Anonymously contributed:
This blog is overwhelmed by negative comments. While any of us could certainly join in on everything from our indefensible overhead rates to stifling computer security craziness, it gets old after months and months and months! So if you need to rant, go do it in some other post. Here I challenge actual LLNL employees to say something positive about the place we all work.
I'll start: I actually enjoy my work at LLNL. Yes, you heard correctly, I get to work a great group of scientists, recognized in our field, perform cutting-edge research, publish papers, attend professional society meetings, and have access to some great equipment.
Especially compared with what some of my colleagues are going through at the Universities (cuts and furloughs) the lab remains a great place to do science.
27 comments:
Its funny how the truth is considered negative.
hmm...you must be working at the lab in a parallel universe but more likely you are young with little work experience and are simply overjoyed to have a job.
Did you miss the last year? I'm glad you are happy.
I agree, I always considered my opportunity to work at LLNL a blessed one. I viewed it as a way to serve my country, and never once during my service did I forget what a talented wonderful group of people I worked with. My job there was never guaranteed for life, because the cost of doing business is taking the risk one will not be employed at one place forever. All we can do is be thankful for each day we are given the opportunity of service. Be thankful for each day we are given the opportunity to work with some of the worlds top research and development minds. Sure, there are a lot of politics, and there were "goings on" that I viewed as unethical at times, but in the real world, that stuff exists anywhere. As I think back on my service, I am nothing less than grateful for having been given the opportunity to work with each person I came into contact with. Working for LLNL/LLNS gave me a sense of pride which I doubt many will be able to find elsewhere. It isn't often in our lives we are blessed with a job where we know our contributions, no matter how great or small will significantly impact the future of science, national defense, etc. It is easy to forget your blessings when it seams nothing is going right.
Well I guess you're all along.. Hnag in there buddy. Someday may LLNL will do as Chu says and be recognized again.
I am happy for I have received 8.39% in pay raises for this year and last year. thanks UPTE
I'm happy at LLNL. They raised our chocolate ration to 15 grams a week, up from 10.
As ULM, I have never made so much money. Thanks LLNS.
Let me see if I can refresh my memory on how to play the Glad game by taking a look at Pollyana again.
Nope, still not feeling that good about what I see. But then, I've been here over 3 decades and the good old days were good.
We had a mission and an agency and a country that backed that mission. The cold war ended and the mission was no longer in sharp focus.
The entire complex is losing competence by the retirements of the folks that actually designed and made the stuff. They earned their spurs.
I hope that the computer simulations are providing a high fidelity that does prove what we have on the shelf still is viable.
I hope that NIF does get fusion going (and remember it started up as a method to get physics that we can no longer obtain through testing).
Hope that the folks at Global Security are getting useful data and passing it on to appreciative customers.
I am hopeful but I also see how things have changed, and NONE for the better.
DOE/NNSA has become so risk averse that if we were to resume testing I don't think we could pull it off with the rules and regulations that would be applied.
We have a nation that is facing a huge budget crisis and it is understandable that what political support we had will continue to erode when tough financial choices need to be made.
I am GLAD that I have a job.
I am GLAD that I have a health plan (albeit it jumped dramatically in price).
I am GLAD that for the most part I work with bright and talented professionals.
And I am really GLAD that I am only a few years away from retirement. When I walk away, I'll take my GLAD memories of the past and hope that decline I've seen in this once great institution will fade quickly.
I am happy to be working here. Sure there are changes and some are not so much fun. The people here are, for the most part, hard working and good to each other. I like the work I do, it is challenging and rewarding. I make a very good salary and I have more benefits than the majority of working adults in the country. I enjoy my boss and their boss and the next boss up the line. I focus on what is good rather than what I remember as good from years gone by. I believe this blog has a purpose for keeping us all honest and so I check in here from time to time.
Do I wish for a good salary package, yes. Do I wish that LLNL was getting more funding, yes. Do I believe we are part of the future of this country, yes.
When I look out the window and see a sunny day, that is what I experience.
Look for the good and you will see it.
My experience has been positive and negative. The positive has been the chance to work on some issues of importance for the country and to make contributions in this space. That has been good and exciting. The bad has been that beyond my immediate boss, it seems ULM does everything in its power to prevent this from happening even though this is our job. Despite this, our group including our boss has managed to persevere and time and again pull it out of our b*tts when all seemed lost because of ULM dithering, incompetence and bickering. To my immediate co-workers, kudos for making it work despite ULM's best efforts, it has been really hard but we did it. I am sure ULM will get big raises for our work, they always do.
The immediate individuals that I work with are wonderful, hard working and intelligent people. They really help make the research happen. The research has been highly praised by many outside the fence and has led to me being fully funded for the last 10 years.
That still does not change how hard it has become to work and stay funded within the confines of LLNL when you rely on WFO for your research. The falling of general wages. Seeing funded scientist let go. Overhead cost that have no justification. Group leaders that are fighting you for the same resources and division leaders that are mostly cowards not willing to stand-up for what they know needs to change. Okay, some of that is opinion, but a lot of it is the truth.
"I get to work a great group of scientists.."
You get to "work" a group of scientists? What are you? Some sort of parasitic upper level manager who lives off the hard efforts of the "slaves" at LLNL?
""I get to work a great group of scientists.."
You get to "work" a group of scientists? What are you? Some sort of parasitic upper level manager who lives off the hard efforts of the "slaves" at LLNL?
October 31, 2009 7:10 PM"
MAYBE they are an admin who really enjoys their team.
MAYBE they are a systems admin who likes working on one of a kind systems where much of the science is done.
MAYBE they are software engineer, an HR rep, or mechanical engineer.
What happened to the positive energy? Was there any?
I enjoy the work I do and it is rewarding to know that the results of my labor will help the country if not the world. However, the out-of-control overhead costs and obvious lack of managerial skill on the part of ULM are inescapable and will inevitably bring our best efforts crashing down.
I enjoy my work, but sometimes I don't have the resources to get things done. This is frustrating. Every time I think about a positive, there is an equal and opposite negative. For me the glass is at the half-way point. I am glad to still be working here.
I get to work with a great group of people with decent management. I have a GL that has high expectations, acknowledges me for good work and will tell me to my face if I am being a screwhead.
I am doing cutting edge computer science in the national interest for a variety in agencies with worldwide impacts.
I left the lab two years ago.
You know I am grateful to have a semi-secure job.
I have been more exposed to the outside world lately and I think some of us our just too insulated here at the Lab (as I was) and the economy is much worse than the " Lame stream media " would have us believe.
The unemployment figures only count certain categories and has to be well over 20%......
I have neighbors who are unemployed and really hurting.
So yes it is not the same Lab we had and yes I agree sometimes it is just "a job". And yes raises our not always good and yesall of these are true.
But it is also true I was in a class and a woman told me her company stopped it's 401k match.
Many places have furloughs now.
The point is we have less than we did but we still have a job.
Okay, I'll give you a positive comment.
I positively hate my job.
How did I do?
If you are positive you hate your job why are you still doing it at LLNL? Seriously, unless it is impossible or financially ruinous to get another one elsewhere (and perhaps it is, if so I am sorry) it is not good for you or the lab to keep doing something that makes you miserable.
As the originator of this topic I was curious to see if there was a critical mass of readers of this blog that find enough positive aspects to their jobs they are willing to stay and try to make LLNL a better place to work. It is clear we cannot rely on either NNSA or ULM to do it, so it is up to us, the responsible folks, the scientists and engineers bringing in the money to try and make the place better. Not as many as I hoped but there are a few of us! This blog can serve an important role in letting us interact and brainstorm.
For the record I am neither new (been at LLNL more than 15 years) nor a "parasitic" manager. I support myself via proposals just like the great group I work with.
When I was first hired by the Lab some 25 years ago, I thought that I was the luckiest person in the world.
Now life is still good. I am drawing a good pension from UC and make good money doing work of little value for LLNS. I am so lucky that I am not starting work at the Lab now.
"willing to stay and try to make LLNL a better place to work"
Since the problem begins with management I find it highly unlikely that those of us in the trenches will be able to anything to affect change. If you have been here for 15 years then, frankly, you have no idea what you are talking about. The bulk of your experience has been with the mess we now contend with daily and hence have no idea what a wonderful workplace the lab once was. My bet is you are in your late 30's early 40's, a young family and are just thrilled to have a job. In another 15 you won't be so chipper.I feel sorry for you. You have been duped.
November 7, 2009 8:58 AM
Lets just hope the lab will keep a lot of us old people for 6.5 more years, if I don't die on the job first from stress. The labs banking on the fact I will die before I get my retirement and I'm banking on the fact I'm going to bring my account balance to a - $$$ before I pass away.
yeah, like where else could you get to be a engineering center director with a degree in German studies....
...Universities (cuts and furloughs) the lab remains a great place to do science.
Aren't you forgetting something? Let me help you. 2008...440 employees... lay off. Does that help refresh your memory?
Why was this thread moved to the top?
The comments added have shown that most posters have little inclination to go all giggly about how wonderful life at LLNL is. The experiment is over, let it go already.
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