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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
More layoffs?
I've been hearing of impending layoffs in April. Has anyone else heard anything?
26 comments:
Anonymous
said...
FR put this in his Jan 2009 newsletter to O&B staff -
"Fact or Rumor? I was recently quoted as saying that we should expect the LLNL population to be down to 3,500 people by 2010. This is most definitely a misquote. LLNS has no plans for future Reductions in Force (RIF). [Lab Director GM] and I continue to state that the RIF is behind us. Our future will be determined by all of us in the quality of our work, how safely we perform our work, and the value it provides our customers.
The past year was challenging for LLNL, and O&B had its share of those challenges. Now we face an exciting opportunity to continue our support for LLNL’s science and technology successes."
Sounds good but lets see what the budget is after the Obamanator figures out he can cut us to the max and use the money for his agenda's which to him are far more important than anything LLNL can do or produce. I believe nothing coming out of the puppeteers mouths. Over the past two years all they proven to me is they speak with fork tongue and can _never_ be trusted again.
Something ugly involving budgets hit management this week. My department management went to DefCon 2 level of panic with several closed door meetings and managers getting called out of meetings to talk budget cut "scenarios" with ULM. I've overheard my management talking in the hallway saying - "everything's on the table" ... "we don't have anything left to cut" ... "might as well close the gates" ... "what services are we going to stop doing" ...
Layoffs are coming, bigtime. Also, this lab won't survive another 5 years at best. Long before that, all of the reasons for wanting to work here will vanish, including pay and decent benefits.
If you want to continue living in the Bay Area, use your knowledge to create a company of your own and take personal charge of your destiny.
There will be cheap offices and good labs available to entrepreneurial small companies at the research park at the former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory site.
"It is sweet to die for the homeland, but it is sweeter to live for the homeland, and the sweetest to drink for it. Therefore, let us drink to the health of the homeland." It was a frequent 19th century students' toast.[citation needed]
Strange how ULM at LLNS keeps everything a big secret at LLNL. hell they treat this information more compartmentalized than they did the weapons information. What bozo's. Does anyone from LANL have any inside information about what's going on at LLNL?
"Sweet it is to die for one's own country, but it is sweeter to live for one's own country, and the sweetest to drink for it. Therefore, let us drink to the honour of our homeland."
Are you kidding? They can't even figure out how to retain people! They can't afford to lay anyone off...I heard yesterday that indirect charge numbers (i.e. overhead) have been over charged by 50 million (that was actually the lowest number I head they had been over charged). While on the other hand programs (direct charges) have been under charged by 400 million. Add to this that Computations is losing one person per week and there is no way they can afford to have a layoff. What I would be concerned about however is how they are going to 'recover' the over charges on the indirect numbers...do I sense a tax increase on the programs in the near future? All except NIF that is...
NIF would have gone under long ago if it weren't for the extra tax burdens on other programs at the Lab. I don't know how many times this has to be beaten the head of the NIF cheerleaders posting on this board.
Now NIF wants to build an amphitheater and have it funded by the Lab as a water reclamation project. NIF funding for the past decade is full of fraud. Write your Congrssman, DOE IG, and demand an investigation. It's time to put those responsible in jail.
The rumors I am hearing are 1700 non-career layoffs possibly in april. Don't ask me where they will come from, are there 1700 non-career people left? Also, supposedly a management layoff in March. In a nutshell costs CAN'T come down till bloated management is reduced. Last layoffs cut workers making a massive management structure even more massive and stifling. The problems you are seeing with costs remaining high and getting higher are simple math. Fewer workers charging programs to support an even larger (proportionally) management structure. No amount of "worker" layoffs can fix that, plain and simple. The question is: if LLNL got rid of 90% of the management, would the workers even notice? Or would they find their work easier to do? I believe the latter. Most of the management, as far as I can tell, perform no meaningful function. Heck, in my division we have multiple layers that none of us can identify a single thing that they do. Not one tangible thing that makes our division go. Oh my mistake, we do see them slow the work for the rest of us.
I have never wanted to be one of the nay-sayers, but I'm outside now, looking in, and my optimism for the Laboratory has fallen to a new low.
I hear my retired friends becoming bitter, and the hurt from people who were escorted off site as if they were untrustworthy.
I saw the NIF, front page, above the fold, and I heard Arnold claiming "This will be the energy source of the future". Good science is good science, but overselling it to get funding is wrong, almost criminal. It parallels what the Wall Street con artists did to the world economy.
I remember how a module the size of an office desk was going to shoot down the entire incoming Soviet missile fleet (Teller).
Sell it, Livermore, sell the NIF to your Governor, to anyone who will provide support that might lead to funding. All the eggs are in one basket.
If NIF does not achieve the goal then we can all be assured of the numbers in the ranks falling to a new low, to that 3,500 we keep hearing about.
I want NIF to work, for LLNL to continue the course, for science to succeed. But like my mother used to say "wish in one hand and spit in the other, see which fills up first".
I am one of the luck ones that got to tackle a life changing event rather than having to face the demise, on a daily basis, like a slow train wreck, and trying to deny what is inevitable. Like we all did with the economy by pretending not to see it coming.
A smart person who makes big money stashes it away because they know that someday it's going to come a blow.
A smart person looking for a career in science should think twice before considering LLNL right now, except for maybe an assignment in NIF that would guarantee layoff insurance, but it will be a term appointment.
And then again, sometimes it's not what you make, it's what you take with you.
26 comments:
FR put this in his Jan 2009 newsletter to O&B staff -
"Fact or Rumor?
I was recently quoted as saying that we should expect the LLNL population to be down to 3,500 people by 2010. This is most definitely a misquote. LLNS has no plans for future Reductions in Force (RIF). [Lab Director GM] and I continue to state that the RIF is behind us. Our future will be determined by all of us in the quality of our work, how safely we perform our work, and the value it provides our customers.
The past year was challenging for LLNL, and O&B had its share of those challenges. Now we face an exciting opportunity to continue our support for LLNL’s science and technology successes."
Don't use the word layoffs. That's old school.
In modern management speak, it's called Workforce Planning.
Like FR has any credibility....
Yeah right! Same thing was said prior to January & May 2008.
Sounds good but lets see what the budget is after the Obamanator figures out he can cut us to the max and use the money for his agenda's which to him are far more important than anything LLNL can do or produce. I believe nothing coming out of the puppeteers mouths. Over the past two years all they proven to me is they speak with fork tongue and can _never_ be trusted again.
Don't use the word layoffs. That's old school.
In modern management speak, it's called Workforce Planning.
Either way, you're still out of a job.
Something ugly involving budgets hit management this week. My department management went to DefCon 2 level of panic with several closed door meetings and managers getting called out of meetings to talk budget cut "scenarios" with ULM. I've overheard my management talking in the hallway saying - "everything's on the table" ... "we don't have anything left to cut" ... "might as well close the gates" ... "what services are we going to stop doing" ...
There's been a definite change this week.
My dear fellow sufferers,
Layoffs are coming, bigtime. Also, this lab won't survive another 5 years at best. Long before that, all of the reasons for wanting to work here will vanish, including pay and decent benefits.
If you want to continue living in the Bay Area, use your knowledge to create a company of your own and take personal charge of your destiny.
There will be cheap offices and good labs available to entrepreneurial small companies at the research park at the former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory site.
Dulce' Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori!
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, sed dulcius pro patria vivere, et dulcissimum pro patria bibere. Ergo, bibamus pro salute patriae.
"Don't use the word layoffs. That's old school."
Sorry, but last week I heard a member of middle management specifically use the word 'layoff', and it wasn't in a historical context.
"It is sweet to die for the homeland, but it is sweeter to live for the homeland, and the sweetest to drink for it. Therefore, let us drink to the health of the homeland." It was a frequent 19th century students' toast.[citation needed]
I guess I missed something here !!
January 23, 2009 7:56 PM
Strange how ULM at LLNS keeps everything a big secret at LLNL. hell they treat this information more compartmentalized than they did the weapons information. What bozo's. Does anyone from LANL have any inside information about what's going on at LLNL?
If they cut to 3,500 as I suspect will happen there will be plenty of work for the remaining 3,500 to do. Looky here
http://nnsa.energy.gov/infrastructure/documents/LLNL_FY09_TYSP.pdf
Can anyone translate that. I am noy old enough to know latin.
January 25, 2009 5:14 PM
It has been in a previous post above.
Frank,
Yes, indeed,
"Sweet it is to die for one's own country,
but it is sweeter to live for one's own country,
and the sweetest to drink for it. Therefore, let us drink to the honour of our homeland."
Pours drink on the floor and smashes the goblet.
I'm no hyper-nationalist and certainly not about to toast a country that's turned it's back on the rank and file workers of LLNL.
Cheers!
"I'm no hyper-nationalist and certainly not about to toast a country that's turned it's back on the rank and file workers of LLNL."
More proof about governmental support (ha):
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/24/former-flats-workers-again-denied-aid/
Are you kidding? They can't even figure out how to retain people! They can't afford to lay anyone off...I heard yesterday that indirect charge numbers (i.e. overhead) have been over charged by 50 million (that was actually the lowest number I head they had been over charged). While on the other hand programs (direct charges) have been under charged by 400 million. Add to this that Computations is losing one person per week and there is no way they can afford to have a layoff. What I would be concerned about however is how they are going to 'recover' the over charges on the indirect numbers...do I sense a tax increase on the programs in the near future? All except NIF that is...
January 29, 2009 8:51 AM
They should just give the 400M to NIF so they can stay afloat and get some data.
NIF would have gone under
long ago if it weren't for
the extra tax burdens
on other programs at the Lab.
I don't know how many
times this has to be
beaten the head of the NIF
cheerleaders posting
on this board.
"They can't afford to lay anyone off..."
Oh, sure they can. Don't kid yourself. The new for-profit management is getting paid to reduce the head count.
Less employees makes NNSA happy which means the LLC is rewarded. NNSA's budget is heading downward, if you didn't notice.
As far as getting the work done, the employees are on their own for that one. The beatings will continue until morale improves.
Now NIF wants to build an amphitheater and have it funded by the Lab as a water reclamation project. NIF funding for the past decade is full of fraud. Write your Congrssman, DOE IG, and demand an investigation. It's time to put those responsible in jail.
The rumors I am hearing are 1700 non-career layoffs possibly in april. Don't ask me where they will come from, are there 1700 non-career people left? Also, supposedly a management layoff in March. In a nutshell costs CAN'T come down till bloated management is reduced. Last layoffs cut workers making a massive management structure even more massive and stifling. The problems you are seeing with costs remaining high and getting higher are simple math. Fewer workers charging programs to support an even larger (proportionally) management structure. No amount of "worker" layoffs can fix that, plain and simple. The question is: if LLNL got rid of 90% of the management, would the workers even notice? Or would they find their work easier to do? I believe the latter. Most of the management, as far as I can tell, perform no meaningful function. Heck, in my division we have multiple layers that none of us can identify a single thing that they do. Not one tangible thing that makes our division go. Oh my mistake, we do see them slow the work for the rest of us.
I have never wanted to be one of the nay-sayers, but I'm outside now, looking in, and my optimism for the Laboratory has fallen to a new low.
I hear my retired friends becoming bitter, and the hurt from people who were escorted off site as if they were untrustworthy.
I saw the NIF, front page, above the fold, and I heard Arnold claiming "This will be the energy source of the future". Good science is good science, but overselling it to get funding is wrong, almost criminal. It parallels what the Wall Street con artists did to the world economy.
I remember how a module the size of an office desk was going to shoot down the entire incoming Soviet missile fleet (Teller).
Sell it, Livermore, sell the NIF to your Governor, to anyone who will provide support that might lead to funding. All the eggs are in one basket.
If NIF does not achieve the goal then we can all be assured of the numbers in the ranks falling to a new low, to that 3,500 we keep hearing about.
I want NIF to work, for LLNL to continue the course, for science to succeed. But like my mother used to say "wish in one hand and spit in the other, see which fills up first".
I am one of the luck ones that got to tackle a life changing event rather than having to face the demise, on a daily basis, like a slow train wreck, and trying to deny what is inevitable. Like we all did with the economy by pretending not to see it coming.
A smart person who makes big money stashes it away because they know that someday it's going to come a blow.
A smart person looking for a career in science should think twice before considering LLNL right now, except for maybe an assignment in NIF that would guarantee layoff insurance, but it will be a term appointment.
And then again, sometimes it's not what you make, it's what you take with you.
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