Top this one!

Anonymous contributor:

Of all the post I have read on both the LLNL and LANL blogs this one sums up the issues at hand quit well. I'll bet you never saw this "outstanding article" in the LLNL Newsline during the transition. I'll also bet that DOE / NNSA will censored this from the 3161 comments period, or it will never be seen by the public eye for review or consideration.

Anonymous said...
As Pink Floyd would say:

Hello, is there anybody in there. We are desperately numb. Sounds like the NNSA anthem.

NNSA must have seen the LLNL work force as a bunch of brain dead kowtowing cowards who they thought they could trample on with impunity as they employed their goose step tactics expecting everyone at LLNL to be too frightened to speak up and question their motives. What they found and awakened however was a sleeping giant who possesses the brains, intestinal fortitude and DC connections (skills attained while achieving tremendous technical and theoretical strides as they faithfully supported the needs of this great nation - in spite of years of DOE/NNSA meddling, misdirection and ineptitude) necessary to intelligently question this new corporate direction. The voices that you have begun to hear will only get louder and more persistent until you allow reason and employee concerns to enter (and make a difference) in your decision making process. All we ever hear from NNSA is that without LLNL's magnificent human resource this great institution would not exist.

You have very effectively reduced our efforts to cocktail chatter and pandering praise - please keep those to yourself and give us back a just and well deserved benefits package coupled with the freedom to continue to make significant scientific discoveries.

Our NNSA leaders have provided LLNS senior management with huge salaries, benefits and perks as long as they support and promote this massive reduction of our health care benefits and pension checks (makes me wonder if senior LLNS management should also have polygraphs and be allowed to pee in a bottle - now that could be called sloppin' with the pigs - 'er I mean cohabitating with the working class - I, however, seriously doubt if that will happen).

I'm curious, have any DC NNSA types ever attempted to purchase real estate or buy gas for the long commutes that we take to get to LLNL? Please do a study on what it costs to live a lower to middle class existence in Northern California. Perhaps you haven't considered, or, don't care that increases in our health care costs and contributions to the TCP1 pension plan may cause many employees to lose their homes. Are NNSA/LLNS managers certain that your much "ballyhooed" benefits plan will retain quality scientific and engineering staff; while providing sufficient incentives to attract world class scientific talent (at this point delusional comes to mind). NNSA believes that they've won the battle but I wager that they have just won the first round of this poker match and that their first shot over the bow will not soon be forgotten by world class LLNL "UC" employees! Their actions remind me of those many corporate leaders and CEOs who reduced, stole or under funded their employees retirement funds while making tremendous salaries because their cost-cutting ways provided stockholders with increased dividends; only to find out that they are now serving long and justified prison terms for their abuses. Do you really think that we are so easily swayed by your "folksy" town hall meetings and that we trust you?

Respect and trust need to be earned and are not commodities that are given away freely. Why is it necessary for LLNS LLC ( LLC, translated from corporate speak, equates to a Limited Liability Corporation). What "exactly" are you limiting your liability from?! You have mentioned that you (LLNS) are working for (with?) us by suggesting that we send our comments to NNSA in an attempt to make this process an employee friendly implementation! This appears to be a thinly veiled and feeble attempt to take some of the heat off of LLNS and redirect this impending storm toward NNSA. It seems to me that you are both playing in the same sandbox together. How many of you have, with NNSA's Blessing, obtained a "golden parachute" as a payoff for feeding us a "filtered and slanted" version of the benefits plan.

What you gained by committing this tragic act is to ensure that the country will now get employees who work from 8 to 4:30. You will be able to hire those who lack scientific and research experience; also those who are willing to appease the boss by hurrying the job, those who are willing to cut comers on projects and materials and a staff that will is incapable of providing the quality craftsmanship that LLNL scientists, engineers and project managers have come to expect. I predict that LLNL will soon become a mediocre laboratory and one that has been severely diminished due to our legacy workers departing for greener pastures.

Additionally, I believe that those who stay will no longer perform their assignments and tasks with the same dedication because they are (rightfully so) feeling disenfranchised by DOE, NNSA and LLNS and their grandiose, less than humanistic, plans for the future. Reminds me of a song that my Mother snag to me when I was young and concerned for my well-being, -"Just a spoonful of sugar and the medicine goes down in a most delightful way!" Sing along

With that said, I have just a few questions/comments to make before I wrap this up . . . Have you considered that you (NNSA/LLNS) are being viewed in a less than favorable light by LLNL workers, Congress and the People of the United States because of your amateurish Management/Corporate 101 antics, skills and tactics?

Does the LLNS/NNSA management team realize that privatizing this esteemed Laboratory (known for fostering greatness, ingenuity and scientific discovery - a commodity sorely needed during this dangerous time in our Nation's history) will most likely dramatically reduce LLNL effectiveness and productivity; along with adversely impacting the earning potential of the laboratory's employees? Is anyone really going to want to go to work for NNSA/LLNS (knowing how they treated their long-term employees by introducing a plan that destroyed a pension plan that was, for the most part, self-supporting)? Is this being done to save money, counter jealousy and/or to implement a policy of equalization among DOE Labs?

If you think this endeavor has won you respect, think again. All you have accomplished is to show your true colors. Over the last 50 years LLNL has been managed by UC and attained a level of performance and success that others in this world can only hope to emulate.

So again I will ask you, "Is there anyone in there?" I guess not, all I'm hearing is an echo and all I'm seeing is the picked over and burned out carcass of the once famous Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory ..