As someone who is familiar with something called the private sector, can anybody please explain the the concept of the flextime/at-will employee? The way I read the LLNL definitions, you are a regular at will employee that can be fired for any reason (or no reason at all). But on top of that, you are guaranteed to be fired within 6 years. I don't understand, if you can be fired for any reason (or no reason at all), why do they tack on this seemingly superfluous: "Oh, and by the way, don't make yourself too comfortable. And certainty don't bother gaining experience in the arcane subtitles of laser ICF or weapons physics, since you'll be guaranteed to be out on the streets in 6 years, max!" And then they dangle this "career indefinite" carrot like its your ticket to the promised land--but as far as I cal tell, that's nothing more than a regular at-will position. Is it just me, or are these people living in a fairy land where rational, intelligent people (who aren't desperate Indian, Iranian or Chinese nationals fighting for a US Visa) will devote themselves to arcane LLNL endeavors with even less job security than the private sector? Or is that the point? There is an unlimited supply of third world migrants we can outsource the national lab jobs too?
Comments
The fix-term appointment in some sense is just a safety valve for the Lab being very uncomfortable letting people go.
Almost everyone I saw in the career center after the last layoff at llnl was over 50.
http://www.kaplunion.com/
"In the lab, it doesn't matter flex or career. When you get too old, you will be put on the list for the next layoff. So just make the money you can make and don't try any loyalty as it will not be returned in kind.
Almost everyone I saw in the career center after the last layoff at llnl was over 50."
You said it better than I can ... and every word resonates inside me.
After several decades of loyal service at the Lab they laid me off before I could retire gracefully at 65 (I was 63). It was the most humiliating slap-in-the-face I had ever experienced.
World class academic credentials, a superb publication record, contributions to nationally vital projects, leadership in R&D etc etc ... didn't help.
Neither did being vigorous and active in R&D ... I was too old (at 63) and not a "management old boy" to remain.
I am now running my own R&D company designing, building and profitably marketing products vital to the energy independence and the defence of our country, and have more than replaced my sub-par "lost" salary. I revel in the absence of the aggravating barriers that management erected during my long service at the Lab to constrain and limit my growth.
I could not be happier. Now I wonder why I waited for so long at the Lab to leave! I will continue to work, create and have fun doing it, until I drop dead, with a smile on my face.
To my highly skilled colleagues still at the Lab, I say, leave and create your own sandbox for you to play in to the end of your days ... before it is too late ... and you become a worn out dispirited shell ... to be milked and thrown away!