MK forum

, Jerry!

Love the 'moving train' analogy...you might not die, but you will get a bit beat up in the process of exiting.

Personally, I have come to the conclusion that NTM doesn't really want to hear honest feedback...they think they are doing fine and don't truly care about what the general member might have to say, especially ones who are leaving for whatever reason. I would guess that this comes from the leadership style NTM uses, that as long as there is a unified consent by leadership that they determine to be 'God's will', then they feel the ship is moving in the right direction.

I recently saw a report by the agency we are currently with the results of a study done on why people were leaving the organization, it was fascinating and informative. This information was gathered through the use of exit interviews. I appreciate the value this agency places on learning how they can become more productive, how they can better serve the members' needs, what measures can be taken to improve both the agency and the experience of each member. Every member fills out quarterly reports, which ask for any questions or concerns, encouraging problems or issues to be handled very quickly. It's a completely different world from our former experience on so many levels it's hard to compare.

Just looking up the term 'exit interview' was interesting...the bottom line being that an exit interview is a valuable tool for a business or organization to gather information that will help them reduce turnover, increase productivity, and increase employee engagement, performance and loyalty. So why not do exit interviews? There's really not a good reason!

Oh, we got an exit interview with ABWE when we thought we were resigning. We wrote ABWE telling them we were resigning and they asked us not to inform our churches until we returned to the States and had a meeting with them. We thought it was just this innocent harmless meeting that was a formality. Well, it wasn't. ABWE had a few men and a pastor that supported us from Cherry Hill where ABWE's headquarters were at the time present. We had no idea there would be a gang against one but there was. My husband asked if I needed to be at the meeting and they said no. We traveled to Cherry Hill, N.J. on our own expense and I stayed in a motel catching up on correspondence and thinking my husband was having this informal meeting. They were like pack wolves against him and my only regret is I wasn't there with him. After that meeting we still thought we were resigning and went South to visit our children in college and then went back to our home church where we found a letter from our pastor stating the "situation we find ourselves in." It was 2am but my husband was so confused he rang our pastor and that is when we found out we had been terminated for insubordination. We have to this day never been official informed we were terminated but our son who was in Bible college in Iowa got a professor to give him a copy of this termination for insubordination that was sent to all our supporting churches and then later a few pastors gave us a copy. I guess wanting to resign made us insubordinate. This is when we realized the real reason ABWE did not want us to inform our churches before we returned to the states we were resigning so we assumed they knew all along they were going to terminate us. Thus we had to call on all our churches knowing they knew we were terminated but we had not been told. After much ado from us and a few supporting pastors and friends ABWE did send us a copy of the letter they sent our churches. Several people did tell us they treated Dr. Donn William Ketcham better than they treated us and of course we thought he had committed adultery with either an ABWE missionary nurse or a Bengali nurse which in fact he was an adulterer but he was also a pedophile. Anyway shouldn't be rehashing this story but found it interesting since the topic on exit interview was brought up and even though I am talking about another mission organisation the culture is very similar. Full stop.

I forgot to state that after much ado from us and others ABWE did send us a copy of the letter they sent our churches, just to set the record straight. Full stop.

Pamela, I would not characterize what you were put through as a true 'exit interview'...that sounds more like an ambush! That really was such an inappropriate way to end the relationship between you and ABWE...I know these aren't recent occurrences, but I am sorry that you had to suffer through such indignity and disrespect of that agency.

My husband went through a bit of the same thing, thought he was going to a meeting to turn over his responsibilities before leaving, etc. but it was a very different kind of meeting. You are right, same sort of atmosphere.

I did a search on sample exit interview and picked a random site. http://jobsearchtech.about.com/cs/inter ... view_2.htm Obviously, these are questions from the secular business world and not all would apply to missions, but I believe that mission agencies could learn a LOT about professionalismfrom that world!

Here are some sample questions that might be asked in an objective exit interview according to this site:

What is your primary reason for leaving?
Did anything trigger your decision to leave?
What was most satisfying about your job?
What was least satisfying about your job?
What would you change about your job?
Did your job duties turn out to be as you expected?
Did you receive enough training to do your job effectively?
Did you receive adequate support to do your job?
Did you receive sufficient feedback about your performance between merit reviews?
Were you satisfied with this company's merit review process?
Did this company help you to fulfill your career goals?
Do you have any tips to help us find your replacement?
What would you improve to make our workplace better?
Were you happy with your pay, benefits and other incentives?
What was the quality of the supervision you received?
What could your immediate supervisor do to improve his or her management style?
Based on your experience with us, what do you think it takes to succeed at this company?
Did any company policies or procedures (or any other obstacles) make your job more difficult?
Would you consider working again for this company in the future?
Would you recommend working for this company to your family and friends?
How do you generally feel about this company?
What did you like most about this company?
What did you like least about this company?
What does your new company offer that this company doesn't?
Can this company do anything to encourage you to stay?
Before deciding to leave, did you investigate a transfer within the company?
Did anyone in this company discriminate against you, harass you or cause hostile working conditions?
Any other comments?

Wow, excellent exit interview questions!

I cannot picture any fundamentalist Christian organization asking such vulnerable and non-confrontational questions of someone who has made known their desire to leave.

It is sad when the secular world shows more wisdom and grace than those who claim to have the mind of Christ.