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This BLOG is for LLNL present and past employees, friends of LLNL and anyone impacted by the privatization of the Lab to express their opinions and expose the waste, wrongdoing and any kind of injustice against employees and taxpayers by LLNS/DOE/NNSA. The opinions stated are personal opinions. Therefore, The BLOG author may or may not agree with them before making the decision to post them. Comments not conforming to BLOG rules are deleted. Blog author serves as a moderator. For new topics or suggestions, email jlscoob5@gmail.com

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

LLNL Director's update

LLNL Director's update of FY13, FY14 budget decisions
6/24/2013

This update comes at a time of evolutionary change for our Laboratory. We have experienced the departure this month of 399 employees through the Self-Select Voluntary Separation Program (SSVSP) and said farewell to many of our colleagues as they begin new experiences. Much has happened since my last update, and I want to thank you for your patience. I know this message is long in coming -- it was important to wait until I had accurate information to give you.

These past weeks, I have been working closely with Laboratory senior managers to pursue all available options to address the many challenges we have faced due to sequestration in FY13, as well as the proposed budget for FY14. Finding solutions that provided the least impact to employees has proved more complicated than anticipated...

While it has been difficult to adjust to the void left behind by our colleagues who participated in the SSVSP, its outcome will help right-size the Lab to meet the unfolding elements of the proposed FY14 budget and beyond. We must now look to ways to address the workload that had once been filled by those employees, while living with the reduced funding brought on by sequestration. We are in the process of identifying those areas and organizations that were significantly impacted by the SSVSP so that we can get back to a balanced level of service and a balanced workload for employees.

We are in the process of adjusting to a new budget reality for FY13 that is $100 million less than anticipated prior to sequestration, and have addressed this challenge through a number of adjustments and actions - including cost cutting in procurements, travel and overtime; reprogramming actions, staffing changes associated with the SSVSP and supplemental labor; and other actions.

Because of these actions and the follow-through commitment of the senior management team, I am announcing the cancellation of the Lab's salary reduction/closure day program. However, it is clear we cannot return to past spending practices. We must continue to manage this gap through actions such as those listed above.

Consistent with benefit plan needs, the Lab will make the $40 million employer contribution this fiscal year to the TCP1 pension plan, as originally planned. Participating employees will see their contributions increase from 5 percent to 7 percent as initially planned beginning July 1 (paycheck date of July 19). We believe these combined efforts will ensure our pension plan remains strong.

I understand these announcements answer many of your questions, but also raise a few more. I want to thank you for diligent efforts to stay focused, and I ask for your patience as we continue to align the Lab to its fiscal realities. As always, I promise to keep you informed as I receive additional details.

In the coming weeks and months, we will take some time to assess our workforce and reset expectations. Because external hiring will be restricted for the next 12 months to a ceiling established under the SSVSP, there will be challenges in redeploying staff to responsibly fill gaps created by the SSVSP. It is important that we have an open dialogue with our sponsors to adjust expectations resulting from lower budgets and staffing levels.

Because of the impacts on the workforce, and the potential for getting distracted by these larger issues as we carry out our work, it is essential that we carry out a period of "deliberate operations" -- providing additional direct and sustained management and employee attention on ensuring safe, secure and compliant mission performance. Remember, you are always encouraged to use the safety pause authority today and everyday when faced with a concern.

The missions this Lab performs are important to the nation. Despite the stresses the current budget environment puts on this Lab (and the larger national security enterprise) we will continue to innovate and do great things for the nation.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like all of you that are left made out like fat rats. Take your stress pills cause even though you were saved from a 10% reduction in pay across the board your workload and expectations are about to go thru the roof. Enjoy your life and take lots of meds to calm you down. Remember, you're just a number on a computer read-out that can be sheet-canned at any time for no reason and without cause, no pension or benefits. isn't todays slave labor work for life society a wonderful thing. You get what you allow and from what I see you all seem pretty happy.

Anonymous said...

I believe it is a good thing under difficult circumstances.
Go Parney, thanks for your hard work.
Anonymous.

Anonymous said...

Where's the Like button?

Anonymous said...

For us in TCP-1 our take home pay is already cut close to 10% now. (7% Contribution plus 2% SDI increase). Doing more with less, take home pay is less and morale is terrible. This place just is not the same.

I am sorry, I don't trust senior managers who are in TCP-2. Why would they have any motivation to fight for us TCP-1ers. It does not effect them. Parney said that himself.

Anonymous said...

Why is "doing more with less" for those in TCP-1 a reflection on LLNL management? Isn't the higher cost borne by employees of LLNL the same thing as is happening @ University of California? I don't like the higher contributions either, but it certainly is not unique to the attitude of LLNL senior managers - more like an erosion across all sectors in the U.S.

Anonymous said...


1) What happened to the 80m the lab was supposed to put into TCP1 last year???

2) TCP1ers: your take home pay is not cut by 7%, it's cut by roughly 10-14% depending on your tax bracket. Remember your pension payments come out post-tax (unlike UC where they come out pre-tax) so any comparison with UC needs be adjusted for this additional tax factor at LLNL.

3) The extra 2% SDI is just undoing a 2% tax holiday, and it's happening to everyone across the UC. TCP1, TCP2, UC, not UC, lab, not lab, etc.

Anonymous said...


Classic negotiation tactic/psychology:

Make your first offer something terrible, then everyone "feels" better when you end up with something just moderately bad.

Anonymous said...

What's the deal where I hear the 7%contribution by the TCP-1'er does not get paid back to the retiree until the retiree has been drawing their retirement for 360 months. Wouldn't that make the average TCP-1er, 90 years old before they get their contributions back and in the meantime LLNS / Fidelity is taking your money and making money off your funds.

Anonymous said...

Paul Rosenketer led the LLNL investment committee (pension plan) even though he and his Bechtel buddies are not in TCP1. Chicken Little said the sky is falling for the overfunded pension. Now you pay 7% (probably 10 or 12% pretax). You thought one person couldn't make a difference. He may be the main reason I took the VSP.

Anonymous said...

June 26, 2013 at 5:11 AM

This has got to be a joke, right? It's satirizing the relentless negativity of this sight. Right?

Surely no one could be so hopelessly lacking in self awareness as to perform such a pitiful "fox and the grapes" routine for real.

Anonymous said...

June 26, 2013 at 5:11 AM

This is the most accurate observation of LLNL as of 6-13-2013I have seen. yes, we made out like fat rats by getting rid of all you old farts and yes we are very happy to take your spots since this is the only way we can get a pay raise. As far as being worked to the bone, well, this is very likely and some will die on the job but then again this is our world not yours where many of us will never see retirement and will work until we are dead. I don't like it but it seems people of my own age have no balls to fight for a defined pension program and full medical upon retirement. You old people are the last that will ever have a real life. I do thank you for your service since you were the generation that kept us free from tyranny for the last 50-60 years.

Anonymous said...

June 26, 2013 at 5:11 AM

This is the most accurate observation of LLNL as of 6-13-2013I have seen. yes, we made out like fat rats by getting rid of all you old farts and yes we are very happy to take your spots since this is the only way we can get a pay raise. As far as being worked to the bone, well, this is very likely and some will die on the job but then again this is our world not yours where many of us will never see retirement and will work until we are dead. I don't like it but it seems people of my own age have no balls to fight for a defined pension program and full medical upon retirement. You old people are the last that will ever have a real life. I do thank you for your service since you were the generation that kept us free from tyranny for the last 50-60 years.

Anonymous said...

Parney has turned out to be okay. I wonder how he ended up LLNL Director, a mistake in his and our favor.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

Parney has turned out to be okay. I wonder how he ended up LLNL Director, a mistake in his and our favor.

June 28, 2013 at 8:00 PM


How true it is. Meanwhile, two years in, Charlie has turned out to be less than expected. Since expectations were very low to start with, this has been a mistake for all involved.

Anonymous said...

Sig is a very tough act to follow even after several director cycles.

Anonymous said...

Parney is definitely an asset to the lab for being able to make difficult decisions without having any taint of the insider Teller-Boy culture that is pervasive at the lab. I would expect him to move to managing healthy organizations with growth prospects rather than continuing as a soft-landing specialist.

Anonymous said...

What's the deal where I hear the 7%contribution by the TCP-1'er does not get paid back to the retiree until the retiree has been drawing their retirement for 360 months. Wouldn't that make the average TCP-1er, 90 years old before they get their contributions back and in the meantime LLNS / Fidelity is taking your money and making money off your funds.

June 26, 2013 at 11:33 AM

Does anyone know if you get your monies back from your pension contributions and if so when after you retire?

Anonymous said...

The contributions go into the retirement fund total. It really has nothing to do with your retirement. This isn't a contribution to a personal and separate account like your 401k.

Anonymous said...


Your pension contributions are tracked and are paid out separately, and therefore part of your pension check is taxed and part is not (the part attributable to your contributions).

Anonymous said...

Yea, Parney is great. He was brought into the Lab to increase our work for others revenue and when he failed he was made director. I am still working on why this is a good thing.

Anonymous said...

Wfo revenue has consistently gone up even in the past few years. LANL has gone way down and supposedly SNL barely broke even.

Anonymous said...

Sig Hecker never got escorted out of Forrestal by building security.

Anonymous said...

"Wfo revenue has consistently gone up even in the past few years. LANL has gone way down and supposedly SNL barely broke even."

July 2, 2013 at 7:10 PM

Someone may have a copy of the slide where this was presented for all three Labs 2009 - 2013. LLNL was flat or down for the first part, and then up a little bit for the rest of the period. SNL finished about where they started, but had a big drop followed by recovery in between. LANL was down for a year, then way up for a couple years, then way back down at the end.

Anonymous said...

Parney doesn't irk people in DC who control the purse strings and he cares about the employees at LLNL - his senior management team secretly must not like him one bit.

Anonymous said...

I had also wondered when he will take a dagger to the neck by the lab insiders. I guess it helped his prospects of survival considering that he fired the ass of the worst manager that the entire NNSA complex has ever seen in its history.

Anonymous said...

July 6, 2013 at 5:27 AM

Now why would we want to do that when we can just continue to come to LLNL The True Story and find out all we need to know about LLNL that makes it great and the inside scoop management never wanted their workers or society to know. The biggest and most costly jokes are right here on this site

Anonymous said...

Hey, asleep-at-the-wheel-Scooby, how about deleting the spam? So much for your robot filter. The next Boston Bomber is in the picture.

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