Contributed anonymously and moved here, as its own post from the "look in your mail box" post:
What is it about Business Operations that makes it the enemy of those of us trying to get work done?
1. Higher medical costs,and higher deductibles and copays so they can give more fee to LLNS?
2. Cheating employees out of benefits, such as dumping medicare age retirees?
3. Being unforgiving of mistakes?
4. Retroactively raising mnapower burden rates after long after contracts with sponsors have been signed because they can't do arithmetic. Then forcing that engineering employees families to pay the bill as the employees have to work harder, with less support and much longer OT hours and longer to get contracted work done: again so that Business Operations metrics are made so Frank and senior management can make their bonus?
5. Increasing the burden rates on personnel by 15% in one year.
6. The fact that none of the Business Operations Division Leaders and above have even worked at the the lab, and they don't care what impact that they are having on people or programs as long as they make their bonus.
6. The fact that they make bonus whether or not LLNL functions.
LLNL Business Operations (aka the useless gunslinger Russo and his band of Becthel aliens) are failing to support Programs adequately.
They were to bring in a ready made project management system. They failed.
They were to keep manpower burden rates to FY07 levels, they failed.
LLNL technical personnel are stressed,harried and failing to meet technical and performance milestones as they continue to compensate the results for the Business Operations shortfalls of planning and execution.
Business Operations is plotting to minimize employee salary increases and cap salaries through the new 200 compensation category scheme that Frank needed to roll out on 1 Oct to make his bonus.
Management is only in place to help programs get work done, yet they failed to keep support adequate and we are failing together.
Senior management of Business Operations sits isolated in their offices, with no knowledge or contact with those implementing programs and tasks, and they don't care that they fail to support the successful operations of the Lab.
Those of us who still want the lab to succeed should carefully examine whether cooperating with any of the Business Operations robbers efforts will actually undermine laboratory success, if so perhaps helping them fail to meet their bonuses will insure laboratory success.
It will be better for all if we make sure Frank hits the road real soon.
15 comments:
It's not fair to blame Business Ops for all the issues around indirect rates. There are significant numbers of all sorts of staff and mangers across the Lab that are at least partially funded by indirect accounts.
And I'm not from Business Ops myself.
Why not blame them? Most of ULM has been pilloried here and nothing happens to them.
Business Ops is broken beyond help and should be revamped or outsourced. Same for safety. The lab could save millions.
Business Ops is broken? Safety is Broken? How can this be???? Remember that UC partnered up with other companies who brought expertise to the table in these areas while UC stuck with "Science" which they knew how to do.
Did NNSA choose poorly when they selected LLNS?
And in case you missed it, this response is dripping in satire.
If you had any real idea just how much your new Bechtel overlords are getting paid in salaries to destroy LLNL, it would make you very sick. Of course, you'll never know. LLNS (e.g., Bechtel) considers that to be corporate "proprietary information"!
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Hi there Business Ops! Your so-called "cost-cutting" has utterly failed, you whiz-kids! Just checked the new Lab Pricer and I currently cost my projects 3.5x my salary. That means I have 2.5 overhead people supported off my work- or more likely 1.5 excessively paid "managers". The time is NOW Bechtel- show us how tough you are and toss out the useless non-technical, zero-business-acumen managers! Let's do the layoff right this time! Go get 'em boys! Want to improve staff morale? Walk off 50 high-paid useless managers- treat them exactly the way they treated the dedicated scientists they disposed of last May. No tears will fall this time, except maybe tears of joy. Lose 50 managers, save 50 million a year and increase productivity- imagine that!
October 14, 2009 10:34 PM
October 14, 2009 9:30 PM
Since you seem to know how much Bechtel managers make, then you must know how many "Bechtel" managers there are (or should I say how few of them there are). How many overpaid and under effective residual "UC" managers (and former managers)still exist?
"We have met the enemy, and he is us."
How can you knock FR? He gave you a free bicycle helmet.
"Walk off 50 high-paid useless managers- treat them exactly the way they treated the dedicated scientists they disposed of last May." - 6:19 AM
You have no true sense of who now controls LLNL and for whose benefit, do you, 6:19?
LLNL has been "captured" by the carpet-baggers from Bechtel and the upper management class which now runs it for THEIR benefit, not yours. How foolish of you to think otherwise. Dream on.
Wait a min 8:14, can I still get my free helmet so I can c
sell it on ebay and claim my raise!!!!
Good post! I keep hearing about the incentives that mean absolutely nothing. Hey Frank - try to understand our mission and what's really important. You might find that when you have a clue, you're not such a bad guy.
A real issue in Business Ops is the lack of real workers. Our facilities need significant maintenance, but we ISP'd the blue collar folks who do that type of work. Now we have a large selection of managers and other bureaucrats.
The new work control process adds more work to F&I, but instead of doing maintenance, they are now pushing more paper and hindering getting real work done. Just what we didn't need.
Business Ops is a joke. Of the origial 4 AD-level managers, managers, one good one went to bail out Security, two were relieved of their responsibilites, another will soon return home. FR will move up, rewarded for these great accomplishements. Nuc Ops will eventually disappear since WCI take-overs and de-inventory make its mission useless.
Its not Russo's fault that he is taking advice from incompetant morons who don't have a clue what's going on at the Lab and is just setting their own agenda....Maybe he should talk to the ranks and get the truth on whats really happening.. We were told not to talk to Russo as it was career suicide.. I BELIEVE IT!! Thanks LLNS.. Never happened under UC's rule...
Actually, there are highly competent staff in bus ops area. The problem is the poor management of the system.
"Our facilities need significant maintenance, but we ISP'd the blue collar folks who do that type of work". those of us in the treches have been cleaning our own offices and walking the trash out for over a year now. How does this affect bus ops? Sweep your own floors like the rest of us!
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