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Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Opinion on Miller and Bodman's talk?
What did you think? were you listening? or did you just tune out? Tell us!
22 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I think this http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-will-know.html says it all as well as http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2008/08/crocodile-tears.html
The bottomline is this Miller and Bodman. You've lost the lab and it's not coming back. The word is out, LLNL is no place to work if you're looking for long term employment or a career. What it was will NEVER be again.
From my office I kept asking the folks who were watching "has he said anything useful yet?" and I got no response (Miller's talk). I preferred last year's Layla sound clip better.
I caught the first few minutes of Bodman's talk. I'm pretty slow, when he said he had no political ambitions and that he was going to give a straight from the hip talk, I should have felt the blast of hot air coming. After a few minutes of blathering I went about my business.
This used to be such a great place to work but has now devolved into an expensive white elephant. To paraphrase how Miller has explained the state of affairs:
A quick summary of what Miller, Bodman and Russo need to understand.
Please save your pep-talks until after the last UC-LLNL employee retires. No one really cares. Evidently you didn't get the message at the end of your talk when you asked, "are there any questions". What did you hear Miller? Think about it.
Here's what really matters to most of us, boys!!!
Counting down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds to the better life and away from all the uncertainties, back stabbing, politics and false hopes.
I care. Which kind of blows all the pseudo psychics who think they know the future out of the water.
Miller said several important things. Number one, the worst case budget (The presidents) is the same as this years. Both the House and the Senate have submitted budget numbers modestly higher than that. So much for the "psychic" claims that another 2000 people were going to lose their jobs next year. We know nothing about 2010 at this point but 2009 isn't looking that bad.
Miller also said that they are negotiating with DOE for an increase in the benefits package as (surprise surprise) we're falling short of similar organizations in this department. That'll happen when you kill the pension plan, remove the 453B without providing a substitute and make other substantially less than substantially equivalent changes. It'll be interesting to see if anything comes of it.
One thing I'll say, this was the most positive/relaxed body language I've seen from Miller in a couple of years. He's a lousy liar and doesn't deal as well with high levels of stress as somebody in his position ideally should; so my bet is that he was being honest and that for one more year anyway the sky is not in fact falling.
So not surprisingly the picture is neither all positive nor all negative.
hello 8/9 11:55PM When Miller said: the budget is going to be somewhere between what it was last year and a little bit more did you feel more informed?
The budget being anything close to this year is disastrous for the lab. It is not about costs not going up being good, it is about the lab being too expensive and we can't attract funding/investment becasue of it. The longer we stay expensive, the less money will come in, and the more people will have to leave. Costs have to come down significantly.
The worst thing about Miller's talk, along with the sad lack of questions, was the graph he showed showing that the amount cut in scientists was about the same cut in support/costs therefore meaning no real overall saving has been made. Very very sad. What are they doing?!?!?
Miller is touting a worse case budget scenario as being the same as this year's. This is not as good as it sounds. All around costs for Lab operations are going up because of inflation, which is running at around 5% or so. That means an effective decrease in budget by that same amount.
Rumor is that employees will have to contribute more to their medical insurance next year to help reduce this shortfall.
"Miller is touting a worse case budget scenario as being the same as this year's. This is not as good as it sounds. All around costs for Lab operations are going up because of inflation, which is running at around 5% or so".
I hear you, but the pricer budgets recently released reflect a lower overall cost of doing business. Are we missing something or do they have a new way to tax the ever dwindling WFO accounts?
The cut in Lab operations costs were needed to offset increased costs ($200-300M/yr) because of the ULM takeover -- ULM fee, CA state taxes, TCP2 matching. So after the layoffs we are, at best, only back to square one before ULM. That's your tax dollars at work, folks!
"The cut in Lab operations costs were needed to offset increased costs ($200-300M/yr) because of the ULM takeover -- ULM fee, CA state taxes, TCP2 matching. So after the layoffs we are, at best, only back to square one before ULM."
So what makes FY-09 any better than FY-08 and how can they say _no lay-offs_ next year. Could it be we have enough folks leaving on their own without be booted. If that's the case there must be a lot more than 40 people a month leaving. How about it LLNS. How about posting the people leaving as a live update on your wonderful LLNL root page so people can see the facts. You do know how to make a real time counter that's synchronized with HR manpower data-base, correct?
I ran across this in the May 15, 2008 minutes (www.ucop.edu) of the UC Regent's Committee on Oversight of the DOE Labs... it's the last sentence that should give us all pause....
"Mr. Darling (UC Executive Vice President) reported that the Livermore laboratory is facing a $280 million funding shortfall this fiscal year resulting from a variety of components. These include a $50 million increase in inflationary costs, a $100 million reduction in federal funding due to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget reductions for Livermore, and items associated with the awarding of the new contract, the first of which is $86 million in increases mainly for retirement and health benefits compared to the costs the laboratory would have absorbed if it had remained part of the University. The second is $44 million in increased management fees and expenses that DOE agreed to provide to the winning contractor. To accommodate the shortfall, the laboratory is reducing both its operational and labor costs, but as the majority of its budget is related to its employees, the laboratory is being compelled to reduce its workforce by 2,000 employees over a two-year period."
Your post left off the last three sentences in the paragraph...
"Attrition, not filling vacancies, and voluntary employee separations have eliminated 981 positions. Five hundred employees were laid off from the supplemental labor force and flexible-term workforce of largely temporary and contract employees. Five hundred thirty-five layoffs will occur from the career workforce."
Since these are the May minutes, most of the separations have already occurred.
THANKS so much to August 24 9:15PM or posted at "August 25 8:18PM" for following up on the "August 24 9:15PM" post about UC Mr. Darling's comments, with more detail and information.
It was useful, helpful, and shows resourcefulness!
I would be very interested to know how many people have separated so far, if anyone can estimate!
Q. Do those times mean it takes a day to get a post vetted? Any way to speed that up- maybe post, and then delete later if not appropriate?
"Q. Do those times mean it takes a day to get a post vetted? Any way to speed that up- maybe post, and then delete later if not appropriate?"
Answers: Yes it does, sometimes more , sometimes less. Your approach of posting everything and then screening later does not work for me. Thank you for visiting!
Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies - do I need to repeat more? DOE/NNSA does not want LLNL anymore. Too many people againt it. Tri Valley (S)Cares, the builders from Tracy, the folks in the million dollar houses across from the lab. Lemme see here - all of Los Alamos is begging for the work as is KC, Pantex, SNL Albuquerque. This is one of the times the squeaky wheel is getting all the grease. Right out of town.
"How about posting the people leaving as a live update on your wonderful LLNL root page so people can see the facts." - 5:41 PM
At LANL, we've had scientists leaving left and right. However, LANS management refuses to even acknowledge that these staff members are leaving. They took the retirees off the current employee listings, but I know lots of younger people who left LANL in disgust (non-retirees), gave up their DOE clearances, and yet LANS still keeps listing them as being "Afflilates". Some of these people left LANL over a year ago.
What a bunch of hooey! LANS is trying to cover up the significant and on-going "brain drain" that is occurring at LANL. I wouldn't doubt that the same thing might be going on at LLNL.
Privatization is slowly killing off the NNSA labs. Heckavajob, NNSA!
Well lets just hope the people keep leaving and they can't find anyone to do the job for half the wages and no benefits or pension plan. Oh and BTW a 401k is not a pension plan by any means, it's a friggin joke. The only way a 401k is any good is if you start out at $100K a years at age 19- 22 and then continually bank 20% of your income until you are 62-65. Then you'll have to be happy with putting it in a secure "savings" plan at 3.5% interest and live off the interest only. How sad for the next generation and all generations to follow. No loyalty to the employees, no loyalty to the employers and no loyalty to the nation. Where do you think this is all heading? Then there's the fools who will vote for higher taxes that can only stagnate your ability to save, save, save....
22 comments:
I think this http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-will-know.html says it all as well as http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2008/08/crocodile-tears.html
The bottomline is this Miller and Bodman. You've lost the lab and it's not coming back. The word is out, LLNL is no place to work if you're looking for long term employment or a career. What it was will NEVER be again.
From my office I kept asking the folks who were watching "has he said anything useful yet?" and I got no response (Miller's talk). I preferred last year's Layla sound clip better.
I caught the first few minutes of Bodman's talk. I'm pretty slow, when he said he had no political ambitions and that he was going to give a straight from the hip talk, I should have felt the blast of hot air coming. After a few minutes of blathering I went about my business.
This used to be such a great place to work but has now devolved into an expensive white elephant. To paraphrase how Miller has explained the state of affairs:
"It was what it was, It now is what it is."
A quick summary of what Miller, Bodman and Russo need to understand.
Please save your pep-talks until after the last UC-LLNL employee retires. No one really cares. Evidently you didn't get the message at the end of your talk when you asked, "are there any questions". What did you hear Miller? Think about it.
Here's what really matters to most of us, boys!!!
Counting down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds to the better life and away from all the uncertainties, back stabbing, politics and false hopes.
I care. Which kind of blows all the pseudo psychics who think they know the future out of the water.
Miller said several important things. Number one, the worst case budget (The presidents) is the same as this years. Both the House and the Senate have submitted budget numbers modestly higher than that. So much for the "psychic" claims that another 2000 people were going to lose their jobs next year. We know nothing about 2010 at this point but 2009 isn't looking that bad.
Miller also said that they are negotiating with DOE for an increase in the benefits package as (surprise surprise) we're falling short of similar organizations in this department. That'll happen when you kill the pension plan, remove the 453B without providing a substitute and make other substantially less than substantially equivalent changes. It'll be interesting to see if anything comes of it.
One thing I'll say, this was the most positive/relaxed body language I've seen from Miller in a couple of years. He's a lousy liar and doesn't deal as well with high levels of stress as somebody in his position ideally should; so my bet is that he was being honest and that for one more year anyway the sky is not in fact falling.
So not surprisingly the picture is neither all positive nor all negative.
hello 8/9 11:55PM
When Miller said:
the budget is going to be somewhere between what it was last year and a little bit more
did you feel more informed?
A little bit more?
Does he think he is talking to 1st graders?
August 9, 2008 11:55 PM
The LLNSmites said nothing anyone with a brain is going to believe. There's the facts for you and anyone who read this.
The budget being anything close to this year is disastrous for the lab. It is not about costs not going up being good, it is about the lab being too expensive and we can't attract funding/investment becasue of it. The longer we stay expensive, the less money will come in, and the more people will have to leave. Costs have to come down significantly.
The worst thing about Miller's talk, along with the sad lack of questions, was the graph he showed showing that the amount cut in scientists was about the same cut in support/costs therefore meaning no real overall saving has been made. Very very sad. What are they doing?!?!?
August 11, 2008 8:51 AM
In or around Feb of 2009 you'll hear an entirely different story coming from LLNS/ULM mouth than what you heard on the 8/7/08. Now get to work.
Miller is touting a worse case budget scenario as being the same as this year's. This is not as good as it sounds. All around costs for Lab operations are going up because of inflation, which is running at around 5% or so. That means an effective decrease in budget by that same amount.
Rumor is that employees will have to contribute more to their medical insurance next year to help reduce this shortfall.
"Miller is touting a worse case budget scenario as being the same as this year's. This is not as good as it sounds. All around costs for Lab operations are going up because of inflation, which is running at around 5% or so".
I hear you, but the pricer budgets recently released reflect a lower overall cost of doing business. Are we missing something or do they have a new way to tax the ever dwindling WFO accounts?
The cut in Lab operations costs were needed to offset increased costs ($200-300M/yr) because of the ULM takeover -- ULM fee, CA state taxes, TCP2 matching. So after the layoffs we are, at best, only back to square one before ULM. That's your tax dollars at work, folks!
"The cut in Lab operations costs were needed to offset increased costs ($200-300M/yr) because of the ULM takeover -- ULM fee, CA state taxes, TCP2 matching. So after the layoffs we are, at best, only back to square one before ULM."
So what makes FY-09 any better than FY-08 and how can they say _no lay-offs_ next year. Could it be we have enough folks leaving on their own without be booted. If that's the case there must be a lot more than 40 people a month leaving. How about it LLNS. How about posting the people leaving as a live update on your wonderful LLNL root page so people can see the facts. You do know how to make a real time counter that's synchronized with HR manpower data-base, correct?
I ran across this in the May 15, 2008 minutes (www.ucop.edu) of the UC Regent's Committee on Oversight of the DOE Labs... it's the last sentence that should give us all pause....
"Mr. Darling (UC Executive Vice President) reported that the Livermore laboratory is facing a $280 million funding shortfall this fiscal year resulting from a variety of components. These include a $50 million increase in inflationary costs, a $100 million reduction in federal funding due to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget reductions for Livermore, and items associated with the awarding of the new contract, the first of which is $86 million in increases mainly for retirement and health benefits compared to the costs the laboratory would have absorbed if it had remained part of the University. The second is $44 million in increased management fees and expenses that DOE agreed to provide to the winning contractor. To accommodate the shortfall, the laboratory is reducing both its operational and labor costs, but as the majority of its budget is related to its employees, the laboratory is being compelled to reduce its workforce by 2,000 employees over a two-year period."
Guess the question is: How far are you into that 2000 employee reduction estimate?
August 24, 2008 9:15 PM
Your post left off the last three sentences in the paragraph...
"Attrition, not filling vacancies, and voluntary
employee separations have eliminated 981 positions. Five hundred employees
were laid off from the supplemental labor force and flexible-term workforce of
largely temporary and contract employees. Five hundred thirty-five layoffs will
occur from the career workforce."
Since these are the May minutes, most of the separations have already occurred.
THANKS so much to August 24 9:15PM or posted at "August 25 8:18PM" for following up on the "August 24 9:15PM" post about UC Mr. Darling's comments, with more detail and information.
It was useful, helpful, and shows resourcefulness!
I would be very interested to know how many people have separated so far, if anyone can estimate!
Q. Do those times mean it takes a day to get a post vetted?
Any way to speed that up- maybe post, and then delete later if not appropriate?
"Q. Do those times mean it takes a day to get a post vetted?
Any way to speed that up- maybe post, and then delete later if not appropriate?"
Answers:
Yes it does, sometimes more , sometimes less.
Your approach of posting everything and then screening later does not work for me.
Thank you for visiting!
Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies - do I need to repeat more? DOE/NNSA does not want LLNL anymore. Too many people againt it. Tri Valley (S)Cares, the builders from Tracy, the folks in the million dollar houses across from the lab. Lemme see here - all of Los Alamos is begging for the work as is KC, Pantex, SNL Albuquerque. This is one of the times the squeaky wheel is getting all the grease. Right out of town.
"How about posting the people leaving as a live update on your wonderful LLNL root page so people can see the facts." - 5:41 PM
At LANL, we've had scientists leaving left and right. However, LANS management refuses to even acknowledge that these staff members are leaving. They took the retirees off the current employee listings, but I know lots of younger people who left LANL in disgust (non-retirees), gave up their DOE clearances, and yet LANS still keeps listing them as being "Afflilates". Some of these people left LANL over a year ago.
What a bunch of hooey! LANS is trying to cover up the significant and on-going "brain drain" that is occurring at LANL. I wouldn't doubt that the same thing might be going on at LLNL.
Privatization is slowly killing off the NNSA labs. Heckavajob, NNSA!
Indeed - our division stopped publishing their updates org charts 2 months ago because it was getting too depressing seeing everyone just leaving!
Actually I said this and then we got an org chart the next day!! Maybe they read this!
Shows that half the people in the division have gone in the last year!
September 4, 2008 12:49 PM
Well lets just hope the people keep leaving and they can't find anyone to do the job for half the wages and no benefits or pension plan. Oh and BTW a 401k is not a pension plan by any means, it's a friggin joke. The only way a 401k is any good is if you start out at $100K a years at age 19- 22 and then continually bank 20% of your income until you are 62-65. Then you'll have to be happy with putting it in a secure "savings" plan at 3.5% interest and live off the interest only. How sad for the next generation and all generations to follow. No loyalty to the employees, no loyalty to the employers and no loyalty to the nation. Where do you think this is all heading? Then there's the fools who will vote for higher taxes that can only stagnate your ability to save, save, save....
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