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EMPLOYMENT ISSUES UNIQUE TO JEHOVAH'S WITNESS EMPLOYEES
UNVERIFIABLE JEHOVAH'S WITNESS "INCIDENTS"
This page will be used to post appropriately edited summaries of Jehovah's Witness "incidents" which cannot be sufficiently verified to my comfort level. These may come from any number of sources. Some I have stumbled across on the internet while researching the topic of this website. Not all such stories will be posted. I will use my own judgment as to which stories have the "ring of truth", and which do not. Readers may email me "incidents" of which they have firsthand knowledge. To better ensure posting of such, I would encourage the providing of as many details as possible. I will then edit out names, locations, etc. to ensure that the involved parties cannot be identified, since I have no way to verify the accuracy of the allegations. I have not linked this page from the homepage, but rather have only linked it from other internal pages. That way, only serious readers/users of this website will even find this particular webpage. Readers should feel free to take these summaries for whatever they feel they are worth.
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In 1991, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an article which featured a Philadelphia-area Jehovah's Witness, named Antonio Bazemore, who was a "Claims Analyst", who had been laid-off by AIG Insurance Company in 1990. The gist of the article was about how Bazemore was a 30 year-old white-collar employee, who was then having problems supporting himself, his wife, and his child(ren), and had already sold one of his luxury autos, and might have to sell the other.
In 2002, "an" Antonio Bazemore, who was then employed as a "Claims Representative" in the Philadelphia area with AAA Mid-Atlantic Insurance Company, was charged with attempting to defraud an insurance company of approximately $18,000.00. Outcome of trial unknown. It is also unknown if this "Antonio Bazemore" is the same person featured in the 1991 article.
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The following CONFIDENTIALITY item was found posted on a public discussion board by a former Jehovah's Witness:
Pre-HIPPA there was a case at our local hospital where an JW CNA (certified nursing assistant) learned a newly baptized member was receiving a blood transfusion. She called the elders immediately, without regard for the fact that she would definitely lose her job - the thought never occurred to her that she was breaking confidentiality. There were extenuating circumstances, and fortunately, this person receiving the transfusion had a hospital rep call me. I let the elders know, without a doubt, that there would be basically 'hell to pay' if they DF'd this poor woman. This newly baptized person was mildly mentally retarded, high functioning enough to live independently with help from her nonJW family (who would have cut her off completely had they known she became a JW). I asked the elders if they were prepared to take over complete financial responsiblity and care of this person, because if the elders intervened at the hospital, this woman's family would abandon her completely. And I also reminded them that the hospital and the family could sue the sister who revealed the confidential information. (Had this been post HIPPA, this CNA sister would have faced termination of employment and possible criminal and financial charges.) All of this was just a little too overwhelming for them, espcially since the sister receiving the transfusion had sort of fallen through the cracks and had no contact with the local congregation for about a year - she had moved in with her elderly parents to care for them in a remote area and the congregation took on an 'out of sight, out of mind' attitude about her existence. Bottome line - the fear of displeasing the Borg is so great that man rank and file JWs will breach confidentiality and cannot be trusted!
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The following CONFIDENTIALITY item was found posted on a public discussion board by a former Jehovah's Witness:
This happened back in the 80's, and I'm sorry to say that I was the one who breached confidentiality. Back then I sold life insurance, and a sister from another congregation called me because she wanted life insurance on her husband. The life company ordered a urine sample, and I got a report back that it had a heavy nicotine concentration. Stupid me--I called the sister (instead of the husband) stating that we needed another test because the company probably got the wrong sample, and suggested that we take another sample. To make a long story short, he decided not to take the policy stating he would rather do business with another company. Then I got a call from the sister's father (an elder) asking me if I had any idea why his son-in-law was turned down for insurance. I did not reveal any information to him, but ended up asking a local elder for advice, who advised me to write to the Society. In my letter to the Society (I still have a copy) I wrote that I was required by law not to divulge confidentiak information (although that was exactly what I was doing), but felt the elders in his congregation might need to know these things. I stated that I hoped that by writing to the Society that somehow this information would not be traced back to me. Watchtower's reponses to my letter:
The first response came two weeks later commending me for my "fine spirit in wanting to care for this matter properly." The second letter came 11 months later, and the second paragraph was very interesting. It stated:
"It is not within the province of the Society nor of the elders to tell individuals what they should do when working in employment requiring them to maintain confidentiality. Each one will have to be responsible for his own actions before Jehovah. It is necessary to preserve one's relationship with Jehovah and to protect the organization, but each one will have to bear his own load of responsibility in this area. The Scriptures plainly teach that there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed and no one can indefinitely continue to deceive Jehovah, his organization or their congregation with which he might be associated. The decision to reveal confidentail information concerning possible wrongdoing on the part of a person claiming to be a Christian ultimately rests with the person who has come to know of it."
Of course, the letter ended with "warm Christian love and best wishes." C___'s response when he read the letter was that it looked like they were trying to absolve themselves of any responsibility. I went against his advice not to have written my letter in the first place, and now when I look at it, it's hard to understand why I bothered.. Recently, I saw a known JW smoking at his workplace and never gave a thought to turning him in. I never had a conversation with this sister after this about the matter, but did learn that she did end up with a new husband.
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"Its so exciting to be able to speak with someone while you're at work. Its a nice break from the typical monotony of it. Every once in a while my boss will bring something up. I've given him the All Scriptures Are Inspired book, and he seemed to really like it. Sometimes I really wish I could preach to the people on the phone though, because they're in pretty rough condition most of the time. Sometimes I can see on their profiles from the doctor that they're Jehovah's Witnesses, and I wish I could say something to them, but with all the HIPAA craziness, I wouldn't want to lose my job over it at this point."
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IN RE ALLEGHENY HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION, ET AL was a 1999 Pennsylvania bankruptcy court case which involved a dispute between Graduate Hospital and Tenet Healthcare system. Details are sketchy, so Readers interested in this lawsuit should do much more research. As best as I can figure, Graduate Hospital was only one hospital among several in Pennsylvania owned by the same parent organization that went bankrupt in the late 1990s. Tenet Healthcare purchased some or all of the group's assets.
Apparently, Graduate Hospital had established one of the first "bloodless medicine" programs in the United States. The employee who founded and ran the program was a Nurse Practioner named Kay Williams (aka Kay Williams DuPree). Although I have no direct proof that Williams - DuPree was a Jehovah's Witness, in the 1990s, when such programs were just being founded, it was not uncommon that the local founders of bloodless programs were JWs, or had some connection to the JWs.
Amongst the issues in this lawsuit was the ownership status of a list of Jehovah's Witnesses who were potential customers of "bloodless surgery". It is not known what Williams - DuPree specifically did or did not do to be named in this lawsuit, but the lawsuit stated: "... plaintiffs assert that Kay Williams, one of the instant defendants, has breached her fiduciary duty to the debtor-affiliated enterprise ... ." Outcome unknown.
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In the mid-1990s, an "artist" hired a Jehovah's Witness to provide "value-added" services to much of that artist's intellectual property, so that such could be profitably marketed. This reportedly ended up to be a several years' process during which the artist died. The artist's family and other heirs were reportedly unaware of the arrangement, and the JW allegedly knowing such, did not return the artist's property to the estate. Allegedly, within only a few years after the death of the artist, the JW began to market as their own creation the "value-added" form of the better quality property, and later, even the lesser quality property in its essentially original form.
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In the mid 1990s, a Jehovah's Witness, who owned a growing business which employed a number of other Jehovah's Witnesses, including Elders and Ministerial Servants, wanted to build a new commercial building to house his offices and warehouse. This JW located a desirable piece of land in an affluent suburb, which had a light commercial zoning, despite being surrounded by high-value residential properties. The JW needed to obtain a zoning variance simply to qualify a warehouse for the tract. However, this JW's operations generated too much traffic (including semi and other large trucks), which would have to travel through or adjacent to the surrounding residential areas. That, plus other now long forgotten issues, would have certainly disqualified this JW from obtaining the variance he needed from the local zoning board. What to do?
JW conspired to lie to the zoning board. After consulting with one real estate attorney to educate him on everything needed to be done and said to obtain the variance, JW then employees a second attorney to represent him in his case to the zoning board. JW provides all the "right answers" to second attorney. When zoning hearing is scheduled, employed attorney must attend by himself, because JW must attend an out-of-town appointment which cannot be re-scheduled!!!
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A Jehovah's Witness who worked as a restaurant "server" was fired when the employer allegedly caught the JW stealing tips. The details are unclear, but this Jehovah's Witness server had apparently been assigned to divide up the restaurant's tips among the various employees at the end of shifts. At some point, the JW's co-workers became suspicious that the JW was taking more than their share. The JW was interrogated by the manager, who decided the co-workers were correct. Manager was sufficiently certain to make the termination. JW maintained that a mistake might have occurred, but if such did happen, such was unintentional. Employer heard nothing more from JW after termination.
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A Jehovah's Witness Employee was penalized for refusing to wrap Christmas presents which the employer was donating to/through a separate charity. Complaint supposedly filed with EEOC.
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"THE NEW PHONE BOOKS ARE HERE!!!" - "THE NEW PHONE BOOKS ARE HERE!!!" No, that's not Steve Martin's famous line from his 1970s movie, "The Jerk". That was what I used to repeatedly hear cronically unemployed Jehovah's Witness "Pioneers"announcing every year at the Kingdom Hall, when I attended in the 1990s.
From what I recall of their annual excite-fest, once a year the local telephone company, plus the company that distributes the knock-off, hire people to deliver the new phonebooks to businesses and residences. I always assumed that meant that every business and home received two telephone books, in a plastic bag, dumped out onto their driveway or walkway.
However, according to a former Jehovah's Witness who actually used to work for the telephone company during these annual projects, things are a little more sophisticated than I had assumed. Posting on a public discussion board, that ex-JW stated that the delivery people were given a computer printout which listed all the homes and businesses in their delivery territory. That computer printout supposedly listed every home and/or business on each street, the names of the owners or tenants, the address, and their TELEPHONE NUMBER -- EVEN IF IT WAS "UNLISTED".
The poster confessed that he used to make a photocopy of that computer printout before he turned it back into the telephone company each year. The telephone company's confidential information was then used by the local Jehovah's Witnesses in their recruitment activities -- telephoning, mailing, etc.
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Two Jehovah's Witness contractors were hired to perform work at a small manufacturing company. A couple weeks or so after the job was completed, one of the JWs returns several tools belonging to the customer, which the other JW had "mistakenly" placed in his own toolbox. Owner did not buy the explanation for several reasons, including the fact that the JW who supposedly picked up the tools by mistake was not the one who returned such; the tools taken were not the type used for the work the JWs were hired to do; and the tools had been stored near where the JWs were working, but not in exact same area.
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A Jehovah's Witness "Educator" pursued employment within an area of education that required the obtaining of a Master's Degree within a set period of time. JW hired a second JW, who did not even have a bachelor's degree, to write their Master's Thesis. Un-degreed JW had been recommended to first JW Educator by a second JW Educator, who Un-degreed JW had "helped" with their Master's Thesis.
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A Jehovah's Witness Employee of a contracting firm was caught stealing salvaged materials from his contractor employer and using such to remodel his own home. Employer simply made the JW Employee reimburse the value of the stolen materials.
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In 2006, an African-American Jehovah's Witness "guardian" filed a federal lawsuit against a governmental entity charged with the care of her "child", which presented a plethora of racial and religious discrimination allegations. Interestingly, back in the 1990s, this very same Jehovah's Witness was once charged with child care neglect while operating a day care facility.
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An employee of a small Jehovah's Witness owned and operated appliance repair business, whose clientele was mainly the elderly and other low/fixed income persons who could not afford to purchase new appliances, struggled with his conscience after years of hearing his JW co-workers coyly related with a smile how, "Jehovah always provides", whenever the JW Repairmen had extra personal expenses pop up, such as having to travel out-of-town to give the public talk at another congregation, or attend a WatchTower convention. By the day such expenses were due, these JW Repairmen always had "miraculously" managed to encounter the exact amount of repairs that day or that week needed to pay their extra bills.
Employee related one particular incident that occurred on a Friday afternoon when one of his JW co-workers came back to the shop and announced without embarrassment that he had been forced to overcharge an elderly female customer for a service that was normally included in the flat service fee, so that he would have enough money to attend the out-of-town JW assembly that weekend. "Jehovah had provided."
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A former JW husband and wife recently posted on a public discussion board that they had beened "shunned" by a WalMart employee who is an Elder at a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses that they formerly attended. The couple reports that this JW Employee had first shunned them on a previous visit. However,when the Elder shunned them a second time while he was working as the "door greeter", they had the courage to report his improper conduct to the Store Manager. The Store Manager apologized for the JW Employee's behavior, and promised that the JW Employee would be counseled that WalMart would not tolerate a JW Employees' practicing shunning while the employee was performing job duties.
While this couple should be praised for having the courage to report the JW Employee's improper behavior, they should have demanded a written response. That would have forced the Store Manager to report the incident to corporate headquarters. HQ would then have investigated the matter, both specifically and generically, and then a company-wide policy against shunning would have been adopted and communicated throughout the world.
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Another former JW recently posted on a public discussion board that they had beened "shunned" by a JW Employee who was working as a WalMart "door greeter". However, that poster did not have the courage to report the improper behavior to Store Management. Typical of the majority of former JWs, that courage-less poster rationalized away their participating in and facilitating their own shunning. Yet, they then take the time to whine on a public discussion board.
I can't help, but am in a similar situation. My co-worker is a Jehovah's Witness who thinks her job is to judge everyone else. She says she is a Christian, but she is not. She uses her religion to hurt other people. She claims that because she is religous, she does not lie, and then proceeds to trash everyone she doesn't like. The boss believes her because "religous people can't lie". What a racket!
At my job there is a man who is a Jehovah's Witness. I spend two hours with him every day during the changeover from day shift to night shift. He has begun his mission with me and others at work to save us from eternal damnation. Because of his proselytizing I have done a little research into the JW organization. I believe that the word "cult" accurately describes it. They are certainly well meaning people, but they have no tolerance for discussion with sound rebuttals to their belief system. He gave me some literature which I read and I found rebuttals for all the inconsistencies. I made a list of websites that answered the false claims of his literature and asked him if he wanted to look at them. He said ther was no reason for him to get involved with "apostates". So it's OK for me, who he knows is a practicing Catholic, to read his literature which refutes the basic tenets of my faith, but he has no time to read or think about anything that might contradict his faith. That tells me that his faith is based on sand and would be easily washed away by the truth. I plan on telling him that I no longer want to hear his proselytizing. There really is [no] place for it in the workplace.
The people I work with have been wonderful [save for the Jehovah's Witness, but he's been fired for poor work ethic, being slow, and annoying the hell out of everyone], but management and the organization of the company has been far less than spectacular. ... I liked it enough that I would have asked to be put on install permanently, but that's where the Jehovah's Witness was at the time and I wasn't about to work with him [he got me riled up way too much every time we worked together].
My husband's coworker is a Jehovah's Witness. He has always made comments to him about everything that's wrong with everything that everyone else believes. And it just so happened that last week he happened to be over our house when I got home from work. This was the first time I had actually met him face to face. ... ... Then the next day, he gave my husband a hard time about "letting me get into that STUFF"! I can't believe how rude and self righteous some people can be ... actually I guess I can. But here's the real kicker... the reason he was over my house was to break into his wife's email account only to find out she was cheating on him! Hypocrit!
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