(Reference:

• HCO PL 12 Jul 80R THE BASICS OF ETHICS

References:

• HCO PL 19 Mar. 71 Personnel Series 20 PERSONNEL PREDICTION

The miraculous wins available from correct application of the ethics conditions formulas are well known, and the use of this technology is widespread. This Policy Letter presents some further tech on the subject of the conditions and their formulas that has proven remarkably workable in pilots done.

Failures to apply conditions fully, the assignment of wrong conditions, misunderstoods and other errors in the application of conditions formulas can hang the person up in past Ethics actions and prevent him from getting the results from later Ethics actions. He can continue to have trouble in the area or on the dynamic on which the previously messed up or incomplete handling was done.

If one has had a few wrong conditions or failures to apply correct conditions, he can become upset or disillusioned with the subject of Ethics and the conditions.

There is a condition that can exist in orgs which differs slightly from “musical chairs” (the rapid transfer of personnel from post to post) but is akin to that and every bit as deadly.

It must be understood that this does not only apply to past conditions assigned (or misassigned, as the case may be) by a Scientology Ethics Officer or by one’s senior. This doesn’t just apply to Scientology. There are also conditions that occur in life or that are assigned by self or other dynamics.

We could call it a “quicksilver personnel” scene.

An example is somebody who had decided to commit suicide at some point in his life. He was either at Enemy or Treason at the time and it needs to be sorted out and he needs to be gotten through that condition for that period of time, and this applies to every other condition.

(“Quicksilver” is another name for mercury, the silvery-white metallic ele-ment, liquid at room temperature, which is used in thermometers, barometers and similar instruments.)

A person jailed has been assigned a condition of Liability, and this condition would have to be applied if the person is to operate in the society in any higher condition.

Used figuratively, the term “quicksilver” means something that is quick-moving, unpredictable and as elusive as mercury, or “mercurial.” Something that is mercurial is changeable, variable, volatile.

The handling for the above is simply to handle in present time the correct condition for that situation or time period. This will clear up the area and the subject and the person will be able to apply conditions in present time without being hung up in these past failures and will not be denied the miraculous wins available from this tech.

To anyone who has ever observed a drop of quicksilver, or mercury, in an open container or placed on a slab of glass, this will be real. One second it’s here, the next second it’s there. Just about all you have to do is breathe on it and it changes its position. And where it was a second ago there’s now nothing.

It is done before the person starts to handle his present conditions so that these can be done without any attention on previous failures to apply conditions or false condition assignments.

It is miserable (if not impossible) for an executive or management body trying to run things with staff doing a quicksilver. One can hit up against some nasty surprises.

For example, an org’s personnel scene may look great on the board, with posts filled, hats existing and known, production occurring and on the rise — all is looking good when suddenly the stats crash.

1. The first step is to ensure that the person being handled fully understands what an ethics condition is, as well as each of the conditions and their corresponding formulas. He is not very likely to succeed in handling conditions if he does not have a good grasp of them.

An initial check may show there haven’t honestly been any post transfers, per se. But dig a bit further and you’re likely to find a quicksilver personnel scene. The top delivery auditor is off on a two-week vacation. The Qual Sec has been fired on a recruitment tour. The Reg has gone out-ethics and been suspended, unreplaced, pending some ethics handling. The Chief Officer is off on maternity leave and the CO, holding her post from above, is being the guest speaker at an event in the next city.

Only a person who has had little or no contact with the subject, you would first have him study over materials on the Dynamics as covered in the book FUNDAMENTALS OF THOUGHT, and the data on the conditions found in the book INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTOLOGY ETHICS. When he has studied these, go over the data with him and consult his understanding. Have him explain what a dynamic is, and give examples of each of the dynamics. Have him explain what a condition is, give examples of times he has observed people in each condition, and demonstrate each of the conditions formulas.

It happens and it happens not only in Class IV Orgs but in the higher service orgs and management units where tours are essential and missions need to be fired and other situations can crop up requiring personnel.

Handle any confusion or question by referring to the materials, and finding and clearing up his misunderstood words.

It has shown up drastically at times in several large orgs. In one, the head of a vital network went off on mission and, with no one left being the senior, the stats in the area crashed. In another, the sales manager took his leave, his routine functions were ignored and sales suffered severely. And in still another org, no less than six key delivery terminals were all found to be out on regging tours in one week, some of them over a period of several weeks, at a time when delivery of paid-in-full services was backlogged!

With a person who is experienced with the ethics conditions, it would still be wise to briefly go through this same step. Have him review the materials, give demos and examples, etc. Spot and handle any confusions or questions he may have. It cannot necessarily be assumed that because a person has “been around a long time” or “has a lot of experience with the conditions” that he fully understands them. Particularly if he has been sent to you or pulled in by you to handle conditions! Don’t get into evaluation or invalidation with this step - simply consult the person’s understanding.

None of these terminals had been removed or transferred or promoted. And one could say the actions being done are all covered in some way in policy, are needed, and therefore justified. But these terminals were all off post unreplaced, weren’t they?

2. Ask the person: “Have you ever been assigned a condition or assigned yourself a condition that you didn’t fully reach the EP on or get the expected results from?” If the answer is “No”, and the person is happy about it, the rest of the rundown is not done as it would be unnecessary. But make sure that it is understood that this question is not limited or restricted to only those conditions assigned by EOs or executives.

That’s a quicksilver personnel scene. It’s unstable.

3. If the answer to the above is “Yes”, then the EO asks: “What was the lowest condition ever assigned that you didn’t feel you reached the full EP on or didn’t get the expected results from?”

Make sure you get the earliest time this situation occurred.

Executives who issue orders that unmock working installations where production is occurring at “A” to get something done at “X” bring about such scenes.

For example, he may have been in Treason and not EP’d or not gotten the expected results a number of times - get the earliest time this occurred.

Personnel who, like quicksilver, accommodatingly move off their assigned posts unreplaced to do something else at the first invitation or order, help to generate and sustain such scenes.

4. When this question has been answered, ask him if it was a correct condition.

Seniors who permit or condone this are also a party to them.

5. If it was a correct condition, the person must now complete that incomplete formula. He is applying the formula to that … unhandled condition, not a present time situation or anything else. He is completing an old incomplete formula. Have the person do each step of the formula.

Personnel can do a quicksilver for any of a number of reasons. For some, the chance to go off and see other people and new places may be an alluring prospect. Some are too timid to refuse a destructive order and so they comply, under protest. For others there is financial gain involved — there are often commissions or a bonus at stake.

6. If it was not a correct condition he was assigned at the time, the correct condition is established (one can have the person refer to the conditions and their formulas to help him decide what the condition should have been), and have him apply that formula.

Tours have been used by some, apparently condoned by executives, to take longer leaves (more time off on leave per year) by combining 4 to 6 or even 8 weeks of a “regging tour” with a “leave,” with the org paying both the person’s fare and living expenses and no clear distinction made between the period of “tour” and the period of the “leave.” (While this is part of an unstable personnel scene it is also a situation requiring a separate ethics handling in itself.)

7. When the person has completed the formula fully he writes it up, showing what he did on each step and takes it to the EO or person doing the handling. The EO verifies that it is complete and if so sends him to the Pc Examiner. The Examiner puts the person on the meter and asks: “Do you have any doubts or reservations concerning attesting to the condition being complete?” If the person is F/Ning on the question, the Examiner indicates the F/N and asks him if he wishes to write a success story. The wins on these formulas are very often quite incredible and so the person should be given a chance to write a success story.

Sometimes a staff member is made to feel, by a very convincing exec, that the action which calls for his suddenly going off post with no or inadequate replacement is actually more important than his job. Where this threatens production and there is no adequate replacement this is almost always a falsehood.

8. If the person is not F/Ning, the EO must take him back in and find out what is wrong and handle. You may find he was applying an incorrect condition, has misunderstoods on the condition or formula being applied, or simply didn’t complete the condition fully. The handling is simply to ensure that any MUs are cleaned up, the correct condition established and done fully in all of its steps. If the situation won’t resolve, the EO writes up the full data, places it along with all worksheets, exams, etc., in the person’s pc folder and sends it to the C/S.

It is true that missions need to be fired. Tours are vital to income and delivery. Staff sometimes do need to go off post temporarily for handling of one type or another. Events are valuable in terms of promotion, goodwill, PR and sign-ups; and for certain types of these, key personnel or trained tech delivery personnel may be required. Emergencies do arise. Personnel are entitled to annual leave. And speed of operations is important.

9. If the EO or person handling is not satisfied that the formula is complete when the person turns it in (#7 above), he returns it to the person and points out what is incomplete about it with reference to the relevant materials. He then has the person complete the formula as in steps 5 and 7.

On the plus side, we do have capable and versatile staff who are willing to extend themselves, when needed, to make things go right. We have demanding, fire-breathing executives who are out to handle situations and open up new fields for delivery which, in itself, is a good thing. And many of these go about it standardly.

10. The handling of the originally misdone or wrongly assigned condition is complete when the person is up through Emergency and into Normal Operation on it. All worksheets, exams, etc., are then filed in the person’s pc folder.

But the senior or exec at any level who endangers ongoing delivery and production and/or unstabilizes a producing personnel scene to get these things done is simply advertising to one and all that he can’t predict and plan and organize or get others to do so. Control is lacking here as well as just plain common sense. The kindest thing one could say about such an exec is that he is short-sighted. And “quicksilver” is a rather mild term for the staff member who steps so easily off his post and leaves a hole in the lineup with no thought of the consequences.

Following this procedure will normally be all that is necessary to put the person in shape to smoothly handle his present condition. This follows the basic auditing principle that handling earlier charge blows later charge.

One could say that everyone has personnel problems. BUT that is no WHY.

11. Now get him to apply the current ethics condition.

(Note: It may be discovered later, while doing the present time conditions, that the person has other previously mishandled conditions. These are then simply handled with the Past Conditions handling covered in this issue.)

The first policies missing in application are those covering replacements and hat turnovers.

BECAUSE IT IS A “TEMPORARY” ABSENCE, NO ONE IS DEMANDING REPLACEMENT AND TURNING THE HAT OVER TO SOMEONE WHO CAN COVER THE POST COMPETENTLY.

The result of this rundown is that the person will have cleaned up his previous failures with the conditions and will be able to look at his current conditions without any influence from previous mishandlings. His ability to apply the Ethics conditions to himself to a result will have been restored.

But policies exist in abundance on this subject. HCO PL 29 Aug. 70 I, Personnel Series 1, PERSONNEL TRANSFERS CAN DESTROY AN ORG, points up the outnesses which can destroy an org faster than any others. HCO PL 7 Jan. 66, LEAVING POST, WRITING YOUR HAT, covers the staff member’s responsibility for a post he is vacating under any circumstances. HCO PL 20 April 69II, HATS, NOT WEARING, emphasizes the staff member’s responsibility for knowing that he is the Qual Sec, or Reg, or the post title for the post and functions he has accepted. HCO PL 11 Aug. 71 II, Personnel Series 22, DON’T UNMOCK A WORKING INSTALLATION, cites the main reason we have ever had slumps in orgs.

The personnel policies are there. But very often, where a “quicksilver personnel” scene is permitted, BECAUSE SOMEONE PULLS OFF A SUCCESS IN ONE AREA, EVEN THOUGH STATS IN HIS OWN AREA MAY CRASH, THE EXISTING ETHICS POLICIES THAT COVER SUCH A CRASH OR THE COLLAPSE OF AN AREA MAY BE OVERLOOKED OR DELIBERATELY IGNORED.

A. Roteness

So how do we handle “quicksilver personnel” scenes?The answer is to add some teeth to the existing policies:

Roteness gets heavily an the way of administering Ethics conditions. Life is full of complexities. We in Scientology are fortunate in that we nave Tech to handle all these complexities and make them simple. There are a lot of tools available and they are there to be used: Word Clearing, Product Clearing, False Data Stripping, metered interviews. and so forth are all used as needed to get the product.

1. AN ABSENCE FROM POST FOR EVEN A TEMPORARY PERIOD OF AS LITTLE AS HALF A WEEK IS AN ETHICS OFFENSE, UNLESS SOMEONE IS NAMED AND THERE AS A REPLACEMENT WHO HAS HAD THE POST PROPERLY TURNED OVER TO HIM AND WHO CAN COVER THE POST COMPETENTLY.

The idea is to get the person to apply the conditions to his life so as to get his ethics in on his own determinism without duress or invalidation and you use whatever Tech is necessary to do this.

2.IF SUCH ABSENCE WITHOUT COMPETENT REPLACEMENT OCCURS AT ALL, AN IMMEDIATE COURT OF ETHICS MUST BE CALLED ON THE STAFF MEMBER WHO LEAVES HIS POST UNFILLED OR INADEQUATELY COVERED, AS WELL AS ON THE SENIOR OR EXECUTIVE ORDERING, CONDONING OR PERMITTING IT.

B. Completing the formulas

3. IF IT OCCURS AND RESULTS IN STATS CRASHING IN A COURSE, A DIVISION, DEPARTMENT, SECTION, UNIT, AREA, ZONE OR ORG, A COMMITTEE OF EVIDENCE MUST BE CALLED WITH ALL INVOLVED NAMED AS INTERESTED PARTIES.

Sometimes the formulas require that the person go away and do something to handle the condition. On a public person it may be necessary for him to go to his office or go home in order to complete a formula. Well, you let him go right ahead after you establish that that is what is needed and that he knows what he is going to do. He may want to do amends or get in comm with someone or straighten something out. Obviously he must do the necessary steps to get through the condition.

The charges areCONDONING OR CONTRIBUTING TO CIRCUMSTANCES OR OFFENSES CAPABLE OF BRINGING A COURSE, SECTION, UNIT, DEPARTMENT, ORG, ZONE OR DIVISION TO A STATE OF COLLAPSE.and

C. Twins

NEGLECT OF RESPONSIBILITIES RESULTING IN A CATASTROPHE EVEN WHEN ANOTHER MANAGES TO AVERT THE FINAL CONSEQUENCES.With this policy made known and enforced, there is a cure for those who do a “quicksilver” and for executives and seniors whose out-planning and out-prediction bring about quicksilver personnel scenes.

When you are administering this action on a number of people who are twinned up and working to get each other through, you always work in the direction of having the twin handle the person he is working with and you wouldn’t step in and handle until it was obvious that they really needed help. Encourage them to become skilled at handling one another’s Ethics as well as their own. HCO B 21 August ‘79 TWINNING applies in full.

D. Overrun

It is possible to overrun this action. One person, for example, had a major win while handling a past Doubt on the third dynamic. He actually felt he had regained an ability to be at cause over his third dynamic. When he tried to go on with the next condition he bogged and the win had to be rehabbed by an auditor. He had actually fully handled the third dynamic and moved up the conditions too fast to even get them written down. The person may realize that he had actually handled the condition at some point in the past, and his stuck attention on the past condition was the result of invalidation or protest. Just remember your product and don’t undershoot or overshoot and you will find situations like these are easy to resolve.

E. Misunderstoods

Misunderstoods will be the major stumbling block in this action (if indeed there are any stumbling blocks). You have an individual who wants to be ethical; you have the Tech that will enable him to achieve it, so the only barrier would be his lack of understanding. So use Word Clearing Tech liberally on any stops or slows.

F. Doubt hang-up

If the person hangs up at Doubt, apply HCO PL 18 Dec 82 ETHICS CONDITIONS: HANG-UP AT DOUBT to resolve it and get him through the condition.

It can be a tremendous relief to a person to handle some long unhandled situation that had stuck him at that point in time and made it impossible to handle present time conditions. Whole areas of previous disaster can be totally straightened out simply by finishing up the incomplete conditions.

Get this tech into vigorous use and reap the rewards to be had from fully and smoothly applied ethics conditions formulas — rewards that extend straight across all the dynamics.