Happy Holidays everyone. I am certainly having a great time. Now that I have a bit of rest I have been thinking about what has changed over the last 25 yrs. I would say the big changes have been in the last 12 to 20 yrs. There have been many but the clearest to me has been in management and managers attitudes. This has been not just in change of managers (which I have seen a lot of) but also people I knew very well who changed over time in management. Years ago managers had varied styles and views but today it is pretty much the same view. Let me explain the current views.
First there is this universal belief that management is very different from the workforce in that they are privy to the realities of the world and that the workforce is sheltered and simply does not understand the ways of the world. To be specific I am told consistently by managers that the non-managers have a naive view of the work world and believe that there is some inherent quantity called excellence, value, true purpose, or truth. The workers also believe they are special or smarter, and cannot be replaced or that the whole institute itself cannot be replaced. A management mantra is that everything really is nothing more than perception, building perception, and maintaining perception. We have to flow and mold with the current perceptions
and to attempt to counter such perceptions is foolish in two ways, (1) that in the end there really is no truth so you will ultimately have nothing to stand on. (2) That the people in charge such Congress and to an extent the American people will not, cannot and have no desire to understand the truth even is such a thing existed. Therefore in order for the labs to survive we must embrace these realities. Ideas installed into graduate students and postdocs of great science or engineering simplistic and will not lead to successful survivability. I have tried to nicely argue with a few of the managers and usually get the argument that my view is just not consistent with modern world or that you just don't get it do you.
Now in the "old days" the managers had also sorts of views some of them pretty harsh. but none of them had this sort modern view.
To me this seems like a postmodern worldview that there are no objective truths at all and everything is political.
I may indeed by naive but do modern corporations also believe this kind of stuff?
First there is this universal belief that management is very different from the workforce in that they are privy to the realities of the world and that the workforce is sheltered and simply does not understand the ways of the world. To be specific I am told consistently by managers that the non-managers have a naive view of the work world and believe that there is some inherent quantity called excellence, value, true purpose, or truth. The workers also believe they are special or smarter, and cannot be replaced or that the whole institute itself cannot be replaced. A management mantra is that everything really is nothing more than perception, building perception, and maintaining perception. We have to flow and mold with the current perceptions
and to attempt to counter such perceptions is foolish in two ways, (1) that in the end there really is no truth so you will ultimately have nothing to stand on. (2) That the people in charge such Congress and to an extent the American people will not, cannot and have no desire to understand the truth even is such a thing existed. Therefore in order for the labs to survive we must embrace these realities. Ideas installed into graduate students and postdocs of great science or engineering simplistic and will not lead to successful survivability. I have tried to nicely argue with a few of the managers and usually get the argument that my view is just not consistent with modern world or that you just don't get it do you.
Now in the "old days" the managers had also sorts of views some of them pretty harsh. but none of them had this sort modern view.
To me this seems like a postmodern worldview that there are no objective truths at all and everything is political.
I may indeed by naive but do modern corporations also believe this kind of stuff?
Anonymous said...
I too have noticed a big change in management. I would agree with the above, but with a small twist. That is perceptions are more important than substance. Managment can go a long way based solely on perceptions. They hope to move on before reality demonstrates that their "snake oil" doesn't work. If a manager can keep ahead of the destruction he causes, the new schmuck coming in behind him can take the blame
32 comments:
Scooby, Is this thread a reference to management at LANL or LLNL? Of one, I know nothing. It would be helpful to separate the discussion of the two.
For example, at LLNL the management/employee gap mentioned is driven by three forces that may not apply in the same way to LANL.
At LLNL as the result of repeated criticism,as well as an unwelcome and inappropriate selection of a new management operator in 2007, Congressional oversight of the smallest detail has made LLNL management uber-responsive in a way that would have been judged foolhardy 20 years ago. Employees now see the application of questionable application of resources to accountability, assurances, contract provisions at the expense of more technically productive enterprizes and correctly question the decisions. All are fearful that more inappropriate punishment will fall on LLNL for the sins of others.
Again at LLNL, management is forced to operate in a environment where the sponsor, NNSA by contract, dictates that employee compensation is to be reduced substantially. This gives the employee the impression that management values them less than before, because compared the the past on a CPI-adjusted basis, they are compensated much less. The achievement of basic middle class life is no longer assured for well-educated, younger LLNL employees.
Again at LLNL, by provision in the new poorly conceived contract, LLNL management is forced to create a large number of less than productive organizational structures to meet reporting or contractual requirements. This increase in overhead is balanced by dropping useful overhead provisions such as training, conferences and supervision. The absence of these useful activities is felt in its loss by employees.
The result of these missteps is a deterioration of the status of Congress's minions and LLNL management in the eyes of LLNL employees, as well as a real, ongoing loss of compensation.
There is a sense that management increasingly distrusts the workforce. They see them as, different, buffoonish, and needless. They do not understand the role of the workforce, what they do, why they are needed, and what role do they play. The setbacks the befall the lab are always due the the workforce so the management necessarily see that workforce as a problem. The purpose of the labs is the management not the workforce, the workforce is simply an obstacle that must be overcome.
The golden boys and girls are one the side of management. They are not part of the workforce. They are apart from the workforce subject to different standards. Indeed the workforce is something to be overcome by management and those chosen to be winners at llnl. Deuterium EoS is the result of this system. RT strength will be the next outcome of the crony system of mediocrity.
I agree with you my dear....its really upto dated blog...
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LOL…What a bunch of poor me whiney butts. Management’s sole purpose is not to make employees happy. If you don’t like it…get out. But, I’m sure most will stay because it’s the best job they will ever have.
December 27, 2012 3:57 AM
He has a point, management is not here to make you happy. Management is here to do the bidding of the contract which is the right and correct way things are to be done. The workforce in many ways contributes very little to the contract, however they can take away huge chunks of the contract by messing up. It is no wonder that management has such a low opinion of the workers. Managers also see the workers as pretty much expendable and that anyone can do the job.
What has amazed me about the management is the sheer numbers relative to those who do actual work. In our department we have a manager that manages one employee. I guess shortly we will have managers that manage nothing, although I suspect this is already the case. The second thing is that once a manager you virtually cannot be fired. And if you position goes away, they will create a new one even if it is not needed. I see a lot of people trying to become managers I think because they know once the foot is in the door they no longer need to worry about lay offs, performance etc. The lab needs to lay off about 50% of the management, but this will never happen. They will lay off the people doing the work to preserve their positions for just a little while longer, even if it does damage to the labs long term health. With that you can see the attitudes described above. The people doing the work are not of any importance, it is the layers and layers of managers that are oh so critical. They have to have that attitude, otherwise the game is up and they have to admit there are way too many managers.
LOL…What a bunch of poor me whiney butts. Management’s sole purpose is not to make employees happy. If you don’t like it…get out. But, I’m sure most will stay because it’s the best job they will ever have.
December 27, 2012 3:57 AM
Very insightful. Even though companies like Google and facebook are trying to keep their employees happy and are very successful, we don't want to do this with the national labs. No , unhappy employees are the most productive ones. And why do you think this is the best job we will ever have? You probably work for Bechtel.
Never compare LLNL with google or IBM or any place else. Management is an embarrassment in how poorly they are trained in the art of managing people, projects and stakeholder engagements. Kleptocrats, all of them.
Wow,having been at the lab for 30 years it amazes me how we struggle with ourselves. The labs greatness needs to be preserved but Congress decided to move these labs away form academia. The country is being driven certain leaders fooling the people as to the magnitude of risk the world faces today. Yes... management needs to focus not only on political image but also results which includes healthy scientific debate. We can only proceed as a team absent of titles. Lets try to remember the past.
"Very insightful. Even though companies like Google and facebook are trying to keep their employees happy and are very successful, we don't want to do this with the national labs. No , unhappy employees are the most productive ones. And why do you think this is the best job we will ever have? You probably work for Bechtel.
December 27, 2012 2:14 PM"
I have to at disagree with the idea that the lab management attitudes are only Bechtel people. Most management are home grown lab people and I have seen people change once they are in management. In the last 10 years every manager I have seen who has stepped down on their own accord where outstanding managers. After they stepped down they continued to be excellence scientists or engineers, or whatever type of job they formally did. In contrast I have never seen a single bad manager step down...not one. One guess is they can no longer or never really could do real work. After talking with a few I get the sense that they are rather frightened since they feel trapped. They can no longer do regular work so they have to stay in management until they retire.
Although I have seen a lot of staff members leave for academic positions or other labs outside of the NNSA I see very few managers that ever leave. Again the sense that they are trapped and the only concern they have is that of survival since for them it really is survival. Perhaps this is the
the reason they say "this is the best job you will ever have" as for a bad manager it is the best job they will ever have. Since it is about survival they view excellence as a completely subjective subject and become hostile to workers who seem to demonstrate some form of excellence as defined by the standard metrics of research endeavours. By marginalizing the whole concept of excellence they protect themselves. Conversations I have with managers have become increasingly postmodern in tone with terms such as survivability, transformation, change agents, and ,mealiability. If pressed on the meaning of these things they cannot answer in a cognitive way but say the wold is changing, new realities, the way of the world, we need to catch up with the corporate world.
"There is a sense that management increasingly distrusts the workforce..."
If the author is refering to LLNL, I do not agree. Most management and supervision values the workforce, but is given many less meaningful tools to show it. Salary freeze, few training and conference dollars, no funding for first line supervisors limits face time available. Poorly concieved by NNSA. So what else is new?
"Never compare LLNL with google or IBM or any place else. Management is an embarrassment .blah, blah, blah. Kleptocrats, all of them..."
I'll wager the author of this post has never seen the Livermore Valley.
Quality Troll
These Los Alamos trolls are real trouble.
Lawrence Livermore managers keep stating, internally, how so and so NNSA administrator is "stupid" technically, when quite the opposite is true. That tells you a lot about the culture at the lab. But that kind of behavior is understandable. They try to keep their own flock misinformed and blind from reality, to keep the illusion going.
The "quality troll" is most likely a lab insider. Maybe we can get some specifics from Monsieur Quality Troll.
LLNL upper management petulant tantrums about so and so platform or so and so director are of particular bad form. This is coming from lab insiders too. The tantrums from the originators are not really the problem. It's the blind adoption of that anger by others that makes it such a Jim Jones like plot line. Basically anyone who is not in management and not a golden boy/girl is a potential insider. For good reason too. They weren't picked as golden boy/girl. Why should they be loyal and make sure that the going-ons in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas?
The lab needs to fire all the disloyal employees in order to protect the management. We can't have them harmed by all these damaging leaks. We need to even accuse them of being part of FIS to maintain an illusion that there is an evil threat with insidious intentions. We cannot let our own people believe that current and former employees could become disgruntled and stray from the flock. And always question others around you at the lab and keep tabs on each other. Everyone is a potential insider leak. You may be rewarded for rooting out non believers and bringing them to the attention of management. Sieg Heil!!!!
Bad managers are a cancer that poison the lab. The lab and nnsa have no mechanism to remove these cancers. We need to stop hoping for a better organization, and just let the place rot. Slowly squeeze funding as a way to encourage good decent employees to leave. Lab Management is fully capable of filling in for technical work to be done. Their boys are capable of "performing miracles" when it comes to experimental EoS and strength measurements coming out of NIF. Remember that it is god guiding the hands and fingers of those who determine those measurement data points and error bars. The godless heathens can't comprehend the fact that this data is not just reality, but it is even better than reality. Furthermore, questioning any of that data is simply blasphemy from a bunch of rabble rousers who are in league with the devil.
My observations are that current management are concerned with rules and regulations first and foremost and in doing so become trapped by them in a vicious cycle. Most of my dealings with management are almost a;ways Safety and IWS related, with SHRM policy related and time-card fidelity a close second. I would say any WFO or real science work takes an inferior position to the constant policy oversight from a scared management.
Wow blaming oversight on the piss-poor quality of science. The other nnsa labs are subject to the exact same oversight and they have nurtured technical capabilities that are world class. Nice try blaming nnsa oversight.
The poster was blaming management and not NNSA necessarily. However, I question whether management even knows how to develop centers of excellence at the lab. You have to have A students in order to attract A students. Driving out those A students won't help you one bit. Ask Bill Nellis about his experience getting blackballed. Retaliation is a key institutional tool used at the lab.
12:55 name one.
EoS measurement capability on Z
Checkmate
Not only do they run circles around their llnl counterparts, they are forced to do it with a much leaner budget and a smaller group. And all with the same NNSA oversight.
I can come up with Los Alamos examples too if you would like to keep this up.
Non sequitur responses from other-than-llnl-lab trolls...I'm getting the feeling you guys have a chip on your shoulder having to compare yourself constantly...
LLNL has a new buffoon in charge of the NIF science. The dude is all about the science of why the code doesn't match reality. As is you decide on a given day that you can't drive your car because you realize that you don't know all the details of internal combustion. Pathetic. But hey, they gotta put the new golden boy to work. The lab really knows how to pick em. Someone not independent enough to realize he is being set up to get thrown under the bus for future failures. He'll be rewarded if he sticks with the plan and does exactly as mgmt wants.
No, non LLNL people like rattling the cages to stir up the Livermorons inside. Oh hey I hear your ole boy Tomas is attached to the lab spigot again. He is at the tail end of the human centipede called LLNL. How much of taxpayer funds are going to be spent for his wisdom and business acumen through his one man show he has going with his international consultancy? Maybe he can give lessons to the lab on how to turn knobs randomly.
Did Z succeed because of NNSA oversite, or despite it?
Did you say
*************Tomas is *************
B A C K!
YA, YA, YA, YA, YA, YA
Tomas is BACK!!!!!!!!!! Not as an employee but rather with a consultancy business that is ready to take on NNSA subcontracts through LLNL. Let the good times return! I vote Tomas to head the entertainment at Supercomputing 2013.
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