons MAKE THESE SIGNS FOR YOUR NEXT PROTEST!!

"Unfair justice actions? per policy?"
"You're not the only one who isn't winning"
"Are you as happy as they promised you'd be?"
"What Clear or OT do you know that can actually do the things Dianetics said they could?"

Some more I'd add:

The Events are puffed-up PR LIES!'
Events sound too good to be true? THEY ARE!!
Events PURPOSELY make ya feel your Org and production 'isn't good enough'!'
If/When you get Time Off, KEEP IT!
Just say No to All-Hands and staying late!
Hungry? Broke? Tired? LEAVE Scn Staff or SO!!
Public: STOP FUNDING OSA PI'S!

 

[omnom]

I've had this discussion several times with people locally.

I think the best route is a target your signs and messages for a given demographic. Indeed, many of the materials seem to be to keep people out - I'd like to see more staff-targeted signs, but those are difficult as well - I understand they'd likely be explained away in someone's head, or thought-stopped with "Oh, they're just here to enturbulate you" or "That's just entheta."

Honestly, the Org closest to me pretty much shutters up when even a single protester shows up. Blinds go up, people move building-to-building through the underground parking garage, and smoke breaks seem to have stopped. As a matter of fact, the lack of visible staff, visible public, or even street traffic tends to send protesters to heavily-traveled areas around town after a short while, leaving the Org to sit in silence for another month...

 

[TR'SIN]

Good ones! Anons MAKE THESE SIGNS FOR YOUR NEXT PROTEST!!

"Unfair justice actions? per policy?"
"You're not the only one who isn't winning"
"Are you as happy as they promised you'd be?"
"What Clear or OT do you know that can actually do the things Dianetics said they could?"

Some more I'd add:

The Events are puffed-up PR LIES!'
Events sound too good to be true? THEY ARE!!
Events PURPOSELY make ya feel your Org and production 'isn't good enough'!'
If/When you get Time Off, KEEP IT!
Just say No to All-Hands and staying late!
Hungry? Broke? Tired? LEAVE Scn Staff or SO!!
Public: STOP FUNDING OSA PI'S!

Awwwh heck Michelle, I hate so much to hear the things that remind me of what you and your hubby went through in the very same place I managed to survive for 17 yrs.

Thanks for the story Sai Ninja, it really brings back all the personal memories we all have to identify with.

By the time I had escaped, I didn't really have the full understanding that this was an everyday occurrance in ALL orgs - everywhere -! I still thought we had failed at our place and the people who I thought were largely to blame were just the schmucks who hadn't realized what was happening to them.

I really want to see some of them get OUT.

 

[Sai Ninja 2000]

wisened one - those are awesome ideas i think, this one really caught me:

Hungry? Broke? Tired? LEAVE Scn Staff or SO!

the anonymous protests, regardless of the statements made on their signs or in their chants, their very presence raises the question of "why are they here?" which i think is absolutely invaluable, because if nothing, that was the biggest question on my mind, and thats what made me curious about them.

omnom - i've discovered that if the brainwashing and the self-invalidation of integrity were working so well, then people wouldn't ever leave once in. but it wears down eventually, maybe not with all which is unfortunate, but with most i think, and as i said above, their mere presence is enough to spark doubt. but yeah, i definitely think more targeted signs would speed the impending "blow fest". i can feel it coming! i sure hope it is.

TRs in - i thought the same thing!! i thought it was just me, or just my division, or just my org... when i stumbled upon ESMB, it was like someone turned on the light and said "YOU'RE NOT ALONE!!" and i have also come to understand that much of the SO hostility was a product of their own experiences... it all trickles down. bad management in any environment results in bad employee attitudes and ultimately bad service, in a strictly business sense. the same is true in the orgs. i blamed many people when i first got out. i now realize they were just doing what i had been doing for years. trying to adhere to irrational policies and orders and "make it go right". its impossible to make anything go right in such an insane environment.

my only hope is that one day, though the damage that scientology has done to so many people may be irreversible, i hope that one day that damage can be prevented, and i hope that maybe someday i'll see my friends again, and be able to talk with them about things without feeling like i'm endangering them or myself, i'd like to see families and friends reunited.

 

[Sai Ninja 2000]

the mixup

there was this one time, i was supposed to make sure this sign got printed, and they had to be all over the org, so i had to get a bunch printed and then go replace all the old signs that were around. it started out as a campaign sent down from uplines to get all the posters and stuff replaced for the ideal org campaign. (just to preface, my feelings about being on staff went up and down through the whole time i was there, until finally at the end i'd had theguts to get the hell out, which would not even have been possible without ESMB and the help of some of its members!!) during this time, i was very disgruntled, very unhappy, and overall just didn't give a shit. i kept showing up because i didn't feel like hearing the crap about being late, or getting KRs written on me. and there were a lot of staff members who felt it was their duty to "put my ethics in"... a very annoying occurance!! anyway, so hco was buggin the hell out of me to get my program targets done, since they were being run by the LC on it. and of course this was all on top of the event workload i already had and running my own department by myself.

there was one hco member that i worked with on this, and she was the one who would liaison with me about the targets. when the program first came down, she mentioned it to me in the hallway, and asked if i had gotten. i didn't know, my inbox was way overflowing LOL but i found the program and went over my own targets with her, and said that i'd work on them. the deadline for these targets was something like 6 weeks, so i put it aside and worked on it sporadically when i had a moment or when hco bugged me about it. for some time though, i'd forgotten all about it, until the hco liaison asked me why i hadn't reported to her what was being done on the program. and she happened to mention this to me while i was running around trying to get other stuff done and was very busy! i said "can you please put it in writing so i can look at it later when i'm not so busy?" she got a look on her face that was very annoyed, and huffily said "fine!" and stormed off. later that day, i got the dispatch, along with a KR about my "rudeness" and how i wasn't doing the targets. whatever, so i worked on it.

then, later, when it came time to get these things printed, i sent them to the CLO since thats where we got all our stuff printed. at the time, the dissem chief post at the clo that was in charge of printing stuff was a revolving door of SO members. i never knew who was the dissem chief, or who to talk to about getting stuff printed, and what made it worse was that there was no phone number to contact them by! i had to send a written dispatch all the way over there (or a telex) just to see about it! the telexes were another part of it. i was still under the impression that things went according to policy, and i, myself, acted according to policy. there was always someone ready to put me in my place if i didnt. so didn't the SO have to do the same? i sent telex after telex to the dissem chief, with no response for WEEKS! and every time hco asked me what i was doing about the program, i told them, well its now in clo's hands, and i have telexed the information and i have telexed for pricing and i have telexed for updates with no response.

months went by before i got a response to my telex, and a very rude one at that! they told me that it would be done that weekend. its very frustrating to deal with a situation like that when the treasury department operates on a weekly deadline. money that i'd allotted for this order was just sitting there, and with events coming up (i think it was the MV events - TALK ABOUT ABSOLUTE HELL!!) the FCS was pulling money wherever she could find it, including my allotted funds for this project. so every week that they told me it would be done, i'd end up having to get another red po approved, since prior ones were cancelled. it made me look like a fool. and at that time, we had NO treas sec. can you believe it?? an org with no treas sec is chaotic! so the FBO was always there and put me down for not making things go right week after week.

finally, after 3 or 4 months, with hco making me crazy with dispatches, KRs, verbal badgering and ethics programs, i'd had enough. i tried to get it all sorted out with CLO one last time. there was an event THAT weekend and of course we HAD to have these signs! but of course, no response, and if/when i did finally get in touch with someone up there, the matter was basically blown off and i was given more promises about the ETA of the prints. the event came and went without the signs, so i wrote a huge KR about it, intending to send it to every possible related terminal, including RTC.

the only problem was that since i was still somewhat new, i didn't quite understand how to use the telex and reports system or how to address it correctly, and on top of that, there was no more paper (oh supplies!! i have stories about that!) and i ended up having to use red paper to get it printed. later, i found all 6 or 8 copies in my inbox, with a note from the LC that it was off policy to send red paper and that i needed to do it again. UGH! so i did it all over again, but there was still no paper and so i waited another couple weeks before i got to print the KR and route it.

about a month later, the prints were done. SIX MONTHS!! well that would have been a great relief, had they been the proper size!! they were all too small!! hco was going mad! i was going mad! i sent them back with another kr and an additional copy of the original kr. the kr came back with the new prints, with a sticky note on it saying i had sent the kr to EUROPE! oops.... well i had the prints now so i didn't bother with it anymore. i was tired of dealing with this same cycle for so long, so i just shredded the KR and hoped that RTC or someone didn't kill me for accusing the wrong people, or that the CLO EU didn't get in huge trouble for how incompetant i made them sound. oy!

 

[Stat]

Sai, so many parts of your story are so painfully familiar..
Wish you best, Stat.

 

[Student of Trinity]

I'm curious: how much of Scientology org staff work is production of advertising? Somehow an awful lot of the staff stories I've seen describe work on posters and books and pamphlets, or fundraising letters.

No doubt people tend to tell stories about more frustrating experiences, but from the stories, I get the impression that org staff collectively spend about 60% of their time producing marketing documents, 30% of their time sending reports or attending briefings, and maybe 10% of their time auditing public. Is this anywhere near accurate?

In fact, how many people are on staff in an org? I assume it varies widely, but what are the typical ranges for small, medium, large orgs? And among all these people, who actually does what? I've seen org charts, but I've gotten no idea how many people actually work on which activity, or what the official names for the departments really mean in concrete workaday terms.

It would be informative for people who've never been staff to get some idea of a typical 'day in the life of an org'.