Contributed anonymously (also created as a 30-day poll)
For the employees left, is your job harder or easier than it was before some of your fellow employees went missing? Were they deadweight as some have stated, or are you finding it harder to get things done without them?
20 comments:
I know many of the career employees that were laid off in May. Having worked at LLNL for over 25 years, I can say without hesitation that many people that were laid off were excellent employees that were dedicated to the mission of Livermore Lab. To suggest these valuable people were " deadweights " is ridiculous. Many were laid off because they were older employees.
Labor costs are still rising even after the layoffs, which means any incoming project funds don't go as far. This helps creates more job insecurity.
In addition to this, everyone is now fearful of the next layoff wave after having witnessed the horror as the last one unfold. People who had been here for many years were marched out like petty criminals. It was sad to watch.
Therefore, no, it has not helped. LLNL has become a very sad place to work. Morale is extremely low and many people are looking for a reasonable way to get out and and be hired by a better employer.
Utter disaster... As far as I can tell the current mission is to raise funds to support NIF anyway possible. Many of those that were let go were on funded projects, specialist in their areas and some were PIs of WFO accounts. Very few middle and upper managers were removed. Current upper level management teams are bloated and expensive without justification.
The other result of the lay off is many of the admin/support offices have become chickens without heads. for instance the WFO support is next totally non-functional; ESH is swamped with emergencies and non-effective on some of the day to day stuff.
Try asking for a light bulb to be replaced or anyhting to be fixed and you will wait weeks, unless you are in 111 or 453.
Well if you describe the lab mission as reaching a staff of 3500 - 4500, then the layoff helped the mission.
Was deadwood taken out of the woodpile? Sometimes yes, but I saw talented people pushed out because they were supporting a program that was not on someone's "A" list and thus they were out due to being in the wrong place with the wrong budget.
Oh, 8:50PM, I can't speak for 111 but in my hallway of 453, we're waiting for lighting. And I've been bringing in my office supplies for over a year.
Maybe when NIF starts paying their share of the load, we'll all get lit, pun intended.
I think it was invaluable. It exposed management and their smarmy tactics. We won't be so easily befuddled next time.
The lab's mission is defined by the few upper level managers who make the decisions as being only two areas: weapons (funding shrinking, Pu leaving, staffing levels mandated to decrease) and NIF (construction nearly complete, staffing levels required to decrease). Instead of cutting personnel in weapons and NIF, where they have NO WAY of increasing funding, they cut staff supporting areas projected to enjoy robust future funding, such as Global Security. We are "led" by mean-spirited, sore losers who have the power to lay off our fully-funded employees and keep their brainless pets. They further hurt our ability to be competitive with other labs by refusing to reduce management staff with the layoff, therefore keeping our overhead high. So the answer to your question is: "Yes, we helped GM and EM's missions" but the toll on the infrastructure and on the aggregate of programs other than NIF and weapons was substantial and unwarranted. Exactly as they intended.
We won't be so easily befuddled next time. - 12:50 PM
No, but you will still be left with little info until the day that LLNS suddenly decides to begin the next round of layoffs.
I told myself that I would not write in again - blood pressure issues - but I can't resist...
No. We lost 2000 people, 160,000manhours per year of labor and we cost the same as before the Transition.
How the hell can that be an improvement? DAgostino and Bodman should be audited.
The final word
I have three open positions, of the kind we laid off from. NIF won't release people so we can't staff internally and now must resort to the cost and time consuming external hire. Meanwhile I can name 10 folks we laid off that can fill these well.
S**t for brains
10:25PM: Thanks for the sense of humour!
Hello 10:10PM!
Could you please give me a hint on what dept or division you are in. I have a had a heck of a time competing with external hires this year and EBAS before last July!
Well the rumors going round now are 1700 more layoffs, possibly non-career only. Also supposedly a "management" layoff in March. I believe that when I see it.
My management is assuring us that there is plenty of $$ at the lab to support every employee and that there will be no layoffs this year. What to believe? Is the rumor mill fueled by foundless fear, or is management as shifty as they have shown themselves to be in the past?
"My management is assuring us that there is plenty of $$ at the lab to support every employee" - 9:29 PM
This is not that unusual to hear.
First, many managers are not that aware of just how weak some of the other budgetary positions at the company may be. Their spreadsheet may look ok, but as some of the other accounts run dry, the employees in the zero'd accounts suddenly get dumped onto the remaining strong accounts and rapidly drain remaining funds.
Second, most managers don't want to level with employees about bad budgetary conditions. They'll usually wait until the last minute to spring it on staff along with the announcement that layoffs may be eminent.
There are still serious concerns over the FY09 budget, but whether they are catastrophic is questionable. A much larger concern is the next few years, with Congress trying to compensate for a ~$2T bailout, the Lab losing its SNM and the weapons program imploding on itself, NIF trying to do science, etc. Why do you think the personnel policies have been changed so that 200s can be let go with much less compensation.
If you were smart enough to go TCP2, try to find a UC position (like many of us have done) before they are all gone.
Read my lips. No more layoff's.
OK, you can stop laughing now.
They will probably have layoffs based on job content. Since you are typing your own letters, emptying your own trash can, vacuuming your office, making your own copies, sending your own business mail,you can't be fully employed and you're certainly not working at your classification doing all those administrative and custodial tasks.
To: February 10, 2009 5:34 AM
" They will probably have layoffs based on job content. Since you are typing your own letters, emptying your own trash can, vacuuming your office, making your own copies, sending your own business mail,you can't be fully employed and you're certainly not working at your classification doing all those administrative and custodial tasks. "
But remember these services that are NOT provided are still costing you MORE :-)
Yep...another example how LLNS is managing the lab in a more 'cost effective' manner now! Ahh yes, I can clearly see 'how' it was in the best interest of the lab to go from NON-profit private sector to a (rof-lmbo) Public sector!!
Smart move guys/gals!!!
What's the labs mission? reduce the workforce, remove nukes, and tax wfo sponsors to death to support NIF.
Sounds like things are going very well, if thats the mission!
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