Hello, Ben Dover here again. It seems like it was just yesterday, when I got the shaft from LLNS - Oh wait, It was just a few days ago so I guess yesterday is close enough.
I was hoping to finally replace my old POS Honda with a new one this year after a year of promises from my management that I was doing a great job and would be rewarded for it. My raise for the entire year would not even make a single payment. The job market still stinks and I owe more money on the house than it's worth.
Now with the point of this post. We are all in a real stinking job market - whether you get a 0.5% raise or a 5.0% raise it's still not that much money. I have friends who have been out of work for more than a year now. I have friends who took a pay cut in order to keep their jobs. The "good ol' boys" got huge raises and bonuses while they shafted anyone not in their club. My guess would be that those who got less than package were those that ULM knows they can't just pack up and leave - not those who did a poor job. Heck, there is no one left who does a bad job anymore. We are all doing the work of at least two people, living in dirty offices and bringing in our own office supplies in order to do our jobs.
Thank you to Uncle George, Uncle Ed and Uncle Steve. I'm holding up one finger. Can you guess which one it is?
6 comments:
I don't know what you are complaining about. I got nothing. You know what kind of replacement car that will buy? You guys whine that you got a measely 1%. Try nothing and see how you feel.
What I think is pretty sad is we have been getting below cost of living raise packages long before the economy tanked. I suspect we are in for a real flogging this year come raise time. The only thing we can do, I think, is unionize. At least we would have a voice at the table when raise packages are considered. We deserve better than we are getting. I don't give a hoot that the economy has tanked. We are a vital national asset so we should be compensated accordingly. My experience has been that the Lab has always hired exceptional talent (and for good reason). That being the case, I think we should be compensated exceptionally.
Until the job market improves enough that existing employees leave and the pay offers shown to potential new employees do not entice them to come here, nothing will change.
During the cold war, our jobs were considered important because we were providing a service that was perceived as being needed.
With the change of the political winds our jobs don't seem that important to those in D.C. That means that as the budget squeeze goes into effect, those organizations with the political pull will survive. Bechtel would be just as happy to get a management fee for riding herd on a lab that is shutting down. And if fact, if they were to subcontract out to Bechtel entities to do clean up / shutdown work (hey, construction companies do that you know) it's a win/win for Bechtel.
Look on the bright side. You could be living in an old, broken down van down by the river.
Then you wouldn't have to fret over your small 1% raises. You would only have to worry about what you would be eating for dinner... dried dog food or the more expensive cans of moist cat food.
It's easy to assume some sort of grand conspiracy when the real truth is that management across the lab is not consistent in how they do these kinds of things. So what happens in area A will not be the same as what happens in area B. I tend to wonder if LLNL will get into trouble some day for this. They can probably talk a good game but if you look under the covers the reality isn't always what is written in the personnel manuals.
It's no grand conspiracy....if your in the right club you do very well, if not they will tell you "good effort, but the raise package from DOE was really small this year, keep working hard and I am sure the raise package will be better next year".
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