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When I was on staff at a tiny crappy Mission

Tanstaafl

Crusader
Ooops.

Fluffy, I just remembered. The magpie thing came from something I heard said about Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. Sorry if I've ruffled your feathers with my inadvertent plagiarism. :eek:
 
So after a year and a half I found that it pretty much sucked there and that
no promise made to me would be honored. When I tried to get some time off to do some things I was told that since I didn't get this promise in writing,
then it wasn't valid. The mission holder did NOT deny making such promises,
either. So I said, Well, I just have about a year or so to go. I'm glad. She
then said my contract hadn't even started running yet because I hadn't done
all the staff statuses yet. (I've looked and looked through policy and
found this NOWHERE).



Every time any money came in to the mission, the missionholder took it and
said "oops, they owe me back rent.". I received $5.00 the whole time I was
working there.



Wow, that is really, really shitty. I know there is nonsense going on in every organization, but that's above and beyond. Glad I was able to resist the seemingly never-ending string of recruitment attempts.
 

Voltaire's Child

Fool on the Hill
Yes, it was pretty bad. They were venal and self interested. At the time, I thought it was just them and that the rest of the church was probably pretty good...I later found out that other staff member had it much much worse than I.

It's fascinating to watch the rationalizations people like that Missionholder- use to take advantage of others.

It wasn't funny at the time but it does seem a bit amusing in retrospect.
 

Voltaire's Child

Fool on the Hill
We've had some new readers since I posted this so I'm bumping this so that anyone who'd like to read another being on staff/expulsion story can do so.
 

Cherished

Silver Meritorious Patron
Thanks, Fluffy. Your experience working at the Mission was a nightmare. $5??!! Injustice can be so difficult to bear.
 

Voltaire's Child

Fool on the Hill
Yep.

A couple other things on that:

The missionholder, for a long time, treated me like another daughter, so this betrayal seemed worse, in a way. She was so self serving and unjust.

Another thing was that I was sexually harassed there by another staff member-prior, during and after my engagement to John and subsequent marriage- and nobody did anything even though I asked for help, asked for the correct policies on going through channels. In fact, I got put in a condition of Liability for asking for that help.

When they expelled us, I thought my world was coming to an end. I thought that the injustices were just THAT mission- I had no idea that the whole thing was/is a fruity little cult and that the shit was going on everywhere. There were signs, yes, but I didn't really believe them, I was still sure this was all fine. Sooo...I was freaking out and, in retrospect, taking it way too seriously.

The moral of the story is that salvation is within us...we all have our own connections to the Divine/Spirit whatever and that if someone tells you that only through them can you achieve salvation or anything like it, then something's WRONG.
 

JackStraw

Silver Meritorious Patron
So after a year and a half I found that it pretty much sucked there and that
no promise made to me would be honored. When I tried to get some time off to do some things I was told that since I didn't get this promise in writing,
then it wasn't valid. The mission holder did NOT deny making such promises,
either. So I said, Well, I just have about a year or so to go. I'm glad. She
then said my contract hadn't even started running yet because I hadn't done
all the staff statuses yet.
(I've looked and looked through policy and
found this NOWHERE).

Now that (bold) is funny, right there, I don't care who you are! (channeling Larry the Cable Guy)

In fact, like so much that passes for "standard tech/admin" it's exactly the opposite. Somewhere in staff status I or II is a policy that says if a new recruit doesn't finish within a certain amount of time, fairly short, that they are to be off-loaded for not being causative enough to be on staff!!:duh:

If you were "on staff" for a year or more without finishing that course (SSI or II) you were supposed to be let go.

Leave it to a senior terminal to f*ck that up!:thumbsup:

Jack
 

Voltaire's Child

Fool on the Hill
Yes, indeed, JackStraw. I like the way you think.

The cult does what it wants to do. For all its braying about "if it isn't written, it isn't true" and "what do your materials state" and "no verbal tech/policy" and all that-- they sure bend the rules and just do whatever they want to with members. And the thing is, it's widespread. With us, it was at a small mission in a largeish town but, all the same pretty tiny and cut off from things. And it goes on all over and clearly has been - long before DM took over from what I can see and grasp.

That's one of the hallmarks (in my opinion) of a cult. Maybe that won't be listed in any book or treatise about cults or any dictionary, but I think that's cultic.
 

byte301

Crusader
Not sure how I missed this thread!

Boy fluff, you sure got a nutcase with that mission holder! I lucked out. I was in 2 different missions in the beginning and both mission holders were very cool. I probably wouldn't have stuck it out so long otherwise.
 

Enthetan

Master of Disaster
The cult does what it wants to do. For all its braying about "if it isn't written, it isn't true" and "what do your materials state" and "no verbal tech/policy" and all that-- they sure bend the rules and just do whatever they want to with members.

You don't get it. The rules about making sure things were in writing and no verbal tech was to ensure that nobody OTHER THAN senior management could manipulate things.

Verbal orders by underlings would make it hard for LRH to keep track of what was going on, and therefore he didn't like it. It didn't apply to HIM, and the verbal orders he would issue via his Messengers.
 

Voltaire's Child

Fool on the Hill
Yep. Nothing applies to anyone in management unless they want it to. CofS plays politics. Really, anything LRH said that was philosophical or user friendly doesn't matter at all unless it can be used to manipulate someone. And it's not just the people who came after LRH. LRH was known for his own corrupt practices. It didn't all just magically happen the second DM took charge.
 
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