Well, if you are one of the survivors of the RIF, you're likely to be effected anyway. 440 of our friends are gone - someone will have to pick up the slack. I'm still trying to figure out who got canned in my own department. It seems like everyone who was on the "list" Thursday was preloaded into ph - for at least a short time. I know of at least two people who noticed they were missing from ph prior to their being notified by management.
When you drive by the sunshine building, keep in mind that those entering and leaving will have their minds on things other than driving. You'll walk by the empty office of a friend or coworker and wonder what they are doing. Will they lose everything? There were a few married or otherwise couples who were both RIF'ed. They lost the entire family income with one swoop of a pen.
So will come the ripple effect.
32 comments:
They will lose it all including their homes, car, boats, etc. All they can do is walk way and let it be foreclosed on. Go rent somewhere and understand they may never own anything like they had before again except for the cloths on their back. It's not pretty and as gas continues to climb towards $6.00 a gallon its going to get uglier for many across the entire nation. We are all in a world of crap and have only begun to witness the fallout of these two dilemma's that must be overcome. I hope we seek renewable enegry systems soon cause a vehicle that uses gas will be to expensive to drive. We need to start looking at vehicles like the Tesla or you could get yourself a 50cc honda.
You sound really negative! Sure it sucks that a lot of our co-workers got the axe. I've been through it before and it's not FUN! But these people have skills, have a little faith in their ability to find work!
I don't think there will be anymore layoff's at the Lab. We have an aging workforce and I think we'll have a much higher than normal attrition rate over the next 1 to 4 years. Of course I could be wrong, in which case I'll just retire and get a part time job to supplement my income until I can draw on my 403 & 401
A good place to see how many people are out of work and what your chances are of being employed can be seen here:
http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.ca.htm
May 26, 2008 7:58 AM
My bet is you're wrong. With a FY-09 budget cuts to be worse than FY-08 my bets going to be 2000 more people out the gate next year. Some will come as you say. Some will come because they can't afford to come to work as gas heads towards $6.00 (plus ) a gallon. I guess that's one way to destroy the national labs and the nation as a whole but in reality it's what this nation needs. When gas gets to $6.00 - $10.00 a gallon they'll be more than wiling to let the president bypass the Congress and the Senate to get renewable energy plants of all types built and electric cars on the road, Mag-lev trains, etc, etc , etc. Who knows we may even get hydrogen cars on the road in record time and all the BS EPA / safety regulations will go wayside. We've had our heads up our asses for 50 years and have no excuse for it except we have allowed drilling and went to war for oil. What a friggen joke we are. It's time we STOP drilling and put that $4B a week we are spenidn on the war towards what's good for the nation, not good for the rich CEO's of the oil companies. Weapons work can go wayside as far as I'm concerned. We have more than enough to blow the world to heck and back and they work when they are called upon. All funding for weapons needs to be diverted to renewable energy and the building of a new infrastructure that will allow us to tell the sand dune dirt bags to go pound sand literally.
You can sit at home and worry about the price of gas if that's all you have to do, but not me! It's a beautiful day, so I'm going to go for a long motorcycle ride and enjoy it!
May 26, 2008 8:52 AM
I am glad you can afford a bike and the gas to put in it. You are very fortunate. Enjoy.
May 26, 2008 8:52 AM
Gas out here is $4.29 a gallon and Diesel is $4.99 / $5.02. Tomorrow will be an increase for both. Come on $6.00. That wasn't supposed to take place until the end of 2009 but it looks like it might get here sooner.
Working for an organization with 900 PHDs means we are a brain trust, or we simply overpaid overfed workers not used to reality. I choose to believe that we are very clever and intelligent folk who can create what we want. You think you should start looking at Tesla's? I thinki newer versions need to be dreamed up, and the type of people capable of turning those vesions into reality just got their meeting makers freed up to do so.
Get a grip and apply the smarts.
Driving a Tesla is going to help? ROTFLMAO!!
This whole country has turned it's back on defending itself. Not at all suprised that everything else is falling apart around us. It's game-over time.
You thought the fall of the Soviet Union was ugly? Just watch this country get torn to shreds by enemies within and without.
If you love your family, pack up and leave now. Even you still have a job at LLNL, just quit and leave while you can.
May 26, 2008 1:50 PM
Now that you're rolling on the floor laughing your ass off I would like to see you put in writing what you think is going to happen to this country i bullet form and in sequential order. Feel free to make it as long as you want. maybe under each bullet you can have sub bullets that explain why you have such thoughts. I'd also like to se what you think establishing four new infrastructure that would make us all electric and possibly hydrogen powers is pissing in the wind. We are waiting on your details analogy and thinking process.
May 26, 2008 12:30 PM
Newer version other than electric or hydrogen are not going to happen. Electric is abundantly available if they use the sun, thermal, wind and sea all at the same time. Hydrogen will come by the use of eccentricity and that's the end of the road. You can kiss of nuclear drives, fusion energy and neutron motor for vehicles. Not going to happen now or ever in the future. Short of having an alien come down and show us how its done we'll be pissing in the wind if we don't pull our heads out of our butts and do with what we have available for free very soon. Stand by and se what happen when gas in the good old USA goes to 6-10 dollars a gallon. Today its 4.29 for low end gas and 5.02 dollars diesel. there is no stooping this now. I am all for shutting down coal and diesel electric power plants today. It's time to move on and move fast.
May 26, 2008 1:50 PM
What I want to hear from the genius is what his plan when gas gets to $6-10a gallon and what is he going to do to stop our dependency on oil in short order. Please tell us and by the way you have five years to get you plan totally in place and executed but you can not used crude or nuclear power to get there.You have to use the resources and technology that's available today and there's no money or time for research. The clock is ticking and you have to have an answer in 24 hours to present to the people as a course of action. Oh and it has to be one the public see's as a viable solution because you are asking them to pay for it at the pumps even if you divert $4B a week from the war after a withdraw in the next 24 hours. War also is not the answer. I know this is tough since the nation is about to go into a depression that will make history look mild, crime is escalation and unemployment is skyrocketing. The entire nation is about to crumble into a third world order of mayhem and disorderly conduct. We at LLNL look forward to your solution.
May 26, 2008 1:50 PM
Looks like the master mine has nothing to offer or maybe he'll still ROTFLHAO. It's always good to complain but have no workable solutions.
I thought I was on LLNL The True Story blog site, not the A. Gore end of the world as we know it site! LOL
May 26, 2008 3:52 PM
Yeap, just like they are all saying earlier. All talk but no solutions. Made my point. Now lets let the president implement the executive orders and let get this all electric infrastructure in place in five years and to heck with oil. It's time to cut the umbilical cord with the Q-tips and the oil companies. I think a lot of you need to recall these post by the end of 2009. All you should hear inside your hears is an echo saying, I told you so.
Personally I hope gas goes to $20.00 a gallon. Maybe people will become motivated and seek alternative / renewable energy that's within reach. The trick is to keep the oil companies out of the power business and let the government run it.
Okay, lets get back on topic. These are all good suggestions but LLNL will never be involved in renewable energy. It's a weapons lab. It may be for this reason LLNL will shut their doors very soon but that's what ULM decided they wanted LLNL to be.
So what will next week bring. We don't have long nor should we expect to be employed very long. We need to make plans for our future accordingly.
The world is not ending because some of you are getting old or lost your jobs or are in fear of losing them. Please stop projecting your inner fears and paranoia. It doesn't reflect well on you.
Reality is an all together more interesting and complex place then some of the chicken littles around here like to imply. There are some fascinating challenges coming up and the lab is well situated to help solve them.
Doom and gloom criers have been around for all of recorded history. And we're still here and prosperous. Go figure.
"There are some fascinating challenges coming up and the lab is well situated to help solve them."
Tell us. More weapons work. If it is take it to LANL. LLNL needs to be doing something entirely different and for the good of the nation. Weapons is what's getting our people sent out the door by the thousands.
So tell us. What is LLNL going to work on that isn't weapons related in any form.
To 5:05pm
Obviously you were not laid off last week and have no compassion for those who were. Those who survived this ISP need to worry. The Lab will be down to < 4,000 employees by March '09. There will be NO budget from DOE/NNSA. This ISP was clearly targeted at people over 45 who have worked at LLNL for more than 20 yrs. Some were "sacraficial" lambs in order to save management's friends. The rest of the long timers will be gone by Oct '08 and the "outsourcing" of many departments has already begun. Have a heart for those who lost their jobs.
May 26, 1:50 - challenge accepted.
* Speculation on oil futures continues unchecked, pushing the price past $200/barrel.
* World markets switch to pricing oil in Euros, further destabilising the dollar.
* Despite increased control of both houses of Congress, lawmakers are unable to act.
* US economy in depression.
* A cascade of goverment bankruptcies begin as municipal, county and state authorities realise that funding streams have evaporated.
* Troops are pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
* Iraq and Afghanistan goverments fall.
* Lebanon is taken over by Hizballah.
* Israel, now realizing that Washington has abandoned them, strikes Iran.
* Syria and Iran both respond with counter-strikes using WMD.
* Russia and China align with Syria/Iraq threatening the US if it intervenes on behalf of Israel.
* Defcon 1.
===
I don't see any alternative energy solutions for 3 reasons.
1. Some alternative "sources", like hydrogen or electrical, are not true new sources of energy, just just convenient modes of energy transport.
2. All new sources of energy that are capable of significant impact on the US economy have been taken off the table by politics.
3. The timeline I described is less than a decade at best and months at worst. Nothing can be done to repair the system in time.
May 26, 2008 7:01 PM
Maybe it will sink it but I doubt it, until it's to late. I have the same outlook, but yours is a little more aggressive. I was thinking more along the lines of <4000 by the end of FY-09. You say NO budget. Does that me no more than last year or less than last year. Either way it means 2000 out the door. Got any more information.
"The Lab will be down to < 4,000 employees by March '09"
Really? You know better than congress eh? Impressive.
Look, you have an agenda. That's pretty clear. I don't like that agenda. I hope that is clear as well. To be clear, you lie. Why you lie is anyone's guess, but pretty much any theory I can come up with reflects very poorly on you. Don't you have better things to do with your life?f
May 26, 2008 7:07 PM
Well that's a lot deeper than I ever went with the worlds future, however I can see where what you've outlined could in fact happen. I just wanted to solve our energy issues here in the US and tell the Q-TIP to eat crap and hopefully I'd get a chance to spoon feed them. That would bring joy to my face while I was shoving it down their throat. I sincerely hope you're wrong with the WMD thing.
So it's back to your power issue. If we used the sun, geothermal, wind and sea and built many power supplies using these resources we'd have more electric than we need. The power could be used to to break water and obtain the H2 even thought it may take more power to generate a small amount of H2, but the power to do this would be virtually free. In this case do I care about how much electric it would take to make h2? No ! At that time we could get off oil except for aircraft.
May 26, 2008 7:28 PM
Hydrogen is never going to work out for vehicles. Too expensive to store in a car and the storage vessel will always be huge (if you want any sort of range)so you don't get to take much stuff in your car. Probably more efficient to use batterys. Charge them with nuclear power. That is the way it will be, nuclear. All those nuclear nay sayers won't be able to line up fast enough at the nuclear trough once they find they can't afford to drive to the local market.
Why all the talk about gas prices? 440 of our friends and co-workers were let go last Thursday & Friday! Your probably not even a Lab employee. Show some respect and take your agenda else where!
Although all of this seems to be a bit off topic, I must say, this is the most intelligent exchange I've seen on this blog. I finally believe I'm reading a LLNL blog.
And for my two cents, I think our future is electricity, but based on nuclear. Yes, in the short term that means fission, but so be it. It is our only hope. And that does mean there is room in the sandbox for LLNL to play.
May 26, 2008 8:23 PM
Probably because that's out of our control and old news. What's to come with the next wave of RIF's is too.
Gas on the other hand could mean the difference between being employed or not, no matter where you live or go for employment. We already have people throwing in the towel and saying, "I can't afford to go to work it cost to much to get there". Of course this means foreclosure, etc, but that's what happens when gas cost to much. We expect to see a lot more before it's over. The reality is, if you can't get to a place to work and make a good wage you are virtually unemployed.
I wish people would quit saying $20/gal gas would solve everything that's a load of cr**. I take the train to work and try to drive minimally. What is killing me now is the ever increasing price of everything else. I saw diesel at $5.26 this past weekend. That translates to a huge jump in the cost of groceries and services. Try feeding a family of four on the same amount of money you did a year ago. All you people cheering higher gas prices - am I supposed to feed my family less to "save the environment"? Alternative energy doesn't fill hungry children's' bellies...
May 27, 2008 4:47 AM
And it will continue to climb so get use to it. Still want to play with your little nuke science and waste money there too. As one or should I say a few posters have said. All weapons work needs to take a back seat to all and any energy crisis we have in this nation and we need to be all electric. No nuclear power plants and no weapons funding until this crisis is resolved. Period.
The only reliable resources you have are the wind, solar, sea and geothermal. Why don't you masterminds get that though your thick skulls and understand you days of playing need to come to an end and the people of America need something useful from you. If you can't meet the challenge then your facility needs to be closed forever.
May 26, 2008 2:38 PM
"Not to say this is productive work, certainly it is not, but nevertheless someone has had to do it."
True, but these are NOT the managers I'm talking about. There are an entire level of managers, especially in the programs, that had nothing to do with this difficult and painful process.
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