Life could be worse. Many of our friends and family are out of work. Some have had to take a second job to make ends meet. Do yourself a favor and look at the job market now and what other employers are paying. Even though we have less than we did, we still have more than most people do.So the topic of the post is what do you like about working at LLNL. Among other things I enjoy the freedom to do my job with minimal supervision. My management knows that I know how to do my job and lets me do it. I've had jobs where I've had to give daily and weekly status reports. No fun.
13 comments:
My main problem is that I've been at the lab a very long time. I was here when there was a mission and a sense of vibrancy was running through the place.
It now is just a job. The gleam has dulled, the cachet has wafted away.
What do I like about the job? Only 5 more years, if the layoffs don't get me first.
going home at the end of the day is what I like most about working at LLNL.
Waiting for the end of my day is all I look forward to now.... thata when I say" burned them for another one". I'm glad to have a job, look forward to the paycheck and pray daily I can survive for a few more years!!!
Burnt out!
We are lucky, yes, that is true, but the senseless destruction of LLNL by NNSA and LLNS and the shrinking morale are hard to watch, especially for the old timers who have seen much better days at this once great lab.
Perhaps it will be more palatable for LLNL employees when we enter into a depression, yet we manage to hold on to our jobs. That is something for which to give thanks. However, NNSA has made it clear that they wish to see the labs downsized. More layoffs await in the future. Therefore, the fear and anxiety of the work force keeps building and morale continues to plummet.
Even doubts about the LLNL pension are beginning to emerge after the market crash of 2008. Pensions depend on earnings from stocks and bonds. If markets keeps falling then there will be little left of the pension's invested assets. A pension must make an average 8% return per year for long term survival. That will be hard to achieve if the economic downturn continues for several years.
Beyond all this, however, is the key problem that underlies all others. It goes as follows:
There is no trust left in NNSA and there is no trust left in LLNS. They are both seen by many employees as a pack of lying wolves who are out to fool the naive.
The thing I like most about being RETIRED from the lab is that I don't have to put up with the incessant, irrelevant oversight any more. I had $100,00 signature authority for PO's, and still needed a secretary's signature (because the DL was busy), plus others, ludicrous! I built my career on being able to provide systems, on time, on budget. Without knowing the costs of the oversight requirements, it is now impossible to manage a low level portion of any budget.
To protect the innocent, I was in ME.
watching the train wreck unfold before my eyes
Not much of anything anymore. It was a very nice place to work when we actually got things done without tons of obstacles in your way and yet the due dates never slip. The people at the top haven't a clue of the monster they've created and the inefficients that come along with it yet LLNS and rectal continue to get their bonus checks and contracts renewed for doing such a lousy job. The truth is, working at LLNL is just a job with no opportunity to rise to the top unless your're goal in life is to be a kiss ass politician the seemly caused for the demise of the United States no longer LLNL. No, I can't say I like a thing about working here with the exception of a hand full of people who I consider god friends. Other than that all the world needs to know is, working at LLNL it just a job and a very insecure one at that. The good old boy system of parasite who feed off the workers from the top are alive and well and as bloated as it was under UC if not more. At the end of the each day, the win, you lose. For all of you students majoring in science I'd say look someplace else for employment or better yet major in international business and you be far ahead of the curve and have an assured job for life. Then you to can command a task force of slave labor around the world and reap the benefits of their sweat. Being King is nice. Working for a living is a sentence pronounce upon you at birth.
What I like about working at LLNL is that it is close to home. What I dont like if that everyone for himself: nobody gives a hoot about you as a person!
December 14, 2008 2:20 PM
Welcome to the real world. They have no choice and there's no time for being budds or coaxing you along. You are on your own in everything you do in life. That's the way of the modern, global economy and the new world order to come. This comes from people who voted it in and made money their God.
My AWS Friday.
and knowing that putrid Piece of C**p Bodman will be known as the worst ever, move over Hazel..
And watching the voters with flying shoes.
And attending the dumbest lecture ever today.
buon natale
Working with a team of smart people doing good work and willing to roll with some of the current punches. Watching some of the younger people explore new, better ways of getting things done.
I had fun working at LLNL back in the 80’s and 90’s, but somewhere during last few years something changed. I enjoyed solving problems, working with people, celebrating our successes and even the failures. Oh, what good times I had; I wish I had appreciated them more. Now, my energy has waned, there are few successes to celebrate, the people have become bitter, and most if not all of the reasons I stayed at the lab are gone.
Although people might have complained about the University management style, the University made sure we had good benefits and you felt positive about the UC retirement. Now, we work for LLNS with uncertainty about our jobs, benefits, and retirement.
Recently LLNS received a nice incentive bonus; if the NNSA would have put half that amount toward our benefits, including retirement benefits, maybe our benefits would still be significantly like the UC benefits. I am sure the bonuses that are certain to be handed out to ULM are more important to NNSA than providing for the past and present workers.
I have been fortunate to have continued to work as a consultant for other companies that appreciate people, and for the most part, the work I do as a consultant is interesting and fun. Many of us have grown old working most of our lives at the lab; perhaps it is about time we move on to other adventures before we grow too old to work. Perhaps our appreciation of the past makes it hard to accept the present.
I guess one good thing about the lab is the memories of past times and perhaps knowing that one day soon I will leave this place. Despite all that has happened in the recent past, I hope the people at LLNL have a Very Merry Christmas and may God bless them and their family.
I have had the opportunity to help with some pressing national issues. But please note, this was not encouraged or facilitated by management, this was through my own determination.
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