Anonymously contributed:
Read this George:
Warren Buffet writes in the Berkshire-Hathaway annual letter to shareholders this year that:
"We would rather suffer the visible costs of a few bad decisions than incur the many invisible costs that come from decisions made too slowly – or not at all – because of a stifling bureaucracy."
Compare this to the DOE/NNSA/LLNS and LANS, who would rather suffer the many invisible costs from decisions made too slowly--or not at all--because of a stifling bureaucracy than incur the visible costs of a few bad decisions.
This in a nutshell is what has gone so wrong at the Labs and their owning agencies, by Congressional demand.
Read this George:
Warren Buffet writes in the Berkshire-Hathaway annual letter to shareholders this year that:
"We would rather suffer the visible costs of a few bad decisions than incur the many invisible costs that come from decisions made too slowly – or not at all – because of a stifling bureaucracy."
Compare this to the DOE/NNSA/LLNS and LANS, who would rather suffer the many invisible costs from decisions made too slowly--or not at all--because of a stifling bureaucracy than incur the visible costs of a few bad decisions.
This in a nutshell is what has gone so wrong at the Labs and their owning agencies, by Congressional demand.
Comments
While I concur, this is ancient history. This war was fought & won by Congress/DOE some years ago now. Blame the big gorilla contractor now but it was Congress/DOE that made it happen. You must have been uninvolved when “Contract Reform” was playing out in DOE.
It’s too late to do anything now. Move on, move out or live with what you’ve got.
Warren Buffet = Business Man
DOE/NNSA = Bureaucrats
LLNS = Leeches
I disagree, its our friends within the fence that have driven taxes through the roof to pay bloated staff and to subsidize favorite programs such as NIF.
Its also the hidden direct fees in support that most institutes normally cover or don't actually have. The taxing of travel, publications, supplies, cleaning, and lab/office upgrades, should not be overlooked as part of the hidden fees local management has levied against the staff. For awhile, one of the divisions was told they had to pay individually for their copier paper. They have managed to attach a cost + 50% to everything. Or how about retroactive taxes on WFO when you fall short of covering the management team.
You can keep blaming Congress/DOE and NNSA for some of the woes at the National labs, but the real problem and harm comes from within.
This one is especially egregious and has happened at both LLNL and LANL.
Lab management tells you, as the PI, to be especially careful about watching the budget for charges associated with WFOs.
Then, they suddenly turn around and apply huge new overhead taxes to these same WFO accounts and apply them retroactively to help cover for the growing management and support "bloat" at the labs!
It's amazing that anyone left at the NNSA labs is still working to bring in WFO funding given the way management treats these accounts.