Anonymously contributed:
Raises soon, and are the health insurance rates going to go up? How many have received a raise and lost take home because of the increased costs? I've lost ground for two years.
Raises soon, and are the health insurance rates going to go up? How many have received a raise and lost take home because of the increased costs? I've lost ground for two years.
Comments
Up there in that rarified air of the executive suite, salaries and perks are BETTER THAN EVER!
Certainly not how it was done at LLNL.
* Salary contributions to the LANS TCP1 pension that will continue to grow bigger and bigger with each passing year
* Huge increases in the cost of medical premiums to be borne by the employees
* Staff layoffs induced by large and quickly growing "pension taxes" on projects that leave little funding to pay for the research work given the lab's already extremely high FTE rates and other outrageous tax burdens
* Executive LLC salaries (hidden from the public, of course) that are growing bigger and bigger by the minute; Mikey is the $1 million dollar man, but he'll certainly want to match the SNL Director and soon become the $2 million dollar man!
* A risk averse culture that seems to continue to find new ways to become even more risk averse
* A broken agency, NNSA, that seems to delight in dumping whatever crazy, new policy they can on the contract employees at their research labs
* Morale that continues to plummet to new lows
* A Director who is out of touch and appears to care little for the pressures being placed on his research staff
Yeah, that's what we've got. Losing ground on salaries is only a very small part of the total picture.
This comes on top of the roughly $300 per month salary deductions that were required to pay for TCP1 shortfalls.
Taken together, that is now a $400 loss PER MONTH for the average technical staff member, or...
... about a $5,000 drop in salary over the last year!!!
And the financial pain going forward is only going to get worse under LANS LLC.
If case you didn't notice, you are rapidly falling backwards in terms of you take-home pay at LANL.
"If you are eligible, you will be covered 24 hours/day, worldwide, up to $100,000 or, if you are a senior manager, $250,000"
Just wait until the mandatory government furloughs start up next year. Talk is already growing in Congress about having mandatory shutdowns at all government sites for several weeks (with no pay) to conserve money.
Everyone from Los Alamos who went to Bechtel Headquarters back in 2005 to help write the LANS LLC proposal has done very well, indeed, since LANS took over the lab!
My response is to adjust effective work hours to keep the pay rate the same.
Have lost 5% -10% since the transition hit me particularly hard.
a longer lunch for exercise a few days a week, later arrival after traffic clears, longer estimates to accomplish tasks, finishing work next week rather than Friday. Not volunteering for that onerous group task, delaying completion rather than taking work home, adjusting work quality to time available.....With little guilt, just enough increase in bennies and/or stress reduction to make up some of the losses.
Helps with motivation when work is getting done.
September 21, 2010 10:17 PM
You were surprised? These folks were middle and upper level managers who chose which horse to ride during the competition. They made a choice, and a gamble. Most times, a winning gamble gets a reward. Plus, Bechtel recognized it needed local knowledge and expertise to write a winning bid. If the other guys had won the contract, these folks would have been out. What's wrong with entrepreneurship? Are you upset that you didn't do it, or jealous that you weren't asked?
The "fix was in" as they say, with Tom D'Agostino the sole person at NNSA given authority to choose the winner. A similar faked competition resulted in LLNS (aka Bechtel) winning the LLNL contract, too.
LANS and LLNS are con jobs, through and through.
October 7, 2010 7:05 AM
Who in this economy isn't falling further behind? Why are you special?
October 8, 2010 10:33 PM
Well those who took UC retirement and then stayed on under TCP2 are doing pretty well. Not "special" just a lucky accident of timing, age, and choice. Mostly choice.