In the past year, there has been so much commentary on Knapp and McMillan. Nothing but negative, sometimes hateful comments.
I feel the Blog has been taken over by LANL Knapp and McMillan haters.
This is repelling LLNL readers and probably a good percentage of LANLs readers as well.
To those who rejoice in hating those 2 dudes, I have a message:
I don't know Knapp and McMillan,I don't know you and I dont know how bad the situation is but it seems to me that using the BLOG in such an nonconstructive manner is a poor use of the BLOG.
I am posting a poll asking whether this is true. If the poll says so, I will no longer post anything having to do with Knapp and McMillan and will delete anything
mentioning them.
Scooby
46 comments:
Poor upper management is at the heart of the problems that are destroying the NNSA labs.
Not pointing out exactly *who* these bad players are defeats the whole point of improving the situation at the labs by demanding a better management team.
Of course, the record of leadership improvement has been very poor so far so I guess it may be time to issue a "Who cares any longer?" response to the lab management attackers on this blog.
Anyone left at the labs who is unhappy with the LLC for-profit management team has 2 choices -- either (1) Give up or (2) Get out. The "Knapp-ification" process at LANL is almost complete.
Little is likely to stop Bret Knapp from his designated path to becoming the next Director of LANL, as upsetting as that might be to the current research staff. The high standards of the past for upper management positions obviously no longer apply.
Nobody likes the ride we are all on but I think we should try to provide what interests most of all and that's the facts not the whining. Most of us are interested in what is coming down the road and that's real important if you are planing ahead for you family which is what we all should be doing!
While it is ok for this BLOG to be a forum to expose incompetenc, mismanagement and th elike, it would be wise to also direct comments to DOE. Dont count o DOE to search BLOGS for suggestions. Plant the seeds here and everywhere.
I think the only comments that should be blocked are profanity. Outside of this, everything should be fair game. I think the Blog has been successful, take a look at the constant visitors. I fear the blog will die without free comments, be they on D'Agostino, Anastasio, McMillan, Knapp, Miller, etc. Once you start censoring any comment short of profanity, this Blog is over. Let freedom ring, let freedom ring.
I have been reading about certain universal characteristics of bad management and growth of bureaucracies. These issues have been raised in context with the growth of administrations in education, college, government, and certain bubble driven business.
These same characteristics seem to
fit LLNL and LANL to a tee.
When management is working well in these types of institutions, managers are selected who have outstanding working records, scientific records, or who have been in the trenches. In other words they have first hand knowledge of the actual work and they where very good at that work.
Additionally many of these people may still have hand in the work even as mangers and in many cases
will return to work after their management stint is over.
The pathologies come into play when management is seen as a end unto itself and that once one goes into managing one does not return. These type of people seek out management as a way to survive as
they may be poor workers with little chance success if they stay in their positions and little or no ability to move onto other
jobs. In order to stay in management and too survive they must insulate themselves from criticism and from the actual work being done. One of the key tactics is to grow more management and more layers. These types of managers deliberately choose people who will enforce go along with this and who are also in survival mode in the sense they can no longer do any real work.
Many layers also means it will be more places to place blame. This culture gradually grows and is reinforced by an echo chamber effect which often entails, retreats, meetings, team building exercises, and other functions which only include other mangers, and have absolutely no input from the work or the workers, or the actual state of the institute. "Team players" and being part of the "team" are strongly emphasized however there is always the undercurrent that the "team" are other managers not workers.
There is also the boiling off effect that people that where good mangers and raised objections will leave to either go back to work since they have real skills and can do work or they leave the institution altogether. Little or no information flows, there is a strict line management policy where any information must go through a change but generally this will stop at the very first rung of the ladder since advancement means never bringing problems to managers higher than you. Within this echo chamber
decisions are made that seem only to benefit managers not the institution. It has been well documented that the worse school districts often have the largest and highest paid administrators who are often hostile to the better teachers.
I will no longer post anything having to do with Knapp and McMillan and will delete anything mentioning them.
Scooby
So your not interested in posting anything on the LANS Director/President and Principal Associate Director for Weapons (PADNW). Let's be fair and not publish anything on the LLNS Director/President and LLNS PADWP as well. At that point what is there to post?
Mentioning leaders by name when taking issue with their actions seems fair game. Revisiting yet again who went to what school, drives what car, or bought what house, is tiresome and on that basis I voted for a 'yes I mind' category.
Censorship is a slippery slope. I cannot think of some easily encoded dividing line for this issue. I'm OK with Scooby exercising some judgment/taste. If this blog becomes too tame for some, I'm sure legions of new blogs will spring up overnight.
Censorship is a slippery slope. I cannot think of some easily encoded dividing line for this issue. I'm OK with Scooby exercising some judgment/taste. If this blog becomes too tame for some, I'm sure legions of new blogs will spring up overnight.
December 26, 2011 2:27 PM
As soon as Scooby begins deleting posts, it becomes as demoralizing as the LANS/LLNS censorship that's taking place inside these "institutions". We may as well be governed by Pravda. Where is our first Amendment Rights here in the good ole U.S.? This is ridiculous Scooby.
As soon as Scooby begins deleting posts...This is ridiculous Scooby.
December 26, 2011 3:38 PM
Wake up. Scooby does this every single day for posts he does not like. This one will disappear soon. Yeah, it is ridiculous.
Not only does it highlight our key successes and achievements, but it identifies various issues and concerns that we need to, and will, address going forward. So, please accept my thanks for an exceptional year, and join me in our continuing effort to achieve simultaneous excellence in mission, operations and management.
-- Parney Albright
Translation: We need to push LLNS workers harder to increase the money were putting in Senior Managers pockets so we can join Pattiz, Miller, and Anastasio in the Bahamas on Pattiz's yacht Monkey Business. Yeah baby!
What makes this Blog "Outstanding", to use Parney's words himself, is the diversity of comments, some flaming, some "out-of-bounds'. It's California at it's finest. Scooby want to make it "politically correct" because we don't want to offend anyone or hurt anyone's feelings. Why change a good thing? Remember, "Better is the Enemy of Good Enough"....Admiral Rickover, U.S. Navy
the survey is only for current employees?
The weapons labs are being driven off the cliff. At high speed. Deliberately. We should be able to call the main culprits by their names. Censoring the name of the LANL's director in particular is a terrible idea. (And don't think that LLNL is somehow immune to what happens at LANL.)
On the other hand, I've seen quite a few posts here that are just plain silly. For example, that McMillan bought a large house in Los Alamos. So what?! Why are you surprised that a large house in town is owned by the top manager? If anything, it's good that the guy hangs out in town, not in Santa Fe, like the drive-by Bechtel crowd. Perhaps, being in town will help McMillan understand better what's really going on. Granted, I have no proof that McMillan is in any way interested to know the truth about what's really going on at the Lab, but on the off chance that he does, living in town might be helpful. Remember, at work this guy is surrounded by obsequious sycophants. (Think the likes of Bishop, Knapp, and Wallace, who lick McMillan's boots, while viciously kicking down. And, by the way, will stab him in the back at the first opportunity. But let's not digress too much here.)
So I think it's reasonable to censor silly, petty, and irrelevant comments (e.g., "manager X has a big house, a sporty car, or fancy shoes"), but certainly NOT all comments that call the managers by name.
I understand where Scooby is coming from. I get it, 100,000 posts of we hate Anastasio/Mcmillan/Knapp/Livermore, I get it.
There are two answers to this. Someone could start another blog that is exclusively devoted to the venom and bile associated with the displeasure of LANL management, especially if anything/anyone could be connected to Livermore. Spew away.
The other answer is to have Scooby carve out a section of his blog for the same purpose. That way Scooby can just shove posts over to that section and for those that want to ignore it, we don't have to view it, and there would be no censorship.
Remember, this is Scooby's Blog. If he is sick and tired of posting the same complaint over and over again, he can do so. I know I am tired of seeing the same thing over and over again. If you don't like it, the internet is a big place, take your readership elsewhere.
Scooby took in the LANL folks after their blog folded under tragic circumstances.
A number of those guests have been less than gracious in their behavior. Yet Scooby has been very kind to them despite their rude action. Now he proposes a simple adjustment to match his posted rules and regs. I don't have a problem with that.
Those from LANL, you are guests here. You've had over a year to set up your own replacement blog. If Scooby is not to your liking, then exercise the option to create a LANL blog.
Thanks to those who understand why I am asking if people mind the hateful comments about K and McM.
Notice that I am asking (polling) everyone: LLNL and LANL.
is not just what I like.
If the majority of readers want change, I will make the change.
A poll is a good tool to find out!
Scooy
Don't get me wrong Scooby I appreciate your work. Just want to point out that the mission of this Blog will need to be revised to indicate: "with the exception of any comments on the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Director and the LANL Principal Director for Nuclear Weapons, sorry we're getting too many comments on this fine upstanding fellows". Also, you mentioned you never met either person, give them a call, I'm sure they would just be thrilled to hear from you. Just let them know you are the LLNL - The True Story "blogmaster" and want an interview.
A number of those guests have been less than gracious in their behavior.
December 27, 2011 5:58 PM
Oh God! This is a Blog not a formal tie and gown dinner party at the White House. If you can't take the heat, your in the wrong Blog buddy. That's the problem now, these young kids never saw the "blood and guts spilled" at "real" LANL/LLNL peer reviews.
By the way what happened to Californication? Home of the Hells Angels, Mario Salvio, Haight-Ashbury, "The Peoples Park"? What happened to you people?
December 27, 2011 6:39 PM
Hi Scooby, I really like your blog and in the end it is a LLNL blog not a LANL blog and it is up to you to judge as you please as to which posts stay and go. A good blog always needs some moderation and you do a good job at a this. Perhaps someone will want to start a LANL blog again?
I agree completely with the sentiment of trying to get the focus back on LLNL and the issues we face.
The endless personal attacks and name-calling are tiresome and unproductive. I am not sure a poll will do the trick here because obviously a small group or perhaps it is just one very antisocial person, can clearly overwhelm the rest of us.
At the end of the day it is your blog and you need to decide how you will run it.
The endless personal attacks and name-calling are tiresome and unproductive.
December 28, 2011 12:15 PM
And you expect a blog to be - what? Exciting and productive? With all anonymous comments? Get a clue. It's a BLOG, not an academic discussion forum. Sheesh.
No poll can save Knapp from himself, Scooby.
The name calling is tiresome, bordering on mundane and is now numbingly repeditive.
LLNL blog, guests should mind their manners.
If my guess of the who "GreggS" is, comments by 'December 27, 7:46 PM' and friends are way off-base. The GreggS I knew worked at LLNL for 25 years, went toe-to-toe with high-level DOE officials in several public meetings, and looks like a biker. If it's him, he was holding back on his language for Scooby's sake.
Anyway, he was right. A blog or forum is no different than any other conversation. If you want to be a troll ( post imflamatory comments just for "fun" ) go somewhere else.
Well, here is a simple question. With the budget short fall of 200mil and the additional cuts just imposed by congress will LANL have to have a RIF? The talk was that with 200 million they could somehow get around a RIF but now with the additional cuts it is not clear if this is the case.
A simple solution would be to reduce the size of the management by 25-33 percent, this would save about 150 million. Additionally with smaller management there will be additional cost savings with enhanced efficiencies that would also add to the savings. By the when I mean management I also mean all the extra staff that goes along with them. The reality is that any organization with ever growing management with their cadre of staff is doomed. Last I heard is that less that only 19% of all lab personal have Phd's while only 25 years ago it was 50%. This large growth was almost entirely in egregiously paid managers and the army of staffers
that have been added, however there has been little or no evidence of any benefits to the lab. A common argument is that
since we are now corporate that
the salaries of the managers should reflect this, however almost no corporation in the real market place has the number of managers that we have. The size of the management we have is what you
expect from largely dysfunctional
bureaucracies that often arise in
certain government run institution,
private-government hybrids, failing non-profits charities, and countries on their way to bankruptcy. Many people say that the reason that moral is so bad at the labs is all the crazy rules from DOE and the congress. I say this is really not the case it is the fact that we see so many people at the labs who do nothing.
How can one have pride in an institution when a huge portion of the workforce serves no useful function whatsoever? How should one feel when the management sees the purpose of the lab as just management and staff, while the workers see the lab as a place with a real mission and purpose?
Ironically if there is a RIF,
the ratio management to workers
will likely grow larger. This is a unsustainable rate and is bad for the lab, and most of all bad for the people of the United States.
It may not be so troubling that the LANL Director bought the most expensive house in town, but it does look a bit strange that it was being done in between press conferences during the fire. Hecker and Browne lived in town, but not in the most expensive house on the market.
Scooby, it's your blog and the First Amendment does not apply: "Congress shall make no law..."
Censor if you want, and the readers will decide.
What is distasteful to me are the petty, completely false comments passed off as truth and without attribution.
Apparently, the rules of science do not apply to these scientists here. Replaced by the rules of gossip and slander.
Hecker and Browne lived in town, but not in the most expensive house on the market.
January 3, 2012 7:25 AM
They lived in town long before they became Director, raised families, etc. Moving into LA with Mcmillan's salary, I'd buy the most expensive house too, and when it was priced the cheapest.
They lived in town long before they became Director, raised families, etc. Moving into LA with Mcmillan's salary, I'd buy the most expensive house too, and when it was priced the cheapest.
January 3, 2012 6:10 PM
Don't forget the house McMillan owns in California too. Anyone know where? Pleasanton, Livermore, ?
You guys at Livermore took over Los Alamos and now you don't want our comments on YOUR Blog. In view of this we (los Alamos) will continue to send comments on McMillan and Knapp until you get so sick and tired of these comments that you'll call for these two "dudes" to return back to California ...permanently ....take that Livermore!!
They lived in town long before they became Director, raised families, etc. Moving into LA with Mcmillan's salary, I'd buy the most expensive house too, and when it was priced the cheapest.
January 3, 2012 6:10 PM
There is a huge difference between owning one of your multiple houses in town and living in town with your family and having your children go to school in town. A difference as large as CA and NM.
December 29, 2011 5:53 AM, respectfully, a blog is indeed different from a conversation. A blog is in writing and on the Internet, forever, and available to search engines.
That means hateful, immature, and inaccurate comments are out there, for everyone to see, forever. (As are the accurate and well-reasoned ones.)
That doesn't happen with watercooler conversation.
Frankly, I'm astounded at the non sequitur and ad hominem coming from those who take such pride in science and logic.
"Frankly, I'm astounded at the non sequitur and ad hominem coming from those who take such pride in science and logic."
I doubt that many of the comments are coming from scientists. There seems to be only one or two people who post the worse stuff over and over. This is out of 4000 science people at the labs so there is no reason to be astounded by anything. Two people out of this many is not bad at all. Why would think a blog represents any kind large group of people?
Looks like that most of the Knapp hating remarks come from someone that grew up in LA and has a dark view of those that did not.
More to the point of the future of BOTH Labs, what will be the impact of today's "new" national defense strategy?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-announces-new-military-approach/2012/01/05/gIQAFWcmcP_story.html
"More to the point of the future of BOTH Labs, what will be the impact of today's "new" national defense strategy?" (11:59 AM)
Lots of deep cuts for the NNSA complex and they are going to be coming quickly. That's what it means.
It's clear that the Obama administration is very serious about downsizing US defense capabilities to help control the out of control deficit. Being a worker in the US defense industry is no longer a "safe job" for the duration of this long term economic depression.
Doubt all you want, 9:21, but I don't know a single individual, besides McMillan, who thinks Knapp is doing a good job.
"Frankly, I'm astounded at the non sequitur and ad hominem coming from those who take such pride in science and logic."
I doubt that many of the comments are coming from scientists. There seems to be only one or two people who post the worse stuff over and over. This is out of 4000 science people at the labs so there is no reason to be astounded by anything. Two people out of this many is not bad at all. Why would think a blog represents any kind large group of people?
January 5, 2012 9:21 AM
I'm astounded by the shear number of LANL workers that have compromised their values and morals for the opportunity to kiss the butts of the "Livermore boys". All for a few a bucks. Is that you Craig Leasure?
Doubt all you want, 9:21, but I don't know a single individual, besides McMillan, who thinks Knapp is doing a good job.
January 6, 2012 4:53 AM
Knapp has no vested interest in the long-term survival or success of LANL. A few examples have been chasing-off engineers and scientists in the LANL weapon program and his preference to give HIS LAB (LLNL) weapons work (e.g. 78 LEP, hydros, GTS). If it's not a PBI ($$$$ in his pocket), Knapp will kill it.
I doubt that many of the comments are coming from scientists. There seems to be only one or two people who post the worse stuff over and over. This is out of 4000 science people at the labs so there is no reason to be astounded by anything. Two people out of this many is not bad at all. Why would think a blog represents any kind large group of people?
January 5, 2012 9:21 AM
If it's just one or two people why does it bother so much then? Those folks are entitled to their own opinion. So what if it's no consistent with your opinion?
Knapp has no vested interest in the long-term survival or success of LANL. A few examples have been chasing-off engineers and scientists in the LANL weapon program and his preference to give HIS LAB (LLNL) weapons work (e.g. 78 LEP, hydros, GTS). If it's not a PBI ($$$$ in his pocket), Knapp will kill it.
January 6, 2012 8:05 AM
The reason Knapp gives Livermore hydros is that he get's a $50,000 bonus anytime a hydro is fired in the U.S.., at Livermore or Los Alamos. He also knows that Livermore is far more efficient (i.e. faster) at fielding them than Los Alamos. He's not as stupid as he looks.
Scooby -
Reading your poll results is far more entertaining than listening to the results of Republican primaries. Right now it appears that the "who at LLNL cares" candidate has an overwhelming lead. Are you going to call the race, or are you waiting for data from the exit polls (after the upcoming RIFs)?
Now that the workers have voted overwhelmingly to continue to hear about Knapp and McMillan can we document this issue so that it doesn't come up again? These things tend to become "forgotten" after a while when the minority (aka Knapp/McMillan "lovers") want their way. Gotta love democracy!
Hey Scooby,
I noticed you removed the vote you called on whether we wanted to hear about Knapp and McMillan. What happened, did you not like the outcome? Your weird dude!
poll ended. I had to take it down.
poll ended. I had to take it down.
January 14, 2012 9:31 AM
On "advice" from Brett or Charlie?
poll ended. I had to take it down.
January 14, 2012 9:31 AM
"Had to"??? Wow, that raises all kinds of questions about this blog, its owner, and who he is beholden to. A little clarification (i.e., "blogger.com only lets it run for a certain amount of time") would go a long way. But Scooby goes by the old Texan cowboy credo: Never apologize, never explain.
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