Actual post from Dec. 15 from one of the streams. This is a real topic. As far as promoting women and minorities even if their qualifications are not as good as the white male scientists, I am all for it. We need diversity at the lab and if that is what it takes, so be it. Quit your whining. Look around the lab, what do you see? White male geezers. How many African Americans do you see at the lab? Virtually none. LLNL is one of the MOST undiverse places you will see. Face it folks, LLNL is an institution of white male privilege and they don't want to give up their privileged positions. California, a state of majority Hispanics has the "crown jewel" LLNL nestled in the middle of it with very FEW Hispanics at all!
Comments
OMFG!!!
The red curve are the parasites and
the blue curve is the host. The host is dying and when it is dead there is no point to have LANL. At 50% we may be there. If you showed this to any reasonable person taxpayer and they would say to close LANL down. As a LANL person I have a very hard time trying to defend this. No organization that is worthwhile can function like this.
I *feel* this way...but to see the numbers is fantastic.
I'd love to hear NNSA/LANS defense of this.
And, how about Congress directs GAO to whip up a graph like this for every DOE lab.
Ya it is really stunning. It explains why the overhead rates are so high, why moral is so low, and why people are just going through the motions and no longer care. This chart puts is in black and white now that the place is utterly broken and ineffective. Truly unbelievable.
Well, Parney, I dare you to put up the LLNL chart of this in the next all hands, identify it as a core problem, and tell us how you plan to change it. (Use the sequester as an excuse, if you feel you need one).
"Well, Parney, I dare you to put up the LLNL chart of this in the next all hands, identify it as a core problem, and tell us how you plan to change it. (Use the sequester as an excuse, if you feel you need one)."
The chart really shows one direction for growth. Overtime
a systems becomes run down and broken which seems like a law of mediocrity. If sequester comes through do you really think it would help or just makes things worse? Maybe the law mediocrity is not so hard to understand when you look at it in terms of a simple rate equation. The good people come in at a certain rate and leave at a certain rate. The bad people come in and cannot leave. Overtime you are left with more bad people. There are probably additional terms like feedback and triggers that make it worse, The bad people want to run out the other good people and so on. If no one cares high up than this is the inevitable consequence. How long can you can one keep saying that things are great. It is a charade.
The world will not change on Jan 13.
The lab will still be around. By the way many who are unhappy are leaving that is way the fraction of the technical workforce is getting lower. They just hire more admins and managers to replace them. These people are really happy at LANL.
Look at graph circa 1985 - One group comprises 70% of the population, 30% the other. Go find some report that tells you how many employees were at LANL at that time and perform MATH. The question that comes to my mind is whether or not contract employees are in the numbers.
The eye opener is of course going from a 30% to 50% manager population. We can probably place some blame on NNSA for the increased paperwork and regulation they have placed on the labs. Certainly some blame must be placed on the Good Old Boy club. Regardless of the cause, 50% is disgusting.
Is the source or raw data available? If this plot is indeed accurate, there should be massive public outrage. As a taxpayer, I am outraged.
There was a push to reduce the number of managers so the graph is probably right. One way they wanted to do this was to combine groups but this actually makes things worse and why non-managers are taking on more manager type roles. What they need to do but we all know will not happen is to reduce the number high level managers that never interact with the staff the outside world. They get a big salary but stay hidden.
The question is where is the added value on so many of these positions?
We're still waiting, Charlie.......
No wonder most of the research staff that remain at LANL are having such a hard time funding their work. The "overhead" side is slowly choking off the "science" side of this weapon lab! Given that this trend seems to have accelerated once LANS/Bechtel LLC took over lab management as a "for-profit" business, I doubt this trend will moderate as long as the current management regime stays in place.
It may not be the best solution, but perhaps the only solution left is for DOD to rip the nuclear complex away from an incompetent DOE/NNSA and begin doing some radical management "surgery" to save what's left of the weapons complex before it's too late! It's like a growing cancer. When you wait too long to begin treatment the prognosis becomes very bleak.
October 3, 2012 12:39 AM
Sorry, not legal. Congress would have to amend the Atomic Energy Act to allow it. Not much chance of that.
October 3, 2012 9:58 AM
Yep, that's what I said; "government says so" = congress amends the AEA. The AEA is still in effect and is the law of the land. No one in the "government" can just "say so" if the law says different (although Obama seems to think he can.)
Only department heads and above and the Alameda County Sheriff!
Only department heads and above and the Alameda County Sheriff!
October 5, 2012 2:19 PM
Spoken like someone who's never been a Group Leader. Group Leaders without supervisors below them (at LANL "Team Leaders") must have a deputy to function effectively.
October 5, 2012 3:40 PM
The only folks at LANL that can justify having a Deputy are the Deputies themselves. They need to eliminate this "Management Welfare Program (MWP)" at LANL. Any Manager that needs a Deputy has no business being Manager.
We're still waiting, Charlie.......
September 30, 2012 7:00 PM
Oh they are doing this! They basically are "shutting the door" behind themselves by no longer admitting Managers into the LANS Management Club (LMC). It's like a gang, once you get initiated, your in for life, like it or not, and they not accepting any more members.
October 5, 2012 7:38 PM
Once again: "Spoken like someone who's never been a Group Leader."
Walk a mile in my shoes. You have no idea what you're talking about.