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Wednesday, June 23, 2010
It’s a Bumpy Ride to Private Management for Los Alamos, Livermore
Terry Wallace, Principal Associate Director for Science, Technology & Engineering at LANL, who grew up in Los Alamos, agrees that there is a morale issue at the facility. The management change “is a difficult transition to make,” he stated. “Where you have a workforce that believes ‘this is ours’ [meaning Los Alamos], and a new management team that appears to be dropped from outer space because it’s corporate…and they don’t know (them). You put those two things together and that spells large change and it’s difficult for the workforce to accept that kind of change.....”
Terry's comments are disingenuous. Terry views himself as the next Lab Director and is beginning to make his move. Did I hear him call the current LANS Management team extraterrestrials? Go get him Ewok.
Unfortunately, the article doesn't even come close to describing the actual morale situation, especially at LANL. Terry Wallace is the last person to ask about that. He is clueless. He thinks this is a "difficult change" that we're "still getting used to." What a joke. How about the reassignment of hundreds of experienced weapon researchers to environmental cleanup by LANS management over the past two years? How about the loss of many other highly competent folks to other positions in academia and at other DOE labs? Sorry folks, it is not a "bumpy ride"; it is a train wreck that has already happened. All that's left is to total up the casualties. National security being No. 1.
Yes, here we are 4 years later & imo & others, the deterioration continues. I can’t see that it will get better because, imo, compliance with federal and DOE regulations is what Congress & therefore DOE/ NNSA, is all about.
The “…turning over of a new leaf for the labs” was never about science – it was about “Compliance” aka, no more safety & security issues. The anti-nuke crowd has convinced Congress (who has in turn convinced the public) that any time we have safety or security issues at our weapons labs we are on the verge of killing thousands of citizens or giving away all our national secrets.
A climate of intense risk aversion has become the culture. Whether we have 1 or 1000 designing new bombs that are safer & more secure than the aging stockpile is no longer permitted. Perhaps others are correct – LANL/LLNL should become another energy/general purpose lab.
How about the reassignment of hundreds of experienced [LANL] weapon researchers to environmental cleanup by LANS management over the past two years?
This gets raised repeatedly. Would it have been better to lay those technical staff off and contract remidiation specialists from the outside? Is an organization not suppose to rebalance its efforts to meet current needs? Or should it just take cleanup money and use it to fund research or whatever work scope the employees are most comfortable with?
In a recent LANS debacle the same Weapons workers that Terry forced into crappy facility engineering jobs in his Directorate were simply tossed in the Operations Directorate. When I attended he meeting to announce this both Principal Associate Directors Terry Wallace and Mike Mallory who forced this decision didn't have the fortitude to show-up to explain their decision. Bottom line is that Terry himself is behind the poor morale at LANL and then attempts to distance himself from it through this APS interview!
How about the reassignment of hundreds of experienced [LANL] weapon researchers to environmental cleanup by LANS management over the past two years?
This gets raised repeatedly. Would it have been better to lay those technical staff off and contract remidiation specialists from the outside? Is an organization not suppose to rebalance its efforts to meet current needs? Or should it just take cleanup money and use it to fund research or whatever work scope the employees are most comfortable with?
June 25, 2010 10:17 PM
Here's the rub on this. LANS did not select Weapon workers through any process. There was a disproportionate number of women and minorities selected. The person making this comment, like many others, have no clue the disrespectful and unprofessional way that LANS treated these workers. Many of the workers that were transfered had more than 20-years experience in the Weapons programs. I had 30-years myself. The work we have been assigned to is demeaning and sometimes dirty work. It's easy to defend what LANS did here if your sitting in your nicely decorated, color coordinated office in the NSSB where you don't get your clothes dirty, get the maximum daily radiation dose, and have the rats and roaches crawling over your lunch. Come out and visit the trenches at TA-46 aka "the LANS nuclear dump". All I can say to this person is that I would be happy to trade you jobs.
Terry Wallace is using this talk about management "outsiders" to carefully position himself as the local "home-boy" made good who is the ideal candidate for LANL's next Director. His politically connected Mommy will see to it that he gets the position as soon as the Fuzzy Ewok exits LANL. You can't trust a single word this sleazy, low-life PAD tells his employees.
As far as lab morale goes, it's only become worse over this last year under Bechtel and the LLCs. Many in the scientific staff are just going through the motions and have given up on the lab's upper management team.
Does Terry Wallace really think he is cut from the same cloth as Oppenheimer, Bradbury, Agnew, Hecker, and Browne? Nanos was a joke on LANL perpetrated by UC in a panicked and futile attempt to save their contract. Kukuck was a benign caretaker, and Anastasio is nothing, just an empty suit held up in front of Bechtel. Can we please get back to the greatness of past Directors?
Can we please get back to the greatness of past Directors? - 10:32 am
NO. It's "PBIs, Baby" and check your shoe wear daily.
The trend at the NNSA labs is pretty well set by now. Bechtel and BWXT call the shots and UC is no where to be found. It's not about science any more. It's about making profits for the corporate "partners", growing the support orgs and the highly paid management, hiring the Bechtel Buddies for the sub-contractor jobs and keeping the LLC executive team in fine suits, big houses and expensive cars.
10 comments:
Terry Wallace, Principal Associate Director for Science, Technology & Engineering at LANL, who grew up in Los Alamos, agrees that there is a morale issue at the facility. The management change “is a difficult transition to make,” he stated. “Where you have a workforce that believes ‘this is ours’ [meaning Los Alamos], and a new management team that appears to be dropped from outer space because it’s corporate…and they don’t know (them). You put those two things together and that spells large change and it’s difficult for the workforce to accept that kind of change.....”
Terry's comments are disingenuous. Terry views himself as the next Lab Director and is beginning to make his move. Did I hear him call the current LANS Management team extraterrestrials? Go get him Ewok.
Why did the American Physics Society (APS) place so much emphasis interviewing a rock breaker? Terry has an overly high opinion of his opinions.
Unfortunately, the article doesn't even come close to describing the actual morale situation, especially at LANL. Terry Wallace is the last person to ask about that. He is clueless. He thinks this is a "difficult change" that we're "still getting used to." What a joke. How about the reassignment of hundreds of experienced weapon researchers to environmental cleanup by LANS management over the past two years? How about the loss of many other highly competent folks to other positions in academia and at other DOE labs? Sorry folks, it is not a "bumpy ride"; it is a train wreck that has already happened. All that's left is to total up the casualties. National security being No. 1.
Yes, here we are 4 years later & imo & others, the deterioration continues. I can’t see that it will get better because, imo, compliance with federal and DOE regulations is what Congress & therefore DOE/ NNSA, is all about.
The “…turning over of a new leaf for the labs” was never about science – it was about “Compliance” aka, no more safety & security issues. The anti-nuke crowd has convinced Congress (who has in turn convinced the public) that any time we have safety or security issues at our weapons labs we are on the verge of killing thousands of citizens or giving away all our national secrets.
A climate of intense risk aversion has become the culture. Whether we have 1 or 1000 designing new bombs that are safer & more secure than the aging stockpile is no longer permitted. Perhaps others are correct – LANL/LLNL should become another energy/general purpose lab.
The Blogs have become silent – all is just fine.
How about the reassignment of hundreds of experienced [LANL] weapon researchers to environmental cleanup by LANS management over the past two years?
This gets raised repeatedly. Would it have been better to lay those technical staff off and contract remidiation specialists from the outside? Is an organization not suppose to rebalance its efforts to meet current needs? Or should it just take cleanup money and use it to fund research or whatever work scope the employees are most comfortable with?
In a recent LANS debacle the same Weapons workers that Terry forced into crappy facility engineering jobs in his Directorate were simply tossed in the Operations Directorate. When I attended he meeting to announce this both Principal Associate Directors Terry Wallace and Mike Mallory who forced this decision didn't have the fortitude to show-up to explain their decision. Bottom line is that Terry himself is behind the poor morale at LANL and then attempts to distance himself from it through this APS interview!
How about the reassignment of hundreds of experienced [LANL] weapon researchers to environmental cleanup by LANS management over the past two years?
This gets raised repeatedly. Would it have been better to lay those technical staff off and contract remidiation specialists from the outside? Is an organization not suppose to rebalance its efforts to meet current needs? Or should it just take cleanup money and use it to fund research or whatever work scope the employees are most comfortable with?
June 25, 2010 10:17 PM
Here's the rub on this. LANS did not select Weapon workers through any process. There was a disproportionate number of women and minorities selected. The person making this comment, like many others, have no clue the disrespectful and unprofessional way that LANS treated these workers. Many of the workers that were transfered had more than 20-years experience in the Weapons programs. I had 30-years myself. The work we have been assigned to is demeaning and sometimes dirty work. It's easy to defend what LANS did here if your sitting in your nicely decorated, color coordinated office in the NSSB where you don't get your clothes dirty, get the maximum daily radiation dose, and have the rats and roaches crawling over your lunch. Come out and visit the trenches at TA-46 aka "the LANS nuclear dump". All I can say to this person is that I would be happy to trade you jobs.
Terry Wallace is using this talk about management "outsiders" to carefully position himself as the local "home-boy" made good who is the ideal candidate for LANL's next Director. His politically connected Mommy will see to it that he gets the position as soon as the Fuzzy Ewok exits LANL. You can't trust a single word this sleazy, low-life PAD tells his employees.
As far as lab morale goes, it's only become worse over this last year under Bechtel and the LLCs. Many in the scientific staff are just going through the motions and have given up on the lab's upper management team.
Does Terry Wallace really think he is cut from the same cloth as Oppenheimer, Bradbury, Agnew, Hecker, and Browne? Nanos was a joke on LANL perpetrated by UC in a panicked and futile attempt to save their contract. Kukuck was a benign caretaker, and Anastasio is nothing, just an empty suit held up in front of Bechtel. Can we please get back to the greatness of past Directors?
Can we please get back to the greatness of past Directors? - 10:32 am
NO. It's "PBIs, Baby" and check your shoe wear daily.
The trend at the NNSA labs is pretty well set by now. Bechtel and BWXT call the shots and UC is no where to be found. It's not about science any more. It's about making profits for the corporate "partners", growing the support orgs and the highly paid management, hiring the Bechtel Buddies for the sub-contractor jobs and keeping the LLC executive team in fine suits, big houses and expensive cars.
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