Anonymous said...
Managers seem to think it is their right to be a manager, no matter how incompetent and useless they are. Take some of the capable younger managers and promote them up and layoff the excess useless managers. Then we can get things done around here.
May 18, 2009 11:14 PM
21 comments:
Why do you think the Managers are incompetent?
I think they were put there because they were willing to perform their job in a way dictated by a higher Manager. Just like a trained puppy.
And, that's what they are continuing to do.
When the puppy is told to sit, the view from the top is a lot different.
I was once told by a manager:
"In order to be a manager, you have to be a top performer. Therefore, managers (top performers) are the group that will get the highest ranking and pay raises." .... NOT.
Never. There are no competent senior managers. The good ones leave early for better pastures.
"Never. There are no competent senior managers. The good ones leave early for better pastures."
I think Dave Leary has done a very good job through a lot of adversity. First there was the Dingell hearing regarding "we sell computers for drugs." Then he stepped up after the overly-amplified "lost key" incident. Rose to Deputy Director only to be pushed out in the LLC transition. Stepped back up when Russ Miller resigned from Security. Did all that without tossing grenades along the way. Class act...
All that proves is DL is good at surviving a crisis. Being a competent leader requires a lot more than the ability to save your own butt.
if you are going to criticize someone like Dave Leary -- who had UC blood then there is something very wrong with this blog.
It is one thing to talk about the changes since the contract and all the new Bechtel folks. It is another to talk about someone who has the Lab in his blood, has always strived to do the right thing and truly puts people first.
There are many lab senior managers who care about LLNL and are still there - trying to make a difference. Yes, some have left like Russ, but others are doing all they can for the good of all
Where are all of these new "Bechtel" folks? With the exception of a visible few like FR, the managers I know have that UC blood you speak of. Yet, here we are . . .
Hello May 20, 2009 7:18 PM
They are not succeeding.
The majority of the poor managers were here before the contracts and home grown under the UC system.
Don't be fooled, DL is an excellent politician and speaker. You have look at the people he promoted in the past. What a group of useless managers. At least some of them have left.
7:18 - If I recall properly it was managers with UC blood that caused the LANL and LLNL to be given away to Bechtel due to all their screws-ups.
If critizing management is not part of this blog's function what is? I'm NOT about to start praising managers or discussing political conspiracies here.
If I see a manager I think has done a good job I will say so. In fact I think a number of lower-level folks are doing good work against impossible odds. On the other hand I have yet to see one of the current ULM do much for the rank and file. A leader protects his people, supports them and runs interference for them against the onslaught of crap coming down from higher up.
Show me a ULM that stood up to the layoffs, one that protested the ranking system, that threatened to quit rather than hurt his own people.
*crickets chirping*
The comments on DL are made by folks who have obviously not worked for him. I did and I can tell you he was inspiring, loyal and dedicated to promoting his staff. He was not considered part of the inner circle by the Bechtel folks -- or even some of the new Senior Managers like BW, GM or EM but they knew they needed him. If they dared to screw someone like DL then the entire lab would have rallied. There are many good managers at the lab. Yes, GM may be the worst director EVER but it is because he did not have the guts to stand up to folks like EM, BW, etc.
Look at MRA or BT. At least you respected them.
And one more thing...I know for a FACT that DL was very against much of what has happened at the lab (layoffs, Bechtel folks, budget cuts) and said so in MANY senior manager meetings -- I was there. I heard it.
In reference to Leary being a class act I ask if you mean the lower quality? Do you have enough years at LLNL to remember "Snow Storm?" Do you remember the quality of that effort and Leary's extreme role in placing a unreliable mole into work groups to ferret out drug use within the lab. Several people were pulled out in cuffs, none were charged, some lost clearences, none were fired, one quit. The "mole" was kept on as an employee.
Class; all lower. He's a hatchet man for ULM's; always has been and always will.
Look at MRA or BT. At least you respected them.Bruce Tartar - respect? The guy went to congress during the Wen Ho Lee affair and acted like a scared kid. Could not even get his facts right about then current LLNL computer security rules. We all paid dearly for that.
I'm sure you were inspired by DL. That's a personal thing and no reason to challenge your own feelings on the matter.
I had my division leaders say words about how upset they were about lay-offs to the rank and file. Then wiped away their crocodile tears so they could start swinging the scythe. It inspired me too. To compare them to the SS in the second world war - just following orders.
5/23 1:12 PM: It inspired me too. To compare them to the SS in the second world war - just following orders.What a total load of CRAP to compare an organizational layoff, the likes of which happens dozens/hundreds of times a year in the Bay Area let alone the U.S., to any action of Hitler's heinous SS. The layoff was a hurtful thing. I shed tears when a long-time colleague was led out. That doesn't make it an atrocity.
Sweet Jeebus. Get some perspective, guys! And some therapy! SS? Given some of the comments on this blog like this and those about "liberal parasites" I don't think I'd want you to have weapons secrets either.
I don't care whether our current managers were UC, Bechtel or whatever. I just want good ULM. What we have now is useless, and when the top is useless, the middle management is useless. Why, because they do what their bosses do. If DL is good (never met him), then wonderful. I have seen some lower level managers who care, who try against the odds, and don't buy into ULM poor management practices. So there are some green shoots here, now if we could just get the manure off the shoots, then they, and we, could grow. My suggestion is get some professional, experienced managers. The physicists and engineers in managment have such poor people skills, and no managerial experience. Yet I see so many of them walking around so arrogant, thinking that the people under them worship them. Lordy. Send them back to the lab, please.
When group and division leaders start sucking up to leaders that break their promises ( budget is fine, no layoffs planned, etc ) day two of taking over you'd better start questioning their moral character.
Saying that the layoffs where no different than other cut-backs is an utter lie. Workers at LLNL under UC had promises and sacrificed a lot of personal freedoms in expectation that those promises to job stability and retirement benefits would be kept.
A lot of people joined the Nazi party and the SS to further their careers, not because they cared about the idiology. When it came time to persecute the Jews, the Slavs, the intellectuals, these people did not complain, they complied.
If you think what NNSA/ULM did was ok are you any better than those who watched their neighbors get rounded up for extermination? If you helped management implement their changes are you any better than the German industrialists who turned human fat into soap?
You had a moral obligation to speak out despite the costs because it was the right thing to do. Instead you put yourself and your salary ahead of ethics. That makes you no better than the Nazis. And having *you* in charge of nuclear secrets should make the rest of the world very afraid.
the fact that many of these comments can't name ONE senior manager they respect, like, etc. is indicative of what's wrong with this blog.
All are not terrible. Good managers did and do exist at LLNL. Lot's of ethical folks tried to speak up and out during the Bechtel transition -- Russ Miller, Steve Patterson come to mind.
They were trying to do the right thing but were just overruled.
Good Managers support their people, make mid level managers perform and support their staff, defend the team against layoffs, set high performance expectations, release low performers, raise funds, set goals, pursue high projects, deliver the beef to sponsors, provide coverage for the folks who busted their asses to make goals.
I just described Ed Moses and his Managers....
Take your best shot.
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