So, You Want to Join a Cult - Part XXXIII - The Nineties (prelude)

A lot was going into the nineties. My first wife, Pat, and I completed our family — Steven, our youngest of six children, was born in December 1990; another child became deathly ill due to mold and bacteria after our rental home was flooded; there were continual changes and challenges at my job in circulation at the Omaha World-Herald newspaper; we started home schooling; and we were adapting to the changes that re-involvement in The Way was causing. 

In late 1990, when we got back involved with The Way, Pat and I had been married for nine years. We had developed a routine that had nothing to do with organized religion, including The Way, although we still believed broadly in the doctrines taught by The Way. It wasn't really obvious back then, but Pat and I had two divergent world views. Pat would have fit right in with today's right-wing Christian Nationalist types. She had a down-in-the-bone conviction that there was a literal spiritual battle going on in the world, literally believed that the Devil and his minions were actively working against Christians. As we had isolated ourselves from, not only The Way, but from any type of organized religion, she didn't have the vocabulary to articulate those beliefs. I, on the other hand, wasn't as literal-minded in my beliefs. I still had some residual thoughts about devil spirits, prayer, etc., but didn't really make it part of my daily life. The other characteristic in which we were opposites was that I was usually willing to compromise, or reach a consensus, whether it was in my marriage, work life, or personal relationships, while Pat was more of a black-and-white thinker — no grey areas whatsoever. Most of the time this didn't present any problems — areas that she was uncompromising on, were often areas here I could go either way; when it did present problems, I acquiesced to her wishes in order to maintain peace. This difference in personality would become important as our nineties in The Way progressed. 

The main divergence in opinion came about when our two oldest were in fifth and third grades respectively. Ben, our oldest, got bullied a lot at school. Chris, two years younger, didn't have that problem, but was habitually behind in his schoolwork and had continual struggles with reading and understanding. Pat thought that the solution to these problems would be home schooling. 

I'm not saying that home schooling is always a good choice, or always a bad choice. I certainly don't accept the criticism that home schoolers are socially awkward and have no friends, or never leave the house. My kids were involved in sports (and in fact were outstanding in track), 4-H and several of them achieved the rank of Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. The younger children were involved in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. But home schooling, if done right, takes a lot of time and effort. Initially, Pat put in that time and effort. She had gone to college to be a teacher, although she did not graduate. She was organized and for the first several years did put in the time and effort. My role was more peripheral. I had a full time job that took me out of town several days a week, so Pat did most of the work. Maybe the fact that the bulk of the work of home schooling would fall upon Pat made it easy for me to give in. I also didn't have any strong arguments against home schooling. 

Although the initial impetus for considering home schooling was Chris' need for more one-on-one attention, and Ben's being bullied, the rationale changed to more of an emphasis on spiritual warfare. The local home schooling support group was dominated by evangelical-fundamentalist Christians, who believed that the public school system was the Devil's playground and that public school students were being actively taught to turn against God. Pat absorbed this mindset; it meshed perfectly with The Way's position on the so-called spiritual battle, even though The Way did not encourage home schooling. 

As we transitioned into Way life, we (at least one of us) was primed to see everything as a God vs. The Devil struggle, yet not at all prepared for the increasing level of control that being involved in The Way necessitated. Yet we both had retained a belief that Wierwille, the original leader of The Way, had hit upon an interpretation and application of The Bible that was, not only correct, but not to be found anywhere outside The Way. Problems that we had encountered in The Way we chalked up to people, leaders who had strayed from the path set by Wierwille, not to The Way itself. 

In some ways we were primed for the increased cultishness of The Way in the nineties, in others we were ticking bombs of rebellion, waiting for our moment to explode.

Start from the beginning: Part I

So, You Want to Join a Cult - Part XXXII - The Man of God for Our Time

Back in the seventies and early eighties, pretty much anyone who was interested could show up unannounced to a Way meeting, and unless you were disruptive or argumentative you could keep coming back for as long as you liked, although you weren't really considered "in" until you took the PFAL class. Things were different in 1990. Part XXX - From The Frying Pan outlined what was going on in The Way during our absence, the splintering of the organization that accompanied a rebellion among top leaders. Trust wasn't as easy to come by as it had been. 

So, we had our meeting with Gary & Mary, the Limb (state) Coordinators for The Way of Nebraska. While from our point of view the meeting was simply to touch base with the Way leaders and find out where fellowships were being held and when a PFAL class was going to run. That meeting looked a lot different from the other side. Gary and Mary were checking us out to make sure we weren't trying to infiltrate The Way from one of the splinter groups — to make sure that we would be good little cult members and not rock the boat. 

The first thing that we were asked to do after we were contingently invited to be part of The Way was to attend a weekend presentation of what was euphemistically called "The Leadership Tapes". As I referred to in Part XXX - From The Frying Pan, Way President Martindale at some point decided that he was going to assert his de jure authority and demand that Way Corps leaders at all levels decide whether they would stand with him, the one anointed by Founder Wierwille, or to the instigator of the rebellion, Chris Geer. This resulted in an exodus of roughly 80% of Way leaders and membership. In order to regain control of the narrative he taught a series of seminars, first to the remaining leaders and later to non-leaders, explaining his understanding of what had happened to The Way and to him during what he began to refer to as "The Fog Years". These seminars were taped and were initially called "The Galatians Tapes", after Galatians 3:1 — "Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?", but later were renamed "The Leadership Tapes". A group of us gathered at the home of Gary and Mary outside Syracuse (a small town a half hour east of our home in Lincoln) We spent the whole weekend listening to Martindale's rationale for allowing the organization he was entrusted with to explode and his plans for moving forward.

Martindale's long and rambling explanation was predicated on the belief that 

1. The Way was more than just an organization. It was literally all that was left of God's "household"
2. V.P. Wierwille was ordained by God to bring new light to this generation 
3. L. Craig Martindale was anointed by Wierwille to be his successor and to lead this "faithful remnant"

This put anyone who opposed him in the position of opposing God. 

While the belief in Wierwille and The Way being on a special mission to reestablish First Century truths was widely accepted and taken for granted, in the past it had been viewed as Wierwille accepting a divine commission to study and teach, rather than some pseudo-infallibility. Sure, there was an expectation that Wierwille's word was law and his interpretation of The Bible was not to be gainsaid, but it was more due to his skill at Biblical research rather than an intrinsic inability to be wrong. Now we were being encouraged to believe that there was some kind of magical-spiritual something that was conferred by God on Wierwille and passed on to Martindale that made any argument an argument against God.

Game changer.

The tapes broke down in minute detail, according to Martindale's point of view, the steps that his main antagonist, Wierwille's former bodyguard Chris Geer, took to undermine his authority and plunge The Way into chaos. Geer was portrayed not merely as power hungry, or a trouble maker, but almost wizardly in his abilities and demonic in his inspiration. Throughout the seminar, Martindale identified what he said were specific "devil spirits" (some Christians refer to these simply as "demons") operating within, not only Geer, but virtually every other person who opposed Martindale. This was not something being discussed as theoretical, or behind closed doors, or as a fringe idea; this was now the out-in-the-open, officially sanctioned policy and position of The Way. Martindale is "The Man of God for Our Time" (later jokingly turned into the acrostic MOGFOT) and anyone who opposes him, in any way, is possessed by devil spirits. 

Why didn't we run away as fast as we could after this? Mainly because we still harbored the thinking that the teaching found in The Way was as close to truth and Biblical accuracy as you could get, and we had missed the years of internal conflict, therefore missing out on hearing the other side's version of the conflict. At any rate, we were in the thick of it now.

Start from the beginning: Part I

Go to: Part XXXIII

So, You Want to Join a Cult - Part XXXI - Getting Back In

The Way did not consider you one of them until after you had taken what they called the foundational class, Power for Abundant Living (PFAL). You could show up to their meetings, even contribute time and money, but without graduating from PFAL, you were just another "unbeliever". Even though my wife and I were not involved throughout most of the eighties, we still considered ourselves believers, and still viewed PFAL as the way to gain a basic knowledge of the Bible, even though we were not at the time involved with The Way. The usual minimum age that children were allowed to take PFAL was twelve (with parental permission). Toward the end of the eighties our two oldest children were approaching that age, so we tried systematically teaching them from the PFAL syllabus and collateral material. It was somewhat less than successful. 

Those of us who got involved in The Way in the seventies were generally high school or college students. We were also enthusiastically looking for answers. Part of the appeal of what The Way provided was that it was different from the religion that we were brought up with, different from our parents' religion. It was a way to rebel. We were unsophisticated enough in scriptural study to be unaware how shoddy Wierwille's "Biblical research" actually was, but curious enough to care about the minutia of things like "four crucified" or whether Jesus was or wasn't God. Those of who got involved when we were teenagers were now raising teenagers of our own, and PFAL was just "Mom's & Dad's religion" to them. However I didn't realize at the time that the lack of enthusiasm that I was seeing in my own sons was pretty common among second generation Way kids. Wanting to give our children the foundation in "Biblical truth" that I had, we decided that we would seek out the local Way leaders and get our oldest son enrolled in a PFAL class. 

At the time I don't think we wanted to get wholeheartedly back involved in The Way, but just get our kids through PFAL. We knew a few people who were still active in The Way and asked them to set up a meeting with the local Way leaders — Gary & Mary, Way Corps graduates who were the Limb (aka state) Leaders of Nebraska, who also ran a home fellowship. That meeting was to affect the next ten years of our lives. 

Start from the beginning: Part I

Go to: Part XXXII

Workin' Man - Part XXXIII - Remote Work

Well, I get up at seven, yeah

And I go to work at nine
I got no time for livin'
Yes, I'm workin' all the time

It seems to me
I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess that's why they call me
They call me the workin' man

'Cause I get home at five o'clock
And I take myself out an ice cold beer
Always seem to be wondering'
Why there's nothin' goin' down here

I guess that's why they call me
They call me the workin' man

"Workin' Man" - Words & Music by Lee & Lifeson 

 Remote work on a large scale was approved in April 2020 in response to the Covid pandemic. I was given equipment and remote access to Department of Revenue computer systems and worked from my home. In late 2021 the Tax Commissioner directed that, while remote work was still permitted, all employees would have to work in the office on a regular basis some of the time. My group was only required to come in once per month. Department-wide, productivity did not suffer, and many of us were in fact more efficient. If we wanted to work from home we had to sign a remote work agreement which stipulated that remote work was a privilege, not a right, which was somewhat insulting given that there were mutual advantages to the arrangement, but there was no getting around it. When I was promoted to Senior Agent in the Refund Claims Group I was told that the standard was one day in the office (Monday) where the whole team was in the office together and one additional day at our own discretion. If I was actively training a new person the requirement increased to four days each week. I thought this was fair, since a new hire definitely benefitted from face-to-face contact with their trainer. One of the up sides to remote work, was if you were feeling under the weather, rather than taking a sick day, you could still be productive by working at home and sparing your coworkers from catching whatever bug you had. 

One huge change was paperwork reduction. Even though we all had computers, and the claims we were working often came to us online, we still printed everything out. Multiple copies of forms had to be signed and distributed to various stakeholders. Once most of us decamped to our domiciles however, this couldn't be maintained. At first a handful of people would come in and print out everything and walk it over to its destination, but after a few months we had successfully transitioned to doing all of our work online. The savings on thousands of reams of paper every quarter should have been a legitimate reason to continue the remote work option. But...

In December 2023 the Governor announced that remote work was ending as of January 2024. For a big change like this I would have expected to receive the information via an all-department email from the Tax Commissioner, however we found out from media coverage of the governor's announcement. No follow-up from department leadership was forthcoming. The only communication that we received was an email from Human Resources during the last week of December "reminding" us that remote work was ending in a few days. The union immediately protested the change and a judge put the governor's change on hold. The following day the Tax Commissioner announced that he was ending remote work, stating that this was completely separate from the governor's order. The court ended that as well. These holds were temporary until the union could goth rough the process of protesting the change. 

The governor chose this time to visit various state agencies, including the Department of Revenue. We were treated to a speech from the governor telling us how he wasn't a politician and how much he loved Nebraska and then asked if there were any questions. I had one: "When you make decisions like this that affect thousands of people, do you look at the evidence, do you talk to experts, or do you just make decisions based on feelings?" He rambled on for a few minutes without really answering the question. My manager was horrified, but dozens of people stopped by my desk to thank me for speaking out. After around six months of back and forth the union lost their protest and remote work was ended for good. 

This change resulted in an exodus of experienced personnel. People had gotten used to working from home, and there were many people who were hired with the understanding that remote work was an option. In the Incentives Group three experienced auditors left to take jobs outside the department. Several more quit within a few months. This was taking place throughout the department and positions were remaining vacant for months at a time. 

I immediately brought back all the state-owned equipment from my home. If I wasn't permitted to work at home, I certainly wasn't going to be responsible for storing their equipment there. I was already working three to four days a week at the office due to my training responsibilities, so it wasn't that much of a change. However one day the power went out and we were told that we should work remotely by taking our laptops home. My manager's manager told me that I should be taking my laptop home every day. Previously the state was required to pay us for a full day if our work site was inaccessible. (This had happened only once since I started)  I refused to do this, since there was no remote work agreement in force. Later, an update to the remote work policy gave us the option to work remotely if Lincoln Public Schools closed due to weather. I took advantage of this once. 

In addition to remote work, one of the advantages to working for the Department of Revenue had been scheduling flexibility. If you needed to adjust your schedule due to an appointment or other personal reasons, you just did it, you didn't need to ask permission. This worked very well for me if I had a wedding or wanted to see a show at The Zoo Bar. But a few months before I retired, this flexibility was taken away. Any deviation that resulted in more or less than eight hours per day had to be approved by Human Resources or the Front Office. Permission was often not granted. (This was a violation of the union agreement, but I wasn't a union member, nor did I want to make too many waves this close to retirement, so I let it slide)

I didn't know what direction the micromanaging was taking, or which informal benefits would go next, but with the difficulty everywhere in staying fully staffed, I can't say that these are good ideas. But I was retiring soon, as I said...

Start with Part I

Go to: Part XXXIV

So, You Want to Join a Cult - Part XXX - From The Frying Pan

I'm skipping over the years 1983 to 1989, since I wasn't involved with The Way during that time. Even though I was still very much "Waybrained", I wasn't under the daily influence of their way of thinking. I still bought into Way assumptions and theological conclusions like speaking in tongues, the non-divinity of Jesus, the "law" of believing and all that. But beliefs, no matter how non-mainstream, do not a cult make, it's the behavior of its adherents and the influence of its leaders and we were not in touch with any Way leaders at that time. But while we were gone there was a lot going on in The Way. 

In 1980 Victor Wierwille, the founder and president of The Way "retired" and appointed the Director of the Way Corps, Craig Martindale, as his successor. The handing over of authority was a big deal. For many years Wierwille had encouraged the rank and file to view him as "The Man of God For Our Time" in the mold of the Apostle Paul, Moses or Elijah. So the presidency of The Way was not simply a corporate title and his role as the teacher of The Way's foundational class, Power for Abundant Living (PFAL) was not simply that of an academic or scholar. No, Wierwille was ordained, anointed, chosen by God to bring new light regarding the Bible to our generation. I don't believe he ever came out and said it overtly, but he certainly allowed the sentiment to proliferate. Therefore the passing of the mantle to a new generation was literally the passing of a mantle. An elaborate ceremony was conducted in October 1982 (the supposed 40th Anniversary of The Way), with enough pomp and circumstance that would not be out of place in a royal coronation, Martindale had an actual mantle placed on his shoulders, was anointed with oil and took a "salt covenant" and had Wierwille and the other two Trustees lay hands upon him. Within three years Wierwille was dead.

The early to mid eighties were the peak years of The Way's numbers and influence. There were Way fellowships in all 50 states, including flourishing branches in the major population centers. There was a Way presence of over 40 countries outside the United States. The United Kingdom was a major center of Way outreach and had a European Way Corps training center located in Scotland. The central African nation of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) rivalled the U.S. in the number of active Way fellowships. Things were looking good in Wayworld. But looks could be deceiving.

The choice of Martindale as the new president of The Way was not a universally popular choice. The hierarchy was no different from any other organization, secular or religious, in that it was populated by many ambitious men (women too, but The Way was basically a patriarchal organization). Despite the trend toward leaders in any capacity higher than Twig level being Way Corps graduates, the internal operations of Way Corps training were a virtual black box to most Way adherents. Even among the Way Corps, once graduating, they were no longer effectively under the day-to-day authority of the Way Corps Director. The Twig coordinators answered to Branch coordinators who answered to State Coordinators and up the chain to the Board of Trustees. Many men who had attained high rank in the organization surely thought that they should have been called to be the next "Man of God for Our Time". Most non-Way Corps didn't even know who Craig Martindale was and had been speculating about which of the more visible and more popular leaders would be the next president. While Wierwille was still alive the fact that he supported Martindale kept everything in line.

When Wierwille died all Hell broke loose. Wierwille had been the glue holding it all together. His pronouncements had always been beyond question and his decisions could not be gainsaid. Many of the top leaders during this time had come to be involved in The Way when teenagers or college students and saw Wierwille as a wise father figure, while Martindale was just one of them, lacking the esteem that most felt toward their "Father in The Word". The focus of the unrest was Chris Geer, Wierwille's former bodyguard and driver who had been assigned to the directorship of the European Way Corps. He authored a paper called "The Passing of a Patriarch" where he criticized Martindale and his fellow Trustees and claimed to be the recipient of Wierwille's last words. He never attempted to stage a coup and take over as leader, but he did undermine the confidence that people had in the de jure leaders. Little by little state and local leaders began to look to him for guidance and direction. Other leaders began to speak up and point fingers as well. Some in support of Martindale, some in support of Geer, some completely independent of both. 

At some point Martindale had had enough. He sent a letter out to all active Way Corps leaders demanding that they decide who they would be loyal to — himself, as the de jure leader of The Way, or to Chris Geer. Many of my fellow ex-Wayfers would disagree, but in retrospect this was a reasonable stance to take. Many of these leaders were still on The Way payroll and were supposedly within the Way hierarchy, yet were taking their marching orders from a technically illegitimate source. Martindale's choices in reality were limited to cutting loose those who wouldn't follow him, or succumbing to the pressure and resigning himself. Any of those leaders who felt that following Geer was the right, godly thing to do should have openly done so. Unfortunately for Martindale his letter did more harm than good. Even leaders who were standing in support of him were offended at what they categorized as a demand for a "loyalty oath". Eighty percent of leaders and rank and file members ended their affiliation with The Way at that time. Former leaders, including Geer, started their own offshoot ministries (often derided as "sticks", in contrast to "twigs" by those who stayed with the original organization) with many of the Way groups outside the United States breaking away as well. After things began to settle down Martindale dug in his heels. He taught several seminars giving his spin on what had happened, painting it as a battle between the forces of godliness and Devil-inspired evil. He described those who left as becoming a "grease spot by midnight" for leaving the "household of God" and those who remained as "the faithful remnant". If Wierwille's approach was to present himself as the wise and loving father and grandfather, controlling through cajoling and encouragement, even while ruling with an iron fist and berating his intimates behind the scenes, Martindale went into full-on dictator mode. Wierwille in my opinion knew he was running a con, and did what he needed to do to retain influence and power; Martindale believed his own press clippings and really believed that he had been anointed to be God's representative. This would involve a lot of yelling and a lot of overt control.

This was the situation in The Way when we decided to get back involved after an absence of almost eight years.

Start from the beginning: Part I

Workin' Man - Part XXXII - Turning the Corner

 Well, I get up at seven, yeah

And I go to work at nine
I got no time for livin'
Yes, I'm workin' all the time

It seems to me
I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess that's why they call me
They call me the workin' man

'Cause I get home at five o'clock
And I take myself out an ice cold beer
Always seem to be wondering'
Why there's nothin' goin' down here

I guess that's why they call me
They call me the workin' man

"Workin' Man" - Words & Music by Lee & Lifeson 

One of the things that I enjoyed about my time in the Incentives Group was that I didn't specialize in only one program. There were many incentives programs, and I worked on almost all of them. There were sales and use tax refund claims, which all of us worked on; there were claims for the refund of state withholding taxes. There was a program called Microenterprise, where small businesses, those with five or fewer Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees. There was "preliminary analysis", where examiners would do a superficial review of an application to see if there was enough information for a full audit. Shareholder distribution involved approving the use of incentive credits by individual taxpayers. This helped keep things interesting and fresh. The program that I spent the most time on was Nebraska Historic Tax Credits (NHTC). This was a tax credit where developers could receive tax credits for rehabilitating buildings that were on the National Register of Historic Places. I learned more about construction, real estate development, and associated jargon than I thought possible!

The NHTC program was the rare area where my point of view was heard and I had some measure of respect. Eventually, anyway. Initially the expectations for my reviews was a moving target. My manager would give me and Sue, the other examiner who worked these claims, some direction, then once we were done with our review, would add requirements. No one really knew what the standards were. I was delegated the responsibility of creating tracking spreadsheets, as well as the spreadsheet we used to review a claim. As time went by and other employees who knew anything about NHTC retired or moved to other agencies, I became the only one who knew certain aspects of the program. As we all ended up working from home during the Covid pandemic, I was also the only one who was reviewing these claims. About a year or so before I retired, management finally began training addition examiners, although they waited until my final month on the job before allowing me to train someone to take over my tracking responsibilities. 

Starting just before the pandemic and continuing throughout 2020 and 2021 all of the examiners in our group had either retired or gotten promoted, and I was the most senior of all the examiners. My manager started assigning me to train new employees in some of the incentives programs, which I enjoyed doing. A few of my coworkers asked me why I wasn't a Senior Agent (a step up from examiner) and encouraged me to push for the position. At the same time I was being given more responsibility, but the air of disrespect didn't go away. I was valued when management needed me to do something for them, but not when I expected something from them. 

When it was time for my performance review in early 2022 I actively lobbied my manager and supervisor to be reclassified as a Senior Agent. I brought a copy of the job description and job duties to my performance review and pointed out that I was already doing almost all of the requirements of the position. Key responsibilities included training and being a resource for newer employees. They told me that they would check with Stacey, who was the executive office director who oversaw our area, and get back to me. I expected that I would hear back reasonably quickly, but the weeks and months passed without any feedback. 

In addition to our annual performance reviews we also received quarterly reviews. These were less formal, but were a good time to give and receive feedback. During my First Quarter Review we went through the high points, engaged in some chit-chat, and then they attempted to end the meeting by asking if I had any questions. Yeah, I had questions! What about the reclassification that I brought up three months ago? They told me that Stacey did not approve it because our group was not budgeted for a Senior Agent position. I was angry that they were planning on ending the meeting without following up on my request — surely the reclassification denial had been handed down shortly after it had been presented. Why did I have to ask for an update? Why did it take three months? I figured that there wasn't anything I could do about it, and although irritated, was ready to move on. But we're not done with this story.

Another three months went by. I had been nominated by my peers for Employee of the Year and for an Innovator Award. I didn't get either, which I would have been fine with, until I found out that my own manager had nominated an employee from another group as Employee of the Year! For the Innovator Award, there were only myself and two others as nominees, one who was no longer with the department, so I figured I would at least get Honorable Mention. Nope. They gave the Innovator Award to the employee who left the agency! But the big kick in the teeth was yet to come. 

One morning, at our daily "huddle", it was announced that a member of our group who had left our work group to take a promotion to Senior Agent was coming back...as a Senior Agent. I couldn't believe it. Just three months earlier we didn't have the budget, but now we did? And they didn't have the decency to take me aside and explain that this was happening. I had about had it with the disrespect. Of course, since this team mate was leaving her Senior Agent position in the other work group, this meant that there was now an opening as a Senior Agent in an area that had quite a bit of overlap with the Incentives Group. 

The group which had the Senior Agent opening had been split off from the Incentives Group a few years earlier. There was quite a bit of overlap of work responsibilities between the two groups, although they each had their own unique focuses. There was enough similarity that I was confident that I could transition to the new position fairly easily. I had heard some negatives about how that group was run. It was supervised by an Auditor IV who had previously been an auditor in the Incentives Group. Several examiners left the group to transfer to Incentives due to her toxic management style. This was my main worry about moving — that I would be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. But I found out that she was leaving the department and her position eliminated! 

I applied for and was offered the position to start in December 2022. I never found out who I was competing with for the position, but it was evident that my background as a manager before coming to work for the Department of Revenue, in addition to my experience in Incentives, was a factor in being offered the position. The move, however, was not without its bumps.

Every State job classification's had a 40-step pay scale. Each "step" was 1% greater than the previous step. Starting pay was Step 1. Usually, if you moved from one position to another your new pay rate was Step 1 of that position's pay scale. My pay rate as an Incentives Examiner was already higher than the starting pay rate for the Senior Agent position, so I was offered the promotion with no pay increase! I refused to accept the promotion without a rate increase. I don't recall for sure what step on the examiner scale I was at, but let's say it was Step 8. I asked to be paid at the Step 8 rate for the Senior Agent position, which they eventually agreed to. 

Senior Agent positions in the Department of Revenue have a lot of supervisory responsibility, but are not classified as supervisors. This means no meetings with the top brass, no requirement to conduct performance reviews, and no responsibility to handle disciplinary actions. I was getting to do what I loved most about management: training, teaching and coaching, without all the administrative nonsense that I disliked. 

Start with Part I

Go to: Part XXXIII

Workin' Man - Part XXXV - Changes and Retirement

Well, I get up at seven, yeah

And I go to work at nine
I got no time for livin'
Yes, I'm workin' all the time

It seems to me
I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess that's why they call me
They call me the workin' man

'Cause I get home at five o'clock
And I take myself out an ice cold beer
Always seem to be wondering'
Why there's nothin' goin' down here

I guess that's why they call me
They call me the workin' man

"Workin' Man" - Words & Music by Lee & Lifeson 

 The previous governor had made it a goal that our operations be more taxpayer friendly. It was my view that were anything but, with rules that sometimes made it appear that we were. For example, shareholders of incentives companies often had credits distributed to them which they could use to offset their individual state income tax liability. The problem was that individual tax returns were due in April, while most incentive companies filed for extensions and did not file until October or November. This meant that a taxpayer attempting to use incentive credits didn't actually have those credits since the distribution was part of the corporate filing by the incentive company they were receiving credits from. The front office ran a report every month which indicated how long returns were in the department before they were approved. If I saw that a taxpayer was expecting a credit distribution, but hadn't yet received it, I would sit on it until the credit came through. The front office saw these numbers and decided that if, after 60 days, the credit was not available we were to deny the use of the credits and process the return. This sometimes meant that the taxpayer owed money, and at least had to file an amended return after the credit went through. Not very taxpayer friendly, but since the report showed that the number of days that we spent processing a claim was low, it looked like we were taking care of the taxpayer. It took a CPA who was frustrated by this situation to complain directly to the Tax Commissioner to change the procedures. 

One of the things that the front office began to notice was that the amount of time that was spent approving claims was excessive. (It was) They directed that a slimmed down procedure for approving claims be developed. RO had no input in the process, but amazingly it really was an efficient, shorter process. Around this time the number of claims that I would be authorized to approve expanded. Initially Senior Agents could only approve claims where the tax was below a certain amount, which meant only the smallest claims. At first it was doubled, then increased another five fold so that I was approving all but the very largest of claims. Around this time several experienced auditors quit due to the ending of remote work. Several auditors from another area were trained as approvers...and they quit too. One of the things that I did to help keep our average days for claims low was to immediately prioritize a claim that was completed by an examiner, putting it at the top of my to-do list. In most cases I could get my approval work done in one day and either sign the claim or send it back with feedback. Mainly I achieved this by not re-doing all the examiners work, not reinventing the wheel, but confirming that they had in fact done the work correctly. Due to my process our metrics were better than they had ever been. 

The other area that our group was responsible for was sales and use tax refunds for non-incentive companies. This mainly consisted of individuals and small businesses who had overpaid on sales tax or been charged sales tax in error. In some ways this was easier than incentives claims, since it didn't require as many hoops be jumped through as incentives claims, but it could be more complicated due to the numerous tax exemptions and exceptions to the exemptions in the sales tax regulations. As claims came in they were added to a spreadsheet which the team would use to decide which claims to work on. 

When I started in the area we were extremely behind. The front office had mandated that incentives claims were the priority and that nothing else could be worked on as long as there was an incentive claim that was unfinished. This mandate had just been lifted, so we were free to start working these claims. On any given day the claims that had not been started the "To-Be-Assigned" (TBA) claims exceeded 100. We were prioritizing claims that were approaching 180 days, the statutory limit. (I talked to some of my old team around six months after I retired, due to various reasons, they were back to only reviewing claims that were approaching the 180-day statutory deadline)  Taxpayers were getting frustrated and resubmitting claims, so we had many duplicate claims. It was a mess. But this was an area where the team proved to be very efficient at getting these claims done. It was my practice to train new examiners on these claims first and incentives claims later. This meant that they had a lot of practice working a variety of claim types and were able to get proficient quickly. By the end of my time with Revenue we could easily keep the TBA's down below 20 every day, with some days no TBA's! 

One of the weirder incidents involved the haunted spreadsheet. The tracking spreadsheet for sales tax refund claims was huge. Nothing was every deleted from it or moved off it. Completed items were simply moved from one tab to another. Data was becoming corrupted. Information was being added, and then a half hour later it was gone. Information that was moved suddenly was back where it started from. My manager and I decided that a new, streamlined tracking Excel file should be created. One of our Business Systems Analysts created a new spreadsheet for us and the ghosts were exorcized! Learning the lessons of the old spreadsheet, it was checked and reviewed every day and errors corrected. 

Eventually the changes I made became "the way things are". The results that I achieved was appreciated, not only be my immediate supervisor, but all the way up the management chain, including the Tax Commissioner. I was kept busy training new people, a few who ended up moving on to better paying positions in Revenue or in other agencies. Toward the end of my tenure, there were team mates from other areas of Revenue who transferred into the Refund Claim Group as soon as there was an opening. The last two new examiners had transferred from other areas. 

I had been looking at an end point to my working career for a while, I probably started thinking about it three years before I actually did it. About a year before full Social Security retirement age I started seriously looking at the financial aspect and running the numbers. I logged onto the Nebraska Public Employees Retirement System retirement webinars. I asked a lot of questions of Medicare and Social Security and familiarized myself with the various insurance options. I did income and expenditure projections. I had legal pads and Excel spreadsheets full of options. Around six months before I actually retired I set a tentative date. I gave myself the option of staying a month or so past my tentative date if the union negotiated raise was high enough (it wasn't). Finally I let my manager know my plans the December before I actually left. A pattern that I had seen in the department over the years was people leaving without management taking steps to make sure the knowledge that that person carried was preserved, that a replacement was trained. In addition to whatever the job description said, there were a lot of things that I did that weren't written down anywhere, processes that I had instituted myself. Even though it would cease to be my problem five minutes after I left on my last day I didn't want to leave a mess behind me and have all my hard work unravel. There were exceptions to the rule, and there was a procedure for posting for a position before it actually came open once a firm end date was announced. I pushed hard for them to do this. In April I notified HR of my retirement date and they posted for my position shortly thereafter.

Most of my time during this period was spent reviewing and updating procedures, and creating procedures for the tasks that were not covered by officially sanctioned procedures. I cross-trained several of my team to take over some of my responsibilities in case a replacement wasn't hired. About six weeks before I was scheduled to retire, management chose my replacement. Fortunately it was someone with the relevant experience. I was concerned that training someone from outside the department, or even from another area of the department, would require a lot of training, including in the basics. My replacement had actually started in the Refund Claim Group and had been an examiner in the Incentives Group, so training in the fundamentals wasn't needed. I was able to ease her into the position's responsibilities. Management had decided that my replacement would be classified as a Supervisor, which I had not been. This meant that she would be required to conduct annual reviews and attend meetings, which I had been spared. She quickly took over the job responsibilities until my last few weeks at work I was basically a consultant, without a lot to do!  

Finally my last day, June 13, 2025 came. The department had a retirement party for me that several family members as well as friends who had previously retired attended. The director in charge of our area gave a heartfelt speech praising me for my contributions and presented me with a certificate enrolling me as an Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska. My immediate manager also gave a speech, recounting my contributions to the department. The members of my team presented me with gifts. One team member gave a short speech about how he viewed me as a wise grandfather. I felt both appreciated and respected. 

And that was the difference in my last two and a half years. I was respected for my contributions and my point of view was appreciated. In many of the jobs I held over the years, even when I was a key person, I was never really more than a cog in the machine. In this last hurrah of my working life, I finally was given the respect that is really the due of any employee. 

Start with Part I