Skip to main content

Creative bookkeeping and balancing of the budget

I will be totally amazed if 900 people is all that LLNL has to cut
between now and Oct 1st, 2008. If getting rid of 900 people can
account for $300M dollars then each person much cost an awful lot to
the programs. I'd sure like to see the expense breakdown on how they
justify this cost and who they are since each of us cost a different
amount. Would you like to bet ULM sucks up most of LLNL budget and yet
they are untouchable.. Not logical in my books.


Washington Post article


House Democrats Pull Budget Offer

The GOP Is Negotiating In Bad Faith, Obey Says

Comments

Eric said…
I have tried to get budget numbers to balance. So far, no luck.

That is why I am helping friends and colleagues prepare for the worst.
Anonymous said…
the numbers keep looking worse and worse. Anyone on the support side of the house needs to seriously look for other opportunities. The support budgets are still struggling to absorb a 10% budget cut along with a 10% increase in costs. The first round of layoffs for the flexible workforce should be about 500 souls but the lists being prepared are still short. If they only loose 400 in January of the flex workforce, that will require more people to leave voluntarily or involuntarily.
If the costs for FY08 don't come down enough, there may be a furlough this summer. Who would like to take a 1 or 2 week mandatory vacation?
George wants the support side to be 20% lower than in the past. Say bye bye to all your friends who process your purchase orders, fix your roofs, drive the taxis and empty your wastebasket. We'll all be "doing for ourselves" in the future.

How will we continue to attract top science and top scientists if we have nuclear physicists emptying their own trash?

I'm frustrated too about the disparity between the severance package for LLNS and LANS. How did 26 weeks ever equal 39 weeks (the max severance at each lab)

Does anyone know a good employment agency?
Eric said…
Freddy,

1. I know a good employment agency. Better, I know people looking for the skill sets that exist at LLNL. All I need is a current, competitive resume to email to the right places. I get 200 requests for good talent each week.

2. 26 = 39 if you write the policy in D.C. and do not care about the differences.

3. Your budget numbers are much more optimistic than the best current ones that I can get.

Ciao
Anonymous said…
Freddy
Forcing people to take vacation (work furlough) doesn't save money. Your paid vacation time is part of your yearly cost. There was the rumor of shutdown between the holidays and Miller emphatically stated it does not save money. Now if they forced people to take unpaid leave - that would be different.

As to LANL getting 39 weeks vs 26 for LLNL, that was part of their contract. The feeling being that when you are out in the boonies, it will take longer to get a job and they gave them more. Also, until the early 90's I believe, LANL people started with 5 weeks of vacation rather than LLNL's 3 weeks. Another perk for being isolated in the wilderness.
Anonymous said…
As to LANL getting 39 weeks vs 26 for LLNL, that was part of their contract. The feeling being that when you are out in the boonies, it will take longer to get a job and they gave them more.

December 13, 2007 12:21 PM

That was NOT part of the contract. The severence package was renegoiated on 10/16/02 with AMENDMENT MODIFICATION NO.
A029. Mikey is good for something
Anonymous said…
Its not gonna be that bad, perhaps you'll lose only one in five of your friends. It's better than the Spanish flu.
Anonymous said…
"That was NOT part of the contract. The severence package was renegoiated on 10/16/02 with AMENDMENT MODIFICATION NO.
A029."

This is not a correct statement.

1) A029 was dated 10/16/07 - just a typo on the poster's part?

2) A029 was to clarify that Parent Company employees joining LANS would only get 1 week severance per year of service with a maximum of 26 weeks (BTW, this is the same as LLNL) - not the more generous severance that LANL/UC employees have always had.
Anonymous said…
Per Contract DE-RP52-05NA25396/DE-AC52-05NA25396
Section J, Personnel Appendix A – Page 7
Section V – Payment on Separation
url: http://www.doeal.gov/laso/NewContract.aspx (12-21-05)

Severance pay benefit:
“… one week’s pay for each year … not to exceed a total of 26 weeks pay.”


Modification A029 at
url: http://www.doeal.gov/laso/ModContract.aspx (dated: 10/16/07)
Severance Payment Schedule A
For those LANL employees that transferred from U.C. to LANS on June 1, 2006
“… not to exceed a total of 39 weeks.”


Soooo if someone (ULM? NNSA?) really wants to … the severance pay
can be change. LLNL should get the same … 39weeks/max.

Popular posts from this blog

Plutonium Shots on NIF.

Tri-Valley Cares needs to be on this if they aren't already. We need to make sure that NNSA and LLNL does not make good on promises to pursue such stupid ideas as doing Plutonium experiments on NIF. The stupidity arises from the fact that a huge population is placed at risk in the short and long term. Why do this kind of experiment in a heavily populated area? Only a moron would push that kind of imbecile area. Do it somewhere else in the god forsaken hills of Los Alamos. Why should the communities in the Bay Area be subjected to such increased risk just because the lab's NIF has failed twice and is trying the Hail Mary pass of doing an SNM experiment just to justify their existence? Those Laser EoS techniques and the people analyzing the raw data are all just BAD anyways. You know what comes next after they do the experiment. They'll figure out that they need larger samples. More risk for the local population. Stop this imbecilic pursuit. They wan...

Trump is to gut the labs.

The budget has a 20% decrease to DOE office of science, 20% cut to NIH. NASA also gets a cut. This will  have a huge negative effect on the lab. Crazy, juts crazy. He also wants to cut NEA and PBS, this may not seem like  a big deal but they get very little money and do great things.

LLNL un-diversity

Actual post from Dec. 15 from one of the streams. This is a real topic. As far as promoting women and minorities even if their qualifications are not as good as the white male scientists, I am all for it. We need diversity at the lab and if that is what it takes, so be it.  Quit your whining. Look around the lab, what do you see? White male geezers. How many African Americans do you see at the lab? Virtually none. LLNL is one of the MOST undiverse places you will see. Face it folks, LLNL is an institution of white male privilege and they don't want to give up their privileged positions. California, a state of majority Hispanics has the "crown jewel" LLNL nestled in the middle of it with very FEW Hispanics at all!