The Church of Scientology network operates as a multinational conglomerate of companies with personnel, executives, organizational charts, chains of command, policies and orders.

Hierarchy of staff

Church of Scientology personnel are bound by policy as written by L. Ron Hubbard and by orders from any senior. Each staff member is junior to those above them on the organizational chart (called an "org board") and is senior to those under them.

Scientology members (also called "public") are those individuals who are not on staff, who pay the organization for training or auditing services, and who live and work separately from the Church of Scientology. Members defer to all staff personnel, who are seen as their seniors. All members and staff defer to Sea Org staff. Even though at-large members are not part of the organization proper, they are ranked within the entire chain of command and are frequently pressed into service for clerical or promotional tasks or recruiting new members. Members who recruit people for Scientology services are called "field staff members" (FSM) and are paid a commission of 10–15% of the amount the new person pays.

Employment structure

Staff contracts

Staff sign employment contracts, though in recent years these contracts label them as volunteers or "religious workers" to circumvent labor laws because staff are almost universally paid less than locally mandated minimum wage. However, all organizational policies written by L. Ron Hubbard refer to such workers as "staff".

These contracts have lengthy durations. At a Class V organization, a contract may be as short as 2.5 years; extending to 5 years or more if they are sent to Flag Service Org for extensive training. Sea Org members sign billion-year contracts; effectively a perpetual contract with no expiration date. Sea Org personnel live in communal housing; Class V staff make their own living arrangements and sometimes even have second jobs.

Pay

Staff hold posts where they are either given a small fixed allowance (Sea Org) or are paid based on a share-percentage of the organization's weekly gross receipts. Occasionally, those who work in sales or fundraising posts may have a chance for bonuses. Sea Org members who work for one of the for-profit corporations in the network are paid a minimum wage, reduced by deductions for housing and other expenses, bringing their pay back in line with other Sea Org allowances.

Production

Staff are required to keep "stats" (short for "statistics")—a count of their production. They perform weekly evaluations of their own stats and are required to chart the stats on a graph, declare their "ethics condition" for last week's production, and write up their "ethics formula", laying out their plans for the next week. Personnel whose production stats were lower than the prior week, or whose graph shows a general downtrending pattern, are dealt with by the "ethics officer", often with harsh penalties. For example, certain conditions below "Normal" may preclude getting paid at all.

Staff may be punished, though usually for lack of production or insubordination, not usually for basic behavioral matters. In the Sea Org, staff are routinely removed from post and reassigned to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), a forced labor and re-indoctrination program. Removing a staff member completely from the organization is called "offloading".

Sea Org members are heavily discouraged from engaging in any family activities such as the raising of children, and are expected to spend their entire waking hours in service to the Church of Scientology.

Training

Though formal training courses are available for all posts, staff members are expected to be proficient at all times, whether trained or not. All posts have a "hat writeup" ("hat" for short) which consists of Hubbard writings pertaining to that post and other writeups written by those who held the post before.

Enhancement

Staff are recruited with promises that they are expected to train or be audited for 2.5 hours per day worked (called "enhancement"), but in reality enhancement time is usually bumped for the latest emergency—called a "flap" —or expected to be performed outside of their normal work hours.

Staff receive Scientology training, and occasionally auditing, on a deferred basis. Invoices are written up for services taken, but no payment is expected while the staff member continues to work for the organization. If they complete their contract, they are pressured to re-commit for another contract term, but if they leave having fulfilled their contract term their deferred invoices are forgiven or waived. While seeming to be free services, if a staff member is offloaded (fired) or breaks their contract by leaving before its term completion, they are immediately invoiced for all services rendered during their employment. Since Sea Org members sign perpetual contracts, their invoice—called a "freeloader bill"—can be quite high; no waivers or reductions being given for years of service rendered.

If a person leaves before their contract termination date without performing specific steps for leaving (called "routing out"), they are considered "blown" and such individuals will often be declared suppressive.

Notable Scientology officials

This section contains a select list of some of the current and former officials, staff or notable insiders of Scientology organizations.

A former professional American football player in the NFL, Adams served in 2004 as senior vice president of the Scientology organization's Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE). Adams worked in 2006 as a "communications executive with the Church of Scientology in Hollywood"; he was a vice president of the Church of Scientology in 2006. He held the position of vice president of public affairs for the Church of Scientology International in 2009, as well as vice president of the International School of Scientology.

Former member of Scientology's Sea Org, whose members "occupy the most essential and trusted positions in the senior churches in the Scientology hierarchy"; went on to become an outspoken critic of Scientology. While a member of the organization, Armstrong was "officially authorized by the Church of Scientology to write a biography" about L. Ron Hubbard. He left the organization in 1981.

Vicki Aznaran joined Scientology in 1972. She was a Sea Org member who rose to be one of the top officials in the Church of Scientology, and was a deputy for Annie Broeker who had posted her as Inspector General of RTC (1984–1987). Vicki was also posted as president and chairman of the board of directors of RTC. Vicki's husband, Richard Aznaran, was the Church's head of security. When Hubbard died, David Miscavige made his play for power and displaced the Broekers, Hubbard's trusted aides. By 1987, Miscavige installed himself as head of RTC and he purged anyone loyal to the Broekers or the Aznarans. The Aznarans were sent to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF: Scientology's forced-labor reeducation camp) in 1987 but left the Sea Org shortly thereafter. In 1988 the Aznarans filed suit against the Church of Scientology for false imprisonment and emotional abuse. The complaint alleged staff were treated with physical abuse, lack of sleep, brainwashing and slave-like conditions. Among other deprivations, they alleged staff were paid with 'tokens' to be exchanged for room and board, and any dissatisfaction with their work or attitude would cause tokens to be withheld, resulting in staff sleeping outside and being fed only rice, beans and water. In the early 1980s, both Richard and Vicki Aznaran had been assigned to the RPF at different times, separating them from each other. Even when not on the RPF, they were separated at times for lengthy periods, including a time when Richard was sent to Hubbard's ranch and was made to sleep in a horse stable. They cooperated with Richard Behar for his 1991 exposé, The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power, where Vicki is quoted as saying "This is a criminal organization, day in and day out". In an interview with Forrest Sawyer which preceded Miscavige's only television interview, Vicki said Miscavige ordered attacks—"have them, their homes, broken into, have them beaten, have things stolen from them, slash their tires, break their car windows, whatever". The Aznarans filed affidavits in support of Fishman in the case of Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz, however, at some point Richard Aznaran reached out to Mike Rinder to negotiate a settlement of their own case; they did settle and Vicki retracted her March 1994 affidavit just a month later.

See below.

Was a husband-and-wife team along with as confidantes and caretakers of L. Ron Hubbard in his last years. Were deemed Hubbard's successors in leading the Church of Scientology, but were overthrown in a coup by David Miscavige. Pat left the Church; Annie stayed.

Brousseau joined Scientology in the 1970s when he was 21, was in the Sea Org for 32 years, and fled in 2010. After contacting former executives Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, Brousseau was interviewed by the FBI several times, and agreed to cooperate with investigations of the Church of Scientology into abuses at the International Base. While in the Sea Org he worked many different jobs, including being assigned to the Tom Cruise household where he trained Cruise's staff to anticipate needs but remain invisible. He also worked in the Scientology film-making department, and was Hubbard's chauffeur for years—buying and customizing vehicles for Hubbard while he was in hiding. As a craftsman, Brousseau restored vehicles, customized luxury vehicles, and built fine woodwork. He supervised a comprehensive renovation on the Freewinds ship after its asbestos remediation. At another time he was assigned to security detail and was in charge of incarcerating people who wanted to leave, and after he mentioned he could no longer bear it, he was himself incarcerated in the RPF re-education camp for 3 years. He admitted to being the one who installed the steel bars and locks on The Hole, at David Miscavige's order. Brousseau's delusion started to crack when Miscavige ordered him to abuse his own juniors and he considered that Scientology's problems were likely caused by Miscavige's abusive leadership style. After watching all four episodes of Anderson Cooper 360° about Scientology, he planned his departure realizing he couldn't effect any real change because he was "an ant in a war zone". Brousseau was married twice while in the Sea Org, and was once brother-in-law to David Miscavige because their wives were sisters.

Carmichael became a Scientology ordained minister in 1973. Since at least 1987 he was the President of the Church of Scientology of New York, and as of 2006 was the spokesman for all the Scientology establishments in the New York and New Jersey area.

Former spokesman and director of Celebrity Centre International, Los Angeles. Was listed as an "International Spokesperson" on Scientology Newsroom, the Church's official media resource center.

Joined the Sea Org in 1994, In 2005, MSNBC characterized Feshbach as a "Senior Scientologist", and Fox News Channel called her "a high-level Scientologist" within the organization. In 2006, MSNBC described Feshbach as, "a high-level Scientology practitioner and member of the Church's influential Feshbach family". Feshbach began working with assistants to celebrity Scientology member and actor, Tom Cruise, in April 2005; she attended to Katie Holmes. By 2009, Feshbach had become a public spokesperson for Scientology; as of January 2011, she was listed as an "International Spokesperson" on Scientology Newsroom, the Church's official media resource center.

Gaiman (1933–2009) was part of the Guardian's Office and later public relations director for Scientology in the UK.