Good questions and a long answer.

I got a question in my reddit AMA and while I was answering, a lot more than I expected came out. So I wanted to share it with my Patrons. Here was the question:

Can you explain more about the different ranks?

If you became a shotdown would you re-earn your rank after a probationary period or would you have to re-climb the ladder? How did your big brother deal with becoming a shotdown? Does that mean he was no longer strength?

Who decided who got what rank and when promotions happened?

The highest rank was a re-entry? Does that mean they had a chance to leave Elan?

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Answers:

Good questions.

>If you became a shotdown would you re-earn your rank after a probationary period 

Yes, most times. So a Department Head would be shotdown for a week or two. Then he or she would have a review and if accepted, they would get their Department Head job back. Both the kids and staff would vote on these reviews. The kids first, and then their votes would be an influence on the staff's decision.

>or would you have to re-climb the ladder?

This also happened, though rarely. But if you fucked up bad enough, you would be shotdown and then after your time as a Shotdown you would be reviewed to take the rank of Worker and then you would need to climb the entire structure again. 

>How did your big brother deal with becoming a shotdown?

Getting shotdown was pretty normal. I would say that every single resident got shotdown at least 2-5 times during their stay. There were also many residents who were pretty much shotdown every other week or month for their entire 2 - 4 year stay. 

>Does that mean he was no longer strength?

Yes. Which was the hardest part. Non-strength had a lot of shitty restrictions. They had to sleep in top bunks (which was actually worse in Elan) and they had to shower at night (which gave you even less time). They took food last and of course, couldn't talk to other non-Strength, which was incredibly frustrating because the non-Strength were all basically slave workers and needed to work together in order to complete their share of the house tasks.

>Who decided who got what rank and when promotions happened?

As I mentioned earlier. It was the kids (the other inmates of Elan) and this was a crazy thing. So the politics of living in the house were very real and directly affected your time and rank in the program. The Coordinators (pretty much the highest rank) would vote like a jury and many times, the vote had to be unanimous. And after the Coordinators voted, the staff would see the votes and, like the president, they could agree or overrule. So even if every Coordinator said yes to the promotion, if that staff member didn't like you, they could write no and that no was final. You would have to wait at least a week or two before you could "bring up" to have your review again. 

It was an unspoken rule that you had to successfully navigate a position for a few months before you could "bring up" for a promotion to the next rank. And of course, you couldn't have any "guilt" when you asked. 

>The highest rank was a re-entry? Does that mean they had a chance to leave Elan?

Most people never reached Re-entry and you could technically "bring up" for "graduation dates" as a Coordinator. But unlike the lower positions, you had to be a Coordinator for a long time before you could ask. At least 6 months. If you were super successful as a Coordinator (which was the hardest job in the house) then you would be promoted to "Full Coordinator". And that was pretty much just a position designed to make the regular Coordinators feel inadequate. And Re-entry was the same way. It was really just a token position. But if you reached it, then you basically knew that you would be home within 3 - 4 months. It was like a badge of honor. Unlike Coordinator, where it was very possible to be in that position for even as long as a year. A sub-par Coordinator would just flop around in that position, always "bringing up" for graduation dates and always being told "not yet" or "too early".

There were even Coordinators that ended up abusing their power to the point where they got shotdown and had to restart the entire program (like I mentioned before). Elan was a giant mind-fuck. The higher up you went, the more power you were given. But that power was temptation. So there was always a balance and it pretty much always worked in favor of keeping you longer in Elan. 

That was the craziest part of being in Elan, you knew that they didn't want to let you go. Because you were a paycheck for them. You were trapped in a place that saw you as money and because of no oversight, they were not required to tell you an exact "time" for your punishment. So there was never a point where you could simply count down until you were released. And that was probably the most horrible part. At least in prison you have some idea of your time and when can expect to be released. In Elan, no matter what you did before Elan, you simply knew that  you were powerless and, even as a Coordinator, freedom could be 6 months away or as long as 2 years away. 

Most people in Elan didn't leave through "graduation". They either left at 18 or some period of time after their 18th birthday. This is why Elan relied so heavily on brainwashing you. An insane thing about Elan is that everyone knew you could leave at 18, but at least half the residents who turned 18 would stay and continue to be tortured. Because  your Elan experience was very much tailored to when you arrived and how many months or years until you turned 18. So if you were 14, you were an Elan throwaway. They didn't give a shit about you because you had no power. If you were 16.5 years old, then they gave more attention to destroying your sense of confidence. They would tell you that would die without graduating Elan. They would tell you every single day, and order other residents to tell you every day, that if you did not finish the Elan program that would be in a gutter, a prostitute, a drug addict, and a loser for your entire life because you would fail the minute you left. 

That is really how it was. They set you up for failure. They didn't care about you as a person. They only cared about getting money because either your parents, the state, or a school system was giving them money, pro-rated for every single day you stayed there. So they destroyed you and then systematically brainwashed you into believing that you were going to reach this single moment (your 18th birthday) that was going to decide every single thing that would happen in your life. They would build up that moment every day, every week, every month, and then turn up the intensity as that day got closer. They would use every single thing they knew about you as leverage and they would tell all of those personal things to every one in the house to also use against you. On some level, that was the way for everyone else to get out of Elan. The other inmates needed to exploit your weaknesses and successfully leave you in a weakened position for Elan to exploit. That was basically the mission statement of "the program" but it was painted as "helping" or "saving" one of your Elan peers.

Do you know how I finally and absolutely learned that Elan was full of shit (even though I was still brainwashed when I left). Because there was zero follow-up on any residents after they left. There was no after-program or resources for help for any ex-residents whether they left at 18 or graduated.

They had your money. They couldn't give a fuck after that. And believe me, you needed some kind of support after Elan, it was crucial. Because re-entering society after Elan was a horribly scary and overwhelming reverse-culture-shock. Lots of people would assume that you after such a place, you would be happy and dancing around to be free again. But it doesn't actually work that way. You are scared shitless, helpless, all of the people you were just living with (for years) are not around you anymore, there is no "system" in place that regulates your day, all of your friends have changed and nobody can relate to what you went through, your parents also cannot relate, and you feel like you are suddenly living on another planet, or perhaps more accurately like you woke up from a coma where you were having a horrible dream that was so consistently horrible that you only know horror and fear and any other emotions feel alien.