Note: The following article demonstrates how incredibly incompetent David Miscavige is as a manager. If you are not a Scientology staff member, you may have some trouble with the nomenclature and abbreviations. My apologies in advance. Nevertheless this article demonstrates David Miscavige's malicious ability to ignore LRH Policy and snatch failure from the very jaws of success. Thanks to Carmel for contributing. -- Thoughtful I had been “successful” as an FSM of “new public” after WISE consulting in the field, after I left staff and the C/S post in late '87. Around ‘91/’92 a recruit Mission arrived in ANZO, wanting to ‘man up’ the Class V Orgs with those who were doing well in the field. At that point the last thing I would have ever done would have been to go back on staff! But then a picture was painted, and I fell for it.
A bunch of us “ex staff” were all at a briefing by a couple of these missionaries from the US. They did a great sell job. They ‘indicated’ all the things that we thought were fucked about orgs (without any prompting from us), and were pretty intent on getting us lot back on staff to “fix the orgs up”. I thought it sounded great, but I wasn’t going to be in on it, because the thought of being on staff again gave me the heebie jeebies, and I wasn’t “staff member material” anyway.
These missionaries said that they had me named on their mission orders to get back on staff and take over the hat as ED of Syd Day. I didn’t believe this, but they were bloody gunning for me despite my outright opposition to the idea, and despite the fact that I was repeating the same “legitimate objection” over and over. They arrived at my house on several occasions determined to get me back on staff. I made it clear why I wouldn’t and couldn’t! I offered to help recruit people who could and would. They named four people in the field who had agreed to sign a contract and go back on staff if I was going to be the ED. Aagghh, that stung! I spoke with these people to see if it was true, and supposedly it was. Here were my friends saying, “come on, just imagine it, look at what we could do with that org if we all went back in together and were running the place.”
I was in turmoil. I so wanted the org to be a certain way, but I wanted others to go and make it that way, not me! I thought I was being selfish expecting others to do it, but by the same token I was ‘justifying’ my staying out of it, by pointing out that whoever went back in would need ‘active’ members in the field as well. I also made it clear that I wasn’t the one for the job, because of my disaffection with management. I put any and ALL of my “disaffection” on the table (which was a bloody shitload including all sorts of “enemy line” stuff), yet they didn’t appear to bat an eyelid. They agreed with me (verbally anyway), and insisted that the gripes I had, were the very things that upper management wanted 'handled' within orgs. The scales started to tip for me at this point. I had the idea, and/or was latching onto the hope that things were finally going to change.
I discussed much with these missionaries. I didn’t withhold a thing, yet they didn’t get me RB’d, or false data stripped, or crammed, or sent to ethics or anything. “Things MUST have changed”, I thought. They ‘agreed’ with my gripes, and reiterated that because of where I was at on all that, and my production record to date, that I was the one for the job.
They gave me a new hope that management were finally on the right page . If I wanted the orgs to reform, then how could I sit back and not be a part of that, while being so critical of the way they were, without contributing to making the ‘change’.
I wanted and I hoped, but I still didn’t trust. I said I would look at it, but that I’d only entertain the idea if I had it in writing that I could run the org on my own terms, as they had promised. The missionaires weren’t adverse to this idea. I said that if I was to go back on staff, that I’d require an addendum to my contract signed by them and the CO ANZO, confirming all that they had promised/agreed to – they agreed.
I typed up a three page addendum to the contract. I can’t now recall all that it included, but it included stuff like the following:
That as a mother, I wouldn’t be required to neglect my responsibilities as a mother because of my post in the org.
- That I could and would take time off from post, if and when I was required somewhere else, because of my kids.
- That because I had a family, I wouldn’t be required to work over and above usual “Day” hours (8.30am – 5.30pm with an hour for lunch).
- That I would be granted “leave” to go on vacation, once a year.
- That my after hours activities (like mixing with non-scios, and my consulting) wouldn’t be restricted or prevented because of my position with the CofS.
- That the org would be under my control, and that I wouldn’t be by-passed by management terminals, unless the GDSes were down-trending for 6 weeks or more.
- That any and all telexes to my staff would have to go via me.
- That my staff wouldn’t be subjected to any ethics or justice actions without my approval
- That I would have control of FP, given that I followed policy.
- That “Proportionate Marketing” HCOPL was something I’d be allowed to implement, in regard to FP and excessive financial expenses promoting to a very large and dead CF.
- That I could off-load whatever staff I wanted, and would not be product officered on “Recruitment in Excess”.
- That I wouldn’t be product officered on weekly stats, but be given breathing space to operate on six week and three monthly trends.
- That I wouldn’t be product officered on WDAH’s at all, but was happy to be answerable to the number of course completions.
Etc, etc, etc –.
Two missionaires, and the CO ANZO, signed the addendum to my contract, with no deletions. I talked my hubby into the “fact” that this was our chance to help make things ‘right’. He agreed (begrudgingly) to me going back on staff. I called my mate Shane (long term partner in crime within the CofS), who was at Flag at the time, for his permission or “blessing”. He was very much like me - same skepticisms etc. He didn’t like the idea, and didn’t trust what I was being told, but I gave him all the scoop, during a few phone calls, and he finally came around. Once he said “ok”, I was excited, and went ahead. I felt like it was Christmas.
Three of my mates came back on staff with me. There were four of us (at the top of the org board,) running the org as we thought it should be, and we were given the breathing space to do it. We had all been on staff before, and we all knew how to run a business (having had successful businesses of our own).
When I first started on post as ED, I wasn’t yet joined by my mates, and I felt like I was hit by a ton of bricks. It was numbing. It was nothing like the org I had worked in. It was sad.
- The Treas Sec was in tears, ‘cause the electricity was being turned off that day, because she couldn’t get a further extension on paying the electricity bill.
- 2/3 rds of phones had been cut off, because the phone bill wasn’t paid. (There were a couple of phones on another account still operating).
- 1/3 rd of the staff were miserable and didn’t want to be there. A few of them had resentment toward me, because I had mostly fsmed to Syd F and the AO (not Syd Day).
- The GI was around 1 or 2K a week, and had been for months.
- The C/S wasn’t well, and was pretty well chair bound, in her tiny office.
- There were only one or two HGC auditors
- The Purif area was a shocker, and wasn’t stocked with supplies that it needed.
- The academy was relatively empty.
- There was over $250K of unpaid refund/repayment requests ‘pending’.
- The cash/bills were crossed by about $200K (including PTF -payments to flag - and monies owed to the AO).
- Prospect lists for GI, and Paid Completions were ‘thin’ to say the least.
- There were no FSM’s or field groups feeding the org.
- I literally had 5 metres of telexes expecting responses, on my first day.
- I discovered that my very good friend, who was already on staff, was leaving! Aahh! They hadn’t told me. If they had, I probably wouldn’t have gone back there.
- And yeah, the org had run out of toilet paper.
I had Marion Whitta as my boss, she was CO Folo, and she was good for about a year and a half. If anything she was supportive and she was willing to back me up on what I wanted to do. She taught me how to answer telexes in a ‘PR fashion’ that would get the desired result from management in the US. She got her ANZO mgt guys off my back. When I was pissed off over any mgt or AO type crap, she could and would calm me down and help with a favorable solution. She allowed that org to be my baby, and let ME run it, despite the odd eye roll.
We obviously needed ‘public’. I kept FSMing, and somehow got most of my selectees to do their services on a Syd Day schedule – business hours. I rang everyone and anyone in the field who had ever FSMed and briefed them on the “new” Sydney Day.
I spoke to all the staff, to determine whether or not they should stay or go. For those that wanted to go, we just gave them a swift route out (with no sec checks, cause we didn’t have auditors to do them), which was pleasing to both them and me. We had enough staff, and I didn’t want “camouflaged holes”, so we only recruited people we knew and wanted, who we knew could actually help.
I refused to financially contribute to the monthly “bulk mail out”. It would cost the org $10K a pop, and it was all this glossy promo that I knew was ending up in the rubbish. I knew this ‘cause in the previous years I’d get on average about five particles in my mail box every day, and 95% of it was chucked without inspection. $10K a month to further irritate those people who had the misfortune to be on CF, and while the org needed new public because it couldn’t even afford to pay the power bill, was just a joke.
I also refused to pay for a third of “event costs”. The shit hit the fan. We had a meeting with all the key ANZO and AO Execs about it. Imagine a piddly org like Syd Day, having to pay one third of event costs – the same amount as the AO, which made sometimes 200 times the income than what Syd Day made! It was awful, but they couldn’t show me policy that required me to pay $10K towards their event, and I had policy to show them why I shouldn’t. In the end, I agreed to paying 10% of event costs (I wanted it to be 5% which would still have been generous). Syd Fdn's input also went down to 10% and the AO ended up paying 80% (instead of the 33% that they were previously getting away with). From this point on, relations between the AO and I became a little tense, and the CO Tours and I just didn’t talk at all after that.
ANZO was being run by women at this point, and the majority of them were just manipulative nasty bitches who had lost the plot I thought, on the real game. There was only one bloke amongst them with any weight, and he was an absolute girl when it came to standing up to the girls. They were all in so tightly together and scratching each other’s backs on everything. I was on the outer, and that was hard, but at least I had Marion.
JD, the reg, and I were good partners. We agreed that we should sell training, and the line up for that was relatively cheap and got good results pretty well straight up. We were selling “life repair” if needed, the Purif, the TRs and Objectives Co-audit, and then training packages (with a few intensives thrown in there, in case they were needed for repair. We just didn’t sell HGC auditing as a way of getting up the bridge, ‘cause we both thought it was crap.
In a fairly short time, from having no-one on the Purif and no-one on major courses in the academy, we now had 10 or 15 or so consistently on the Purif, and lots of students on course in the academy training on levels or NED. I spent most of my time drilling student auditors in the academy or reg’ing, and many of our students were co-auditing up the bridge. I was still FSMing for the org (and after my first three months on post, my FSM/C went to staff pay), and my friends in the field were also bringing selectees to our org for services. The org income was good, bills were being paid, the staff were relatively happy, not working on post after hours and they were taking their annual leave. On good GI weeks, we’d shout the staff breakfast at the Hilton on a Friday morning – and they’d all turn up despite the hour, because it was too good to miss.
We had the odd bludge/party time, like on Melbourne Cup day – prawns, lobster, cheeses, beer and champagne etc, with a TV set up in the div 2 area to watch the race. Staff and public alike all participated and had their punt with the sweeps we organized. Some of the SO Execs from upstairs at CLO even joined in; after I convinced them it was a good PR exercise.
I got the staff to stop calling the non-scios “wogs” (I just about sent them all to cramming on the 4th dynamic), and I got rid of the dreaded “hand to LRH” at muster every morning (that was a bit of a mind fuck though – I got taken off doing muster for a while ‘cause I refused to do it, and objected to it when it was originated). At muster every morning, I’d brief the staff on the world news, ‘cause most of them had no clue as to what was going on (not that I ever had a good grasp on it, but at least my grasp on it was better than nothing).
I wasn’t a good “Product Officer” and I never really wore that hat. I wasn't an ED's asshole, but because of who I knew, and my determinism to get what I wanted, I 'winged it'. I didn’t get my juniors to write up a condition formula every week, ‘cause I thought that was crap, but I did get them to write up a BP and we’d go over that with due regard to the condition formula that they should be applying. I considered that a “formula” every week based on stats, was such an arbitrary, and to some degree would keep one “pegged” ‘cause there was no room for futures – it was all just PT stuff, which wouldn’t get anyone anywhere in the long term. I could and did “product officer” staff on specific things that needed doing, but I didn’t product officer on stats – I hated it myself, it was non-productive, so I didn’t pass it on down to the staff. Besides, while things were going well, I didn’t need to, ‘cause my ass wasn’t really on the line. I did push for “sub-products” ‘cause I knew if they were gotten, then the GDS’s (gross divisional statistics) of the org, would look after themselves.
Daily, I used to get “metres” of telexes from mgt terminals in the US. I tried to get their arrival stopped, but that didn’t happen. I would glance through them, to make sure I wasn’t missing out on any info I wanted, but 90% of those telexes went in the waste paper basket without ever being answered. My senior knew that I’d trash the telexes, but she also knew that I had the addendum to my contract which she knew those telexes ‘violated’.
In the first year and a half, we did ‘well’. All the refund/repayment requests were ‘handled’ (we either paid back the dough, or got the person back on side, withdrawing their request). We uncrossed the cash bills and were in the ‘black’. We pretty well had competent and happy staff. Our “public” were doing well, and despite the odd shitfight with management, the staff were free to wear their own hats and were at least getting something that made a difference in their pay packets most weeks. AND, most importantly, we NEVER ran out of dunny (toilet) paper!
It wasn’t all peachy. Despite my addendum to my contract, being ED of that org at that time, I was continually blocking and fending. The amount of time I spent on getting various management terminals to fuck the hell off, was just INSANE. We had good stats, yet the effort from them to by-pass and get us to change out tack, was never ending. AND, there always seemed to be 10 bloody bosses (whose sole job it was to send orders) to every one of us suckers who had a hard enough time trying to get through reading the bloody 'orders', let alone the time to reply to them or even contemplate implementing them. It was a continual thorn in the side, and it never made sense.
Despite that, the org was still ours, and we were still 'in control' (or thought we were).
Things were trucking along fairly well, but out of the blue, we got a few orders from RTC, directly. We had previously gotten info type telexes, and/or blanket type study orders, but never orders specifically relating to our org.
Pete the HAS/HES (who’s shoulder I used to cry on frequently, and who could stand up to management), came to see me quite distraught with this bloody telex from RTC. I went and saw Marion the CO Folo about it. She was less than communicative with me, and just said that Pete would need to follow it. It wasn’t an answer as to what was going on, but she wasn’t going to give me one, and she clearly had bigger problems.
Then I discovered I had similar telexes. One of them was to take my PES off post, and put her through an Ethics/cramming program. Eeek – there appeared to be a new regime and it was getting slammed in hard! I was just ignoring the telexes and telling a couple of the staff to do the same. Marion was no longer being supportive, and Pete and I didn’t know what to do, except just hope it would go away.
It didn’t go away though. The SO guy that looked after telexes came down from CLO to see me, to get me to answer specific RTC telexes. I didn’t want to confront them. I couldn’t just answer them ‘cause I hadn’t complied, but doing “orders query of’s” would have taken time. Next thing Marion was telling me to answer the fucking telexes. So, I did the “orders query of’s”, and got the telexes taken upstairs to CLO. Next thing Marion came down to see me, and she suggested we go down the street for a coffee, so we did.
She told me that my telexes to RTC were not sent, and that they wouldn’t be. She said very slowly and deliberately “you DON’T query RTC, compliance is the only option”. I was stunned and like, wtf? With every origination I made to her in response, she just repeated the same thing, and wouldn’t give me any data. I asked her if that meant that RTC were now senior to LRH policy, did that mean we should just chuck KSW out the window etc, etc. She wouldn’t answer me and she wouldn’t talk with me. I could tell she knew much and was carrying a lot of weight on her shoulders, but at this time, I didn’t know what, exactly.
I got back to my office, packed up my stuff, told JD I wasn’t well, and that I was going home. I just left and took the RTC telexes with me.
I had several calls at home that night, demanding the telexes. In the end, a CLO crew member had driven out to my place to get them. I was still writing answers to the bloody things when he arrived (we used to just hand write our telexes, and the telex op would type them up for us). I just “PR’d”/bullshitted my way through them., and wrote what I thought they wanted to hear, and stuff that I thought I could get away with, at a pinch. It was a load of crock.
The next morning after muster, I told the guys (PES, HES and FBO) what had gone down. We didn’t really know what the scoop was, and we didn’t have a solution. There was still the pending order for the PES to be taken off post and put through ethics and cramming. This is embarrassing, but anyway....between us, we agreed to “pretend” that the PES was being handled. Eeek! That was the only solution I could come up with. We mocked up bullshit stories and compliance reports, for that and for other demands from RTC. I couldn’t comply to their orders, but nor could I get away with not complying, so I just pretended to comply, and got the other Execs of the org to do the same. Not good, but there ya go.
Soon after this, I got what I considered a very rude and ignorant telex from one of the RTC terminals, and I answered it with a bit of a knee jerk reaction. The CO Folo had stopped checking my telex responses, and it went through. My response wasn’t that bad (at least it wasn’t any worse than the one I had received in the first place and was responding to), but then an order came down to take me off post and get me sec checked.
I objected to being taken off post – the GI of the org had been great, the Paid Comps were ‘HE’s’ (highest evers) for years, and we had interns coming off as completions. It didn’t make sense. I argued to Marion that she should telex back, and say that she was cramming me on PR, on how to answer telexes, and/or on respect or something. But that was a no go.
I had gone off NOTS about a year prior to this, ‘cause it wasn’t going well for me, and I didn’t like it. It was grinding. I used my post and my schedule as a reason to be unsessionable, and somehow I got away with slipping under the radar on that one, despite the fact that I had ‘hours’, and that I was incomplete on OT5. Now that I was off post, requiring a sec check, two of my remaining intensives were used for that sec check.
I was back on post in a week, with a very different mindset. Looking back at it, this was a pivotal point for me – not only in regard to my time on staff, but also in regard to where I was at with upper management and RTC who were now obviously running the show. I felt like a fish out of water, and I really didn’t want to be there anymore.
The other Execs didn’t want to be there anymore either. Within a few months, Pete the HES/HAS took a leave of absence ‘cause his business was in need of his attention and he had financial problems. The FBO broke her contract and left staff after having her baby. Greg (Supra) also left due to business and financial problems. These were the three that came back on staff with me. The PES also took a leave of absence. So why the fuck did I stay? Fucked if I know!!! I had stopped FSMing in new public. I had lost any and all enthusiasm I had and I didn’t really care anymore. I had decided I was fighting a losing battle, but for whatever reason I stayed. I told my senior that I had had enough, and that if she could find another ED, that I’d be out of there. I had been there for two years at that time. I had another year to go on my contract, which I didn’t care if I broke or not. My free-loader bill would have been zilch, ‘cause I didn’t get any services that I hadn’t paid for myself.
I realized that I had wasted my efforts over the prior two years. What we had built up was being shat on big time. I didn't have the will or power to oppose it. The whole tone of the place changed, and everything became an effort. Any wins we had, didn't counter the crap. Getting new public started to become a struggle, the GI wasn't just rolling in anymore, and the number of students we had went on the decline. I was dealing with what was put in front of me, but I was no longer ‘creating’ anything, and I couldn't be bothered anymore.
An “eval” was done on the org (along with the other orgs in ANZO). I was briefed on the “eval”. The “why” for the org not making 5.4x the stats, from an arbitrary date 6 months prior was..... “The ED of the org was not wearing the hat of the ED, instead she was wearing the hat of an FSM and that of a C/S in the academy, with other fish to fry”. Straight after this eval, I was being comm-ev’d for stuff like in-subordination and non-compliance, through to impersonating an Scn executive staff member and using Scn harmfully.
A few months down the track, Phyll Stevens arrived back in ANZO as CO ANZO. This wasn’t good. I remembered our conflict in the early eighties, and so did she. Straight off the bat, she asked to see the addendum to my contract. I handed it to her. She read it, and literally ripped it up in front of me. I told her that she didn't have the right to do that, and that I had a copy of it. She looked at me, for some seconds, said nothing, scowled and walked off. I got the message from her loud and clear, and knew I'd be pretty fucked from then on. Phyll wasn’t someone to counter, and I didn’t have the inclination to even try after that. She scared me in the early ‘80’s, and she scared me even more at this time, ‘cause it was going to be even harder for me to “hide” and stay out of her way with the post of ED. I somehow just had to bide my time. I made it clear that I was leaving, and I tried to be invisible as much as possible, but sometimes I didn't do a very good job of that, and the face-rips were just horrid.
I had already "given up" really, before Phyll arrived back in ANZO. But, under Phyll, the by-pass of the org, into every div, despite "up statistics" in many cases, was constant, and something I no longer tried to tackle.
In the end, I was putting up with it all, and just shutting up where and when I could. Every now and then, I had an objection, but mostly, I didn't really care anymore. Elaine Allan, a replacement for me, was up-lines being hatted up to take over Syd Day on garrison mission. I was relieved when she arrived, I was finished up there and “free at last”, but I sure as hell wasn’t happy - I felt squashed and like I'd just wasted three years of my life. Written by Carmel
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