Anonymously contributed:
From: LLNL Public Affairs Office
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 03:17 PM
To: E-line
Subject: UPDATE ON SALARY ADJUSTMENT INCREASE
E-LINE: Update from the director on salary adjustment increase
Today, we were notified that the Secretary of Energy has decided to allow the Laboratory to increase available funds to be used for salary adjustments and promotions from the previously authorized level of 0.5 percent up to a total limit of 2.0 percent.
DOE also has authorized the Laboratory to apply these increased promotion and salary adjustment funds retroactively to the beginning of the CY2011 pay cycle. This decision was approved to help achieve parity with the salary adjustments received by federal employees. Per the guidance received, these funds are not intended to be used as merit increases; they are for adjustments to address equity and retention issues.
Our plan is to review current salaries with respect to the approved use of promotion and adjustment funds and communicate any resulting salary increases as soon as possible.
We thank the secretary for taking this action to help mitigate the impacts of the salary freeze announced in December 2010. Guidelines on how the funds will be distributed will be available in future communications.
Regards,
George Miller
From: LLNL Public Affairs Office
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 03:17 PM
To: E-line
Subject: UPDATE ON SALARY ADJUSTMENT INCREASE
E-LINE: Update from the director on salary adjustment increase
Today, we were notified that the Secretary of Energy has decided to allow the Laboratory to increase available funds to be used for salary adjustments and promotions from the previously authorized level of 0.5 percent up to a total limit of 2.0 percent.
DOE also has authorized the Laboratory to apply these increased promotion and salary adjustment funds retroactively to the beginning of the CY2011 pay cycle. This decision was approved to help achieve parity with the salary adjustments received by federal employees. Per the guidance received, these funds are not intended to be used as merit increases; they are for adjustments to address equity and retention issues.
Our plan is to review current salaries with respect to the approved use of promotion and adjustment funds and communicate any resulting salary increases as soon as possible.
We thank the secretary for taking this action to help mitigate the impacts of the salary freeze announced in December 2010. Guidelines on how the funds will be distributed will be available in future communications.
Regards,
George Miller
Comments
Be careful of what you say in public. Brett, the darling bully boy of LANS upper management, will be elevated to a PAD as soon as McMillian gets 'crowned' by the LANS Board as the lab's next Director.
Another example of how George and senior lab management could screw up a one car funeral.
April 6, 2011 3:43 PM
It's been decided by LANS Managers that workers in the McMillans"s Weapon Directorate will be given raises. Other technical staff in the Wallace's Science Directorate and in the Environmental Programs will be given a "handshake" for a job well-done. Support staff will be given a "pad on the back".
Underpaid???? I know quite a few at LANL that are way overpaid. The kind I am taking about are very lame. Can't get rid of them. They actually fit in way better because they "wear shoes that GRIP", are very risk adverse, follow the mantra and have the traits of lemmings. Then you throw in the Bechtel losers and you have a real circle jerk going. Just what NNSA wants.
You sound like a very problematic employee for your supervisors. For decades at LANL and LLNL, success occurred because there was no "us vs them" attitude. If the employees' response to a perceived "us vs them" attitude in management is to adopt the same attitude, there will never be any way to regain the trust and can-do environment that ensured that success. I am no longer in the game, but I really regret the demise of these once-great institutions. I would just request that all employees, whether management or otherwise, who DON'T have the success of the institution as their priority, just please leave and take your vitriolic poison elsewhere. LANL and LLNL are too important to the country to have groups of juveniles fighting each other within their gates. Please grow up or leave. You shame the memory of your predecessors.
April 8, 2011 7:20 PM
As you admit, you are uninformed, but quick to judge.
As a top rankedand formerly highly-motivated contributor for many decades, still employed there, I feel comfortable stating that the transition to private management and the resulting changes have so undermined the work environment that you remember that dissatisfaction and lack of focus is widespread.
Almost all to some degree have been hurt, and each responds in his own way. 1800 were fired. Some who made a lifetime commitment to an institution that no longer exists, give token service and count the days to retirement. Some suffer in silence. Others press on regardless. Many demand less than they once did, accepting mediocrity as the correct response to mendacity and inanity. For many, it is now just a job, not a vocation. Many new faces appear who know nothing of how dynamic it once was.
NNSA's decision to dismiss UC management killed the labs. They are spectres of their former selves. Most certainly not crown jewels of anything.
It is not clear that they are on a path to retain the scientific ability to carry out their missions.
But, since Congress is mismanaging much bigger issues, in the larger sense this hardly matters.
April 9, 2011 9:19 AM
I didn't say I was "uninformed," I said I was no longer in the game. I worked at LANL for over 30 years as a technical staff member, and I witnessed first hand the transition to LANS from UC. I stand by my observations and my opinions. I notice you didn't try to refute anything I said, but merely tried to justify the behavior I was decrying. I find that sad.
"This is given out to those who have special needs to assure there are no more law suites at LLNL for those who whine about being under paid for some ethnic reason. That's the simple answer if you people haven't figured it out for yourself."
Yahoo News (4.11.11) :
"Life is good at the top of corporate America. CEO pay rose 12% last year, bringing the average compensation to $9.6 million in 2010, based on a report and study done by NY Times. That's definitely a lot of money at a time when middle class wages haven't increased for a generation and unemployment remains near 9%."
April 11, 2011 11:28 AM
Hey, money makes money. Who's surprised at that? Unemployment figures are misleading, being under 5% for those who graduated from college. Some people will do very well, some not so much. It's all about life choices and luck. If you think it is all about corruption and greed, you are probably thinking "gee, maybe the Soviet Union had it right. Why shouldn't we redistribute wealth to make sure no one is better off than his neighbor?"
The Soviet Union did not have it right, however modern Russia does not have it right either and that is where we are headed. I am all for capitalism but I am also for the rule of law. Greed is good but corruption is not good.
"Many have been ensnared by gold,
though destruction lay before their eyes;
It is a stumbling block for those who are avid for it,
a snare for every fool."
Sirach 31,6-8