Contributed anonymously:
Sure doesn't look like it.
WFO has multiple extra taxes taken out(Safety and Security, Facility Administrative Charge, etc).
Also, the chain of command to approve and accept the money takes at least a month, often more. There are approximately 9 levels of "oversight" that need to approve the money. Let's ask the question- is incoming money ever rejected? My guess is no- so what is the delay and multiple approvers for? One time I did not hound each of the nine "approvers" incessantly, and it took 4 months to get my money in- this is 4 MONTHS after a "check" was cut by the sponsor. This whole system needs to be streamlined. Why are there so many barriers?
LLNS this is a cry for help- bring us into a modern age of WFO! We need "support" services who actually "serve" the scientific mission. We are in competition with other labs and companies. When we delay accepting money and demand excessive overhead rates, we are slowly, sponsor by sponsor, putting ourselves out of the WFO business. LLNS wake up and take this seriously before it is too late.
12 comments:
Sorry, not going to happen. We still have a lot of downsizing to accomplish first. Remember I told you the workforce needs to be down to 4000 total in 2.5 years. We're less than 1.5 years into this mission. We have way to many people on site for the work to be done.
It's the wrong WFO. Working for China or Pakistan would pay more.
4 months is nothing. I've returned money because it took over 6 months and I've been denied money because of the level of funding!
I've heard this complaint over and over. I just don't get it. We work so hard to get money into the lab, we're just trying to do good science, and the money will pay for the support people - and yet we're constantly blocked by the lab's ridiculous bureaucracy. I'm done with it - no more!!
The NNSA labs only give lip service to the idea of bringing in more WFO projects.
Anyone who has had to jump through the hoops of fire to bring in this funding knows the true story. And when the money is finally ready to be used, the labor costs of the NNSA labs mean that $500 K will only support one scientist for about a year.
It's hopeless. Your efforts at bringing it these projects don't even get rewarded by lab upper management. Give it up!
It's so obvious ULM and all the so-called management between you and the sponsors only care about one thing - saving their cushy jobs. If you have an on-going relationship, ask your sponsors if they would continue to support your work 'outside' for about a 30% cost savings ... then take it there yourself.
October 17, 2008 9:31 PM
It NNSA, especially the site offices that give lip service to WFO. They do everything in their power to make WFO hard at the labs. NNSA is about nuke weapons, not WFO, so why would they care in the first place. Talk to anyone who has had to deal with LSO on a LLNL WFO project. LSO has killed more WFO for LLNL than you could possibly imagine or will every really know.
Thanks October 21, 2008 5:52 AM for your insight. Now, can anyone explain to me why NNSA is mandating downsizing of the complex due to their receding budgets, but refusing to allow the labs to transition to other funding sources? If they have declining budgets, they should be made to choose either to relinquish one of the national labs to new missions or else facilitate incoming WFO.
The answer to the question posed by October 21, 2008 11:19 PM is very simple.
NNSA has been mandated to destroy the weapons complex. By regulation and budgetary means they will reduce the workforce to unsustainable levels, then close facilities one by one.
WFO is merely a trick to give the workforce hope they can hang on a few more years. Don't fall for it.
"NNSA has been mandated to destroy the weapons complex. By regulation and budgetary means they will reduce the workforce to unsustainable levels, then close facilities one by one." - 12:23 PM
Sad, but true. How else to explain the relentless downward spiral that is happening at the NNSA weapon labs under their control? Incompetence by NNSA doesn't even begin to explain it.
They've been given orders from above and will keep on this dismal path until over half of the complex has disappeared and what is left is mostly production facilities that are kept on life-support levels of funding.
how can you be serious about WFO, when the new overhead rate is 138%. Are there agencies/sponsors out that there that feel thats a good deal for what LLNL has to offer? Perhaps for classified work, but what about all the other things such as basic research?
I've heard many lab program managers give the technical staff wildly optimistic projections about future WFO funding levels. Perhaps it's being done to keep people around a little bit longer and boost morale. Whatever the reason, it should be clear that WFO work is a dead end at the NNSA labs. The outrageously high overhead costs won't support robust WFO growth.
There is no "magic fix". To put it simply, the NNSA labs are dieing.
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