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Sunday, December 4, 2011
Analyst Sees Lasting Damage To Los Alamos, Livermore Labs
Analyst Sees Lasting Damage To Los Alamos, Livermore Labs
Comment moved here from suggested new post by Scooby. This an exception. Please wait until post is posted before making comments.
Wow thanks for posting that, it is interesting to know that some upper managers really do understand what has and is going on.
A few highlights.
"All his email has been supportive, and most comes from active or retired employees at Los Alamos whom he doesn't know. There has been no single theme to the emails other than "someone needed to stand up for us." An extremely powerful message came from a very senior individual at Los Alamos, whom he declined to name: "My former laboratory is in a death spiral.""
Some others
"Browne was unwilling to criticize the current, for-profit management system beyond saying that "they don't seem to have the same commitment to national security that the University of California had since World War II.""
The best one is
from former associate director, Jay Davis.
"The contract system has taken a low cost, merit based approach and turned it into a high cost, fee based approach," he said in an interview. "The LLC (for-profit) managers at Livermore are totally focused on $80 million in fees. The notion that you would take zero fee because it's in the national interest, the way the University of California used to, is foreign to them. This is not the part of Bechtel that builds air bases. It's the part that hunkers down in Washington and looks for fees.""
Wow thanks for posting that, it is interesting to know that some upper managers really do understand what has and is going on.
A few highlights.
"All his email has been supportive, and most comes from active or retired employees at Los Alamos whom he doesn't know. There has been no single theme to the emails other than "someone needed to stand up for us." An extremely powerful message came from a very senior individual at Los Alamos, whom he declined to name: "My former laboratory is in a death spiral.""
Some others
"Browne was unwilling to criticize the current, for-profit management system beyond saying that "they don't seem to have the same commitment to national security that the University of California had since World War II.""
The best one is
from former associate director, Jay Davis.
"The contract system has taken a low cost, merit based approach and turned it into a high cost, fee based approach," he said in an interview. "The LLC (for-profit) managers at Livermore are totally focused on $80 million in fees. The notion that you would take zero fee because it's in the national interest, the way the University of California used to, is foreign to them. This is not the part of Bechtel that builds air bases. It's the part that hunkers down in Washington and looks for fees.""
"He charged that Bechtel managers are basically "a phalanx of outsiders, seen by many (Livermore) lab employees as remote, overpaid interlopers who are obsessed with collecting personal bonuses by ensuring that the labs have no safety or security lapses, but have little interest in the labs' scientific mission."
Where, oh where is Frank and Steve? Noticed that these highly pay "executive" are only here a couple of years, do their dirty work, collect their bonus, and leave the mess behind ...
A quote from American philosopher Ayn Rand comes to mind...
"When you see that in order to produce you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you. . . you may know that your society is doomed."
~ Ayn Rand ~
That quote pretty much sizes up the Bechtel Boys and their shiny shoed LANS and LLNS "yes men" in upper management who run the for-profit NNSA labs only so they can gain their management fees and high executive salaries.
They get rich producing more and more bureaucracy and then enforcing the mountains of policies that slowly kill off productive projects. Staff who bring in funds and do real work on direct funded projects are looked at and treated like lab second-rate citizens.
It's the policy groups, enforcement groups and management teams that matter to LANS and LLNS. Nothing else. The "us vs. them" attitude of lab management has become much worse with the LLCs in charge and the decline in both staff morale and the quality of science has been horrendous -- regardless of what the labs' PR offices spew out in their slick releases to cover up the scientific damage.
Thing is, no one outside of the NNSA labs really cares. Learn to deal with it as best you can or look elsewhere for your professional career.
From esteemed names like Dr. Oppenheimer and Dr. Norris Bradbury to the likes of LANL's next Director, Mr. Bret Knapp.
Great job, LANS! Perhaps the lab can pay to have a large bronze statute of Bret placed over at Fuller Lodge after he gets his royal coronation given to him by the LANS Board in a couple of years.
The author of the paper is getting a lot of miles from it. He is an anthropologist, not an analyst and he has managed to get his views carried in several locations. Even if his observations of the culture are somewhat correct, his analysis of the cause of the current situation is not necessarily right.
"The author of the paper is getting a lot of miles from it. He is an anthropologist, not an analyst and he has managed to get his views carried in several locations. Even if his observations of the culture are somewhat correct, his analysis of the cause of the current situation is not necessarily right.
December 5, 2011 7:01 AM"
What is an analyst and why would your trust one? The stated problem over and over at the labs was "culture" and anthropologists study exactly that, I will trust the anthropologist on this.
What I see at LANL are a bunch of smiling faces, happy employees and a new 'can-do' attitude brought in by the new management team from LANS and their business partners, particularly the expert managers from Bechtel.
Yes, there may be a few sour-pusses still left at Los Alamos but the lab morale is extremely high and the lab is producing more and better science than ever before. Kudos go to LANS management for all this positive change. They've been fantastic! This guy in the article doesn't know what he is talking about.
"What I see at LANL are a bunch of smiling faces, happy employees and a new 'can-do' attitude brought in by the new management team from LANS and their business partners, particularly the expert managers from Bechtel."
You must be in the upper branches of the tree, looking down. Care to guess what all those smiling faces are seeing?
Looks like after five years they realized the screwed up by contracting the labs out to the private sector but it too late now they’ve screwed most everyone of us out of our UC pensions and put us in this well planned and orchestrated falling economy knowing damn well 99% of all the people who put in their 35 to 45 years will never get a dime due to the induced stress this has brought about. -- The bottom-line is this. All the transition was ever about was screwing the employee old and new and to get as many people off the UC pension program as possible.
"The bottom-line is this. All the transition was ever about was screwing the employee old and new and to get as many people off the UC pension program as possible. "
Ok, but why? Is this what UC wanted because they could not afford the pensions? What is the reason?
It's been reported in the local news that Director McMillan bought a big, new home in Los Alamos to more actively become a part of the Los Alamos community.
However, I've yet to see him at the local grocery store, coffee shops, community events, etc.
Was his purchase of this home just for show? Did LANS help with the purchase of this million dollar house? Is he still making frequent weekend trips back to Cali and is that where his family is staying?
Where will his family live? "Part of the community" means sending your kids to school on the Hill. It is rather odd that he waited until after he was named Director to do this.
Maybe it is a benefit of being LANL Director to have one million dollar house in California, and another million dollar house in New Mexico. Recent trend would indicate this to be the case. If so, two houses of million dollars each looks bad when placed next to the pending layoffs.
At this summer's volunteer awards ceremony, MacMillan had a story about going to Africa to volunteer. The audience was full of people that work at LANL, live on the Hill, and volunteer in the community. Maybe for some people their community is far away from where they work, for others it is close by.
The author, Hugh Gusterson, has been studying LLNL staff for over 20 years. He's published at least two excellent books on this subject and working at the lab. So as an outsider, he probably has the best insights into what has changed over the years and gone wrong at the Labs.
How about a poll of who has seen LANL top managers or their family in Smith's? Recall seeing Wallace once, looking very lost. Anyone else?
December 6, 2011 11:29 AM
I saw Bret Knapp at Wholefoods helping himself (e.g. eating) to some fruit inside the store before purchasing it. That tells me a lot about a guy making several hundred thousands $ in salary, tax exempt bonuses, free flights to and from the Bay area, and a new Porsche Cayenne parked outside and he's stealing fruit at Wholefoods. This guy should be reported. Are these the values of our Senior Managers? What a disgrace.
Knapp reserves his truly unethical behavior for his subordinates. He smiles like a Cheshire cat for the rest.
December 9, 2011 4:00 AM
That's exactly what makes me sick of this guy. He also behaves like he's found the fountain of youth. Looks like from his recent picture that he's very mistaken and lost his dentures.
It sure would be if Seastrom or Wallace or another of the home grown types became Director.
December 11, 2011 12:01 PM
The one issue that will hopefully hurt Knapp is that HE DOES NOT HAVE A PhD, nor a brain for that matter. Everyone better keep a very close eye on his credentials, because LANS attempt buy him one, and soon. They are going to make every effort to make it a trifecta; Anastasio, McMillan, Knapp. That is LANS "game plan". Hopefully, that third "horse" comes up lame.
The executioner never becomes King. The Peter principle caught up with Knapp about 20 yrs ago. Having destroyed everything and everybody in his path, he'll retire in California on a pension reserved for LANS managers.
35 comments:
Comment moved here from suggested new post by Scooby. This an exception. Please wait until post is posted before making comments.
Wow thanks for posting that, it is interesting to know that some upper managers really do understand what has and is going on.
A few highlights.
"All his email has been supportive, and most comes from active or retired employees at Los Alamos whom he doesn't know. There has been no single theme to the emails other than "someone needed to stand up for us." An extremely powerful message came from a very senior individual at Los Alamos, whom he declined to name: "My former laboratory is in a death spiral.""
Some others
"Browne was unwilling to criticize the current, for-profit management system beyond saying that "they don't seem to have the same commitment to national security that the University of California had since World War II.""
The best one is
from former associate director, Jay Davis.
"The contract system has taken a low cost, merit based approach and turned it into a high cost, fee based approach," he said in an interview. "The LLC (for-profit) managers at Livermore are totally focused on $80 million in fees. The notion that you would take zero fee because it's in the national interest, the way the University of California used to, is foreign to them. This is not the part of Bechtel that builds air bases. It's the part that hunkers down in Washington and looks for fees.""
Wow thanks for posting that, it is interesting to know that some upper managers really do understand what has and is going on.
A few highlights.
"All his email has been supportive, and most comes from active or retired employees at Los Alamos whom he doesn't know. There has been no single theme to the emails other than "someone needed to stand up for us." An extremely powerful message came from a very senior individual at Los Alamos, whom he declined to name: "My former laboratory is in a death spiral.""
Some others
"Browne was unwilling to criticize the current, for-profit management system beyond saying that "they don't seem to have the same commitment to national security that the University of California had since World War II.""
The best one is
from former associate director, Jay Davis.
"The contract system has taken a low cost, merit based approach and turned it into a high cost, fee based approach," he said in an interview. "The LLC (for-profit) managers at Livermore are totally focused on $80 million in fees. The notion that you would take zero fee because it's in the national interest, the way the University of California used to, is foreign to them. This is not the part of Bechtel that builds air bases. It's the part that hunkers down in Washington and looks for fees.""
"He charged that Bechtel managers are basically "a phalanx of outsiders, seen by many (Livermore) lab employees as remote, overpaid interlopers who are obsessed with collecting personal bonuses by ensuring that the labs have no safety or security lapses, but have little interest in the labs' scientific mission."
Where, oh where is Frank and Steve?
Noticed that these highly pay "executive" are only here a couple of years, do their dirty work, collect their bonus, and leave the mess behind ...
A quote from American philosopher Ayn Rand comes to mind...
"When you see that in order to produce you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you. . . you may know that your society is doomed."
~ Ayn Rand ~
That quote pretty much sizes up the Bechtel Boys and their shiny shoed LANS and LLNS "yes men" in upper management who run the for-profit NNSA labs only so they can gain their management fees and high executive salaries.
They get rich producing more and more bureaucracy and then enforcing the mountains of policies that slowly kill off productive projects. Staff who bring in funds and do real work on direct funded projects are looked at and treated like lab second-rate citizens.
It's the policy groups, enforcement groups and management teams that matter to LANS and LLNS. Nothing else. The "us vs. them" attitude of lab management has become much worse with the LLCs in charge and the decline in both staff morale and the quality of science has been horrendous -- regardless of what the labs' PR offices spew out in their slick releases to cover up the scientific damage.
Thing is, no one outside of the NNSA labs really cares. Learn to deal with it as best you can or look elsewhere for your professional career.
From esteemed names like Dr. Oppenheimer and Dr. Norris Bradbury to the likes of LANL's next Director, Mr. Bret Knapp.
Great job, LANS! Perhaps the lab can pay to have a large bronze statute of Bret placed over at Fuller Lodge after he gets his royal coronation given to him by the LANS Board in a couple of years.
The author of the paper is getting a lot of miles from it. He is an anthropologist, not an analyst and he has managed to get his views carried in several locations. Even if his observations of the culture are somewhat correct, his analysis of the cause of the current situation is not necessarily right.
"The author of the paper is getting a lot of miles from it. He is an anthropologist, not an analyst and he has managed to get his views carried in several locations. Even if his observations of the culture are somewhat correct, his analysis of the cause of the current situation is not necessarily right.
December 5, 2011 7:01 AM"
What is an analyst and why would your trust one? The stated problem over and over at the labs was "culture" and anthropologists study exactly that, I will trust the anthropologist on this.
What I see at LANL are a bunch of smiling faces, happy employees and a new 'can-do' attitude brought in by the new management team from LANS and their business partners, particularly the expert managers from Bechtel.
Yes, there may be a few sour-pusses still left at Los Alamos but the lab morale is extremely high and the lab is producing more and better science than ever before. Kudos go to LANS management for all this positive change. They've been fantastic! This guy in the article doesn't know what he is talking about.
I was at LANL during the period described in the article. I got to see the whole disaster/fiasco unfold. The author of the article is spot on.
12:16. Stay off the drugs.
"What I see at LANL are a bunch of smiling faces, happy employees and a new 'can-do' attitude brought in by the new management team from LANS and their business partners, particularly the expert managers from Bechtel."
You must be in the upper branches of the tree, looking down. Care to guess what all those smiling faces are seeing?
Looks like after five years they realized the screwed up by contracting the labs out to the private sector but it too late now they’ve screwed most everyone of us out of our UC pensions and put us in this well planned and orchestrated falling economy knowing damn well 99% of all the people who put in their 35 to 45 years will never get a dime due to the induced stress this has brought about. -- The bottom-line is this. All the transition was ever about was screwing the employee old and new and to get as many people off the UC pension program as possible.
"The bottom-line is this. All the transition was ever about was screwing the employee old and new and to get as many people off the UC pension program as possible. "
Ok, but why? Is this what UC wanted because they could not afford the pensions? What is the reason?
December 5, 2011 7:55 PM
You got it. The UC pension fund cannot afford all that would retire at this time if they offered a VSIP. Maybe in 2025 when the economy turns around.
"You got it. The UC pension fund cannot afford all that would retire at this time if they offered a VSIP. Maybe in 2025 when the economy turns around.
December 5, 2011 8:19 PM"
If this is true than why not just come and say so. If the cannot afford it they cannot afford it, or is due to legal reasons.
"12:16. Stay off the drugs.
December 5, 2011 2:31 PM"
Sir I will have you know that I am not at this moment taking any currently illegal drugs!
It's been reported in the local news that Director McMillan bought a big, new home in Los Alamos to more actively become a part of the Los Alamos community.
However, I've yet to see him at the local grocery store, coffee shops, community events, etc.
Was his purchase of this home just for show? Did LANS help with the purchase of this million dollar house? Is he still making frequent weekend trips back to Cali and is that where his family is staying?
Where will his family live?
"Part of the community" means sending your kids to school on the Hill.
It is rather odd that he waited until after he was named Director to do this.
How about a poll of who has seen LANL top managers or their family in Smith's?
Recall seeing Wallace once, looking very lost.
Anyone else?
Maybe it is a benefit of being LANL Director to have one million dollar house in California, and another million dollar house in New Mexico. Recent trend would indicate this to be the case.
If so, two houses of million dollars each looks bad when placed next to the pending layoffs.
Like Deep Throat said "follow the money".
At this summer's volunteer awards ceremony, MacMillan had a story about going to Africa to volunteer. The audience was full of people that work at LANL, live on the Hill, and volunteer in the community. Maybe for some people their community is far away from where they work, for others it is close by.
December 5, 2011 7:01 AM
The author, Hugh Gusterson, has been studying LLNL staff for over 20 years. He's published at least two excellent books on this subject and working at the lab. So as an outsider, he probably has the best insights into what has changed over the years and gone wrong at the Labs.
How about a poll of who has seen LANL top managers or their family in Smith's?
Recall seeing Wallace once, looking very lost.
Anyone else?
December 6, 2011 11:29 AM
I saw Bret Knapp at Wholefoods helping himself (e.g. eating) to some fruit inside the store before purchasing it. That tells me a lot about a guy making several hundred thousands $ in salary, tax exempt bonuses, free flights to and from the Bay area, and a new Porsche Cayenne parked outside and he's stealing fruit at Wholefoods. This guy should be reported. Are these the values of our Senior Managers? What a disgrace.
Bret Knapp is sort of a country bumpkin. I once saw him cutting his toe nails during a flight to Washington DC. Talk about disgusting!
That "country bumpkin" is going to be our next Director some day. Better learn to like his "country bumpkin" ways.
Judging from all the personal comments, someone has it in for Knapp. Wonder who is so worried about him? And why?
Judging from all the personal comments, someone has it in for Knapp. Wonder who is so worried about him? And why?
December 7, 2011 2:31 PM
Get in his way and you will find out.
I saw Bret Knapp at Wholefoods helping himself (e.g. eating) to some fruit inside the store before purchasing it.
If Bret ate something before checkout, he told the cashier and paid for it, too.
Knapp reserves his truly unethical behavior for his subordinates. He smiles like a Cheshire cat for the rest.
Knapp reserves his truly unethical behavior for his subordinates. He smiles like a Cheshire cat for the rest.
December 9, 2011 4:00 AM
That's exactly what makes me sick of this guy. He also behaves like he's found the fountain of youth. Looks like from his recent picture that he's very mistaken and lost his dentures.
If Bret ate something before checkout, he told the cashier and paid for it, too.
December 8, 2011 9:26 PM
Yah, he barfed up on the check-out counter.
Layoffs, austerity, budget cuts, job anxiety, scientific decline, capability rot, more bureaucratic policies, greater amounts of online training, bigger payouts for a secretive upper management, Wall Street 401k stock collapse, broken pension promises, fewer and fewer benefits, rising inflation, salary stagnation..... oh, and let's not forget LANL's future Director-in-Waiting, Bret Knapp.
The future looks bright!
"The future looks bright!"
December 11, 2011 11:12 AM
It sure would be if Seastrom or Wallace or another of the home grown types became Director.
"The future looks bright!"
December 11, 2011 11:12 AM
It sure would be if Seastrom or Wallace or another of the home grown types became Director.
December 11, 2011 12:01 PM
The one issue that will hopefully hurt Knapp is that HE DOES NOT HAVE A PhD, nor a brain for that matter. Everyone better keep a very close eye on his credentials, because LANS attempt buy him one, and soon. They are going to make every effort to make it a trifecta; Anastasio, McMillan, Knapp. That is LANS "game plan". Hopefully, that third "horse" comes up lame.
The executioner never becomes King. The Peter principle caught up with Knapp about 20 yrs ago. Having destroyed everything and everybody in his path, he'll retire in California on a pension reserved for LANS managers.
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