I listened to a Mormon Stories podcast over the weekend that was based upon the input of 4 former Mormon bishops. The podcast was over 3 hours long, but was segmented by topic. It was very interesting. The podcast was new and recorded the first part of February.
Key items I noticed while listening to the comments of these 4 Bishops.
1. They had no training of any type and had to wing it most the time.
2. They were more or less told they were called, and not really asked.
3. Members came to them on just about anything.
4. When asked if they would do it again, one said “No Way”, people’s lives are not my business.
5. Money was a focus of the church; one of them who had resigned said the only thing brought up after he resigned was that his councilors needed to make sure that he received no tithing envelopes.
6. One who was part of interviews for a new Stake President said he and 26 other candidates got the dress down by a GA for not specifically saying in their interview that they would follow the prophet no matter what they thought about the subject.
7. When they would call the church hot line, then they would be told that the decision was theirs, but given a suggestion. No direct instructions were given.
8. One said that he had a one member who confessed to molestation of his child. After he was done, he looked at the member and said, “Are you going to call Child Services or am I” The other three all said how happy they were that he did that.
9. They all expressed how they enjoyed serving the people of the ward, but all the other issues and conflicts eventually caught up with them.
10. One said he had a beard neatly trimmed, but half his ward would not shake his hand when did not shave it off. Eventually he had enough of it all, and just wore the beard regardless if anyone agreed or not.
They all emphasized that they were just regular guys like the rest of us, and their struggles were not different than anyone else. IMO Bishops are just fodder for the church; they are expendable, with the main focus on building the war chest and keeping the masses in check. Of course we all have those horror stories of some Bishops who think they are Gods.

11. They all discovered the BS of the TSCC and left it.

One of them resigned from the pulpit in Mississippi.

Do bishops do a yearly tithing settlement with their SP?

Didn't bishops use to keep some portion of the tithing they collected?

It's been many many years, but at one point bishops did keep a percentage.

had a woman in the ward who used him as her support system and told him that was his job. When she had a hysterectomy, she called and told him what time it was going to be done and she expected him to be there. I can't remember how he handled. Her husband was going to be at work, so the bishop had to fill in and not go to work.

I had enough fun with bishops. Talk about emotional abuse.

Being a bishop is possibly the hardest calling in the church. As for training, it depends how you define it. Most bishops have had spells as EQP, bishopric or priesthood leaders so do have some experience of what it is going to be like. The workload is something else.

My ward had three sets of sharks to watch out for. One was the Relief Society president, another group were alternating High Priest group leaders and then there was a high councilor who managed to convince the stake president that the ward was in major trouble.

The stake monitor was a major interloper who objected to anything and everything. He had a list of ward members who he deemed worthy of church discipline. The bishop wanted time to research, interview the accused and decide whether further action should be taken. The problem? a 19 year old had a baby out of wedlock. Not only did he demand for her to be disfellowshipped, he was angry that the church had allowed her to have a baby shower in the cultural hall.

The Relief Society old maids were taken in aghast that young women were painting their faces like ghosts and zombies. This was in reference to the goth look from the 1990s. These sisters wanted the YW presidents to make them wear no make up to church or have a youth fireside where LDS standards were reinforced.

The high priests were cranky about everything. They wanted a velvet rope with stanchions to section off a reserved VIP section in the chapel for opening exercises of general priesthood meeting. They wanted the whole nine yards of bells and whistles. Fancy name tags (in gold print) and the Aaronic priesthood to escort them down to their fancy pew.

I as ward clerk was having my own issues. "We can't find Brother Jones with the address you have given us. Take him off our roster so we can have 100% home teaching every month." Um no.

They also told the bishop that they should be excused from church farm assignments because of their arthritis but they wanted more $$$ for their high priest socials like bowling and golf tournaments. They also questioned why their allotted hp budget should be used to purchase priesthood manuals. They met and agreed that the elders quorum should use their allotted budget to buy theirs.

This went on month after month in ward council.

And the one Sunday when the bishop was out of town...near mutiny and they openly discussed if their was a way to get a real bishop called and openly schemed how to get the current bishop released.