The following is an excerpt of an anonymous comment made elsewhere in this BLOG. It is being made a post for higher visibility.
Warning: Whiners who are still employed by LLNS: this may be too much for you to handle and the hope is that it will make you more thankful:
Folks, I sadly hear so much anger and bitterness, such whining and crying here EVERY time I visit...and the majority of blogger's ARE still 'gainfully' employed!!
Whether or not you like your 'new boss's, you ARE still able to pay their mortgage, you CAN pay your bills, the luxury of even being able to go out for breakfast, lunch or even dinner, get a haircut, buy groceries...go to a movie, pay for you son or daughters college!
YOU have the 'privilege' of going to work everyday.
YES, transition IS hard, change is painful, UNEMPLOYEMNT IS WORSE!!!
Count your blessings you STILL have a job, some form of retirement still accruing, able to have medical, dental and vision plans....15 months later I am STILL looking....to date I have lost my home, lost my retirement, I have NO medical, dental or vision, my good credit gone.
On unemployment, at the 'max' pay, I have to have a 'room mate' just to pay rent for a 'room' to lay my head at night just to worry about what tomorrow will bring.
I don't qualify for State programs for food or medical because as a single person my 'income' is too high, yet I don't have a dime to spare to buy a healthcare plan.
The current job market is sad. I am single and almost 50.....
You are so narrow minded...whining and crying 'poor me'...try walking in someone else's shoes for a while....you should be darn glad to have what you still do!!!
I would encourage you to re-think your attitude and remember YOU ARE still the backbone of LLNS....not the new managers!
P.S. I WOULD trade your life for mine any day and be darn GLAD!!!
15 comments:
Should I count my blessings - Yes.
Do I count my blessings - Yes.
Am I going to continue to complain and post my displeasure - you bet.
And if/when LLNS/NNSA/DOE does something right I'll hold it over my head and loudly proclaim it in the hope that an attaboy will fall on their ears and they might think of repeating that type of effort.
Congress and NNSA did not have the foresight to see that awarding the contracts to for profit companies would result in layoffs. If we keep ranting in their ears they might remember not to repeat the mistake.
If we keep complaining about how added safety and security rules have reached a point of diminished safety/security enhancement at the cost of greatly diminished productivity, the might get a clue.
If we point out the fact that the benefits are no better than oustide industry, that you might endure voodoo polygraphing and that the lab that used to have a clear cut mission but now is stumbling like a dazed boxer - That all of those combined might be a hindrance in bringing in a new generation of employees - Maybe the word will go upstream.
I could just go to the corner and whimper. When they come to cut off my hand I'll hold it out and say "I can still sign that security form with the other".
When they poke out an eye I'll proclaim that "I can see that safety web page with the other."
And when they've whittled me down to an empty carcass and push it out with the day's garbage I just might have regretted not voicing a complaint on the way to the landfill.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety"
Benjamin Franklin
This is the weakest ass post I've seen on this blog....and trust me that's saying a lot!
Most of the complaints I've seen and the general tenor of the discussion seems to revolve around the fact that yes nobody is thrilled with LLNS but more than that, they're tired of being treated like 4 year olds!
You can't go to the can without 40 pages of safety paperwork and a two week signature chain! Yeah it sucks to be unemployed....sometimes it sucks just as hard to be drawing a check when you don't feel like you've earned it!
Why don't you slink back to your cubicle to fill out your safety paperwork or cobble together another "Ladder and Stairway Training" class now!
Don't forget to wear your new bicycle helmet while you're typing!
I realized this as soon as I was spared in 2007. Gone are the days where if you don't like your project, your boss, your co-workers, you could move on to somewhere else at the lab. Nope, now you need to suck it up, appreciate what you have and make the best of it. I count my blessings every single day as I arrive to work, because so many friends of mine are still trying to find jobs. Sure, another round of layoffs may be right around the corner; I'll deal with it if/when it happens. Most who are still there saw the light two years ago; the ones complaining and whining are in the minority.
Good luck to you, I truly hope you find something soon.
I do count my blessings - but no longer work at LLNL.
Life is more difficult to be sure. I and my spouse rarely go a week without some lab-related benefits crisis popping up. Most get dealt with positive results, though it is aggravating at best. We still have our home and are above water.
I feel sad for those now out of work and their hardships. I also feel bad for my former coworkers trapped in careers that are increasingly bleak. So I pray for them a lot and hope that somehow their lives will get easier.
I also am unemployed 15 months after LLNS so ruthlessly cut their staff. Of the hundreds of resumes submitted during this time, I've gotten only one call-back and zero interviews.
I'm fortunate to receive a very small pension under TCP1, most of which goes to pay excessive medical/dental premiums (a 250% increase from my LLNS days).
I'm also grateful for unemployment compensation, which helps to put food on the table and cover a few bills. The final extension for me runs out in 19 weeks, however, so I pray a job comes through.
I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined that I would be unemployed for so long, unable even to get a job interview. Be grateful you have jobs still. Even with the changes, the take-aways, the poor management, it still beats worrying every day that you will be gainfully employed again before you lose everything. I'd take your job in a heartbeat.
To the original poster, I feel your pain.
We do count our blessings, however, many of us are fighting not to be in your situation and fighting for our employment rights. Many of us also have been badly mistreated by LANS management and have the right to express our opinions. Good luck to you!
posted by scooby at 11:01 AM on Sep 5, 2009
Scooby, I am the original poster and would like to THANK YOU for putting this post out there as you did!!
I would like to respond to this poster:
"September 5, 2009 12:34 PM"
And a couple of their specific comments:
1) "If we keep complaining about how added safety and security rules have reached a point of diminished safety/security enhancement at the cost of greatly diminished productivity, the might get a clue.
If we point out the fact that the benefits are no better than oustide industry, that you might endure voodoo polygraphing and that the lab that used to have a clear cut mission but now is stumbling like a dazed boxer - That all of those combined might be a hindrance in bringing in a new generation of employees - Maybe the word will go upstream."
Having hired on in the late 90's
I was there more than a decade, I know all too well about the 'problems' we faced even then, however it was only a FRACTION of what the reality of being employed O/S the Lab was like.
Now people are having to work under changed management via 'real world time' and sadly most 'labbies' have never known any job other than LLNL/LLNS so they can not 'emotionally' deal with it.
While extremely painful, it IS true.
Welcome to the 'real' UNprotected world of working. LLNS had many, many perks and those who worked there do understand.
The reality is you are now working 3-4 x's harder for your paycheck, and while you had managers you didn't like before, now it IS 10x's worse in dealing with THE BS.
For decades people working O/S of LLNS HAVE had 'bad managers', 'poor benefits', 'drug testing', 'poor productivity'.
Sorry to say but that IS what employment IS truly like O/S that one square mile and it has now permeated within that mile, you have become part of "it"...
You are no longer protected in a 'bubble' like we ALL were...the bubble burst.
2) You also wrote:
"If we keep complaining...." and
"Congress and NNSA did not have the foresight to see that awarding the contracts to for profit companies would result in layoffs. If we keep ranting in their ears they might remember not to repeat the mistake."
Are your complaints valid?? Oh without a doubt!!! LLNL was working the Safety programs into the ground BEFORE the transition and layoffs.
The (brilliant) managers even then were writing and re-writing policies and procedures that were so far out there the only term that you could apply would be 'ridicilous'!!
One can only imagine just how horrific it truly is now.
You DO have my compassion for having to deal with that everyday.
However, do you really think "Congress and NNSA " are reading your complaints HERE??!! Doubtful.
I would encourage you to put that time, effort, energy and emotion into useful web-site/links for people to actually be heard by Congress and NNSA.
Sad reality but a truth, we are no longer known by our names..we are just a 'number', but even the 'numbers' add up when they join forces and raise the 'little' numbers to a BIG number as in (voices) who will be heard in Congress.
Be proactive, generate massive petitions, (whatever may have a hope in hell to save the Lab and the good people there who are still trying to make a real difference everyday), and bombard your congressman and Washington.
The ranting here has NO impact on DC whatsoever.
I truly wish happier days to those who still remain at LLNS.
God Bless.
P.S. Scooby keep up the good work here, it is appreciated by so many!
September 5, 2009 10:09 PM
Yes another round of lay-ofs around the corner. I hear 500+ in Jan and more in April of 2010. No big projects coming in therefore no need for as many enginners, coordinators, mechtechs and other construction personnel.
I think the reason people whine so much is that they would really like to leave but it is so hard to find work outside the lab they can't (leave). They are stuck in a lousy job with no future. Sure, they have a pay check coming in but that doesn't make them any less miserable.
I, for one, think the lab sucks.
I imagine that they will have non-retroactive raises coming in January as well, right after the layoffs.
Same plan as before, just different faces, different year.
The shock of seeing all the upper management executives rake in huge salaries while the employees are beaten down and lied to is a drastic change from the past.
Yeah, maybe this is how it works in many parts of the normal corporate world, but the sudden rate of change at LLNL is jarring.
To the original poster: Indeed those of us still at LLNL (working for LLNS) need to be thankful for our blessings and recognize the arbitrary and life-shattering consequence of being laid-off in this economy. I sincerely hope some opportunities come your way and I feel ashamed by LLNS/NNSA's poor treatment of employees who were supporting the nation's defense. In a just environment, the entire contract fee would have been used to reduce the number of layoffs. Disgraceful.
The privatization mantra is a source of many problems at LLNL/LLNS. For profit business models often drive down costs but the goal is simply generating maximum profit, not optimal productivity.
Regarding other posts,
Is it not likely that any further layoffs will be at NIF? It is my understanding that NIF was untouched during the ISP and with construction "complete", Ed will have an opportunity to jettison some folks.
It is my understanding that the non-retroactive raise in January is a done deal. The only question is the size of the raise package (I would guess it will be inconsequential, e.g, 0-1%)?
No one in NNSA or DOE cares what happens to the employees at contractor run NNSA labs.
UC use to care since the Lab Director was subject to public floggings by the UC Regents and the press. LLNS Board meetings are behind closed doors with not public oversight so it does not care.
Get out of the NNSA research labs as quickly as possible. Science is beginning to flourish at other national labs, so why waste your career and suffer the declining morale at one of the few sinking scientific ships in the country?
I got laid-off from LLNL last year. Now I'm working for another non-NNSA National Lab. I love my new job! And it's not because of job security, or salary, or perks. It's because there are no managers to suffocate my work, there is a low overhead, very interesting work, much better contact with my sponsors.
Research in the national interest can be done well! I really hope LLNL will find the way, but I'm afraid is not the current way...
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