Anonymously contributed:
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A picture is worth a thousand words...
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see GRAPH
31 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.
Incredible...
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.
"Incredible..."
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.
I guess this is the type of info that Parney doesn't want us seeing on the blog...
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.
Surprise. Bechtel is a festering cancer that feeds on their host. Private, for profit nuclear labs were a bad idea. Now this disaster will become another thing that was "fixed" when the janitor becomes a "sanitation engineer V".
Lab management NEEDs more and better compensated managers because there are more bad employees taking up all their time... 47% of the non-management staff employees are low -life scumbag parasites out with no sense of accountability for themselves. We need to incentivize the management layer, particularly those at the very top.
So...whats new, are you really surprised?
Is there a corresponding graph with total employment?
Yes, click on link called "GRAPH".
Dear Scooby, GRAPH only has 'fraction of LANL employees'.
Scooby obviously gave this his entire attention, for about 1/2 second. As usual.
Does it really matter anymore? After Jan. 13 LANL may only be a spot on the map, a tribute to massive mismanagement, by both our government and the lab. If you are crapping in your pants and hanging on with a thread, dont you think that it is time to move on? You will not be able to sell your house and good luck with getting a position that you have become use to, the world will change for you on Jan. 13. Maybe the Mayan calender was refering to the US Government falling on Dec12, 2012.
September 29, 2012 8:48 AM
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.
For those that berate Scooby on the graph when he replied the numbers are in the graph, perhaps the following will help.
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.
This graph is so disgusting, I have a hard time believing it. There must be some mitigating factor: e.g., tech staff have been shifted to contractors.
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 is an active campaign by LANL Management to reduce the number of Managers at the Lab, however, there is an interesting catch in the way they are doing it. Rather than actually reducing the number of current Managers, they are assigning Management responsibilities to the staff. I was recently assigned Management responsibilities with no change in my title or increase in pay. What a smart trick, it holds the number of Managers at a steady rate and reduces their costs by paying a non-Manager to do their work!
"September 30, 2012 6:31 AM"
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?
McMillan claimed at his last All-Hands that he was preparing to reduce the size of management at LANL.
We're still waiting, Charlie.......
That shocking graph showing the enormous growth of "overhead" positions at LANL to the detriment of the remaining "science" positions is indefensible.
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.
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...
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.
7:49. DOE/NNSA didnt even exist when the Atomic Energy act was passed? The complex can go under whom ever and what ever our government says so. Sheesh get a clue!
The complex can go under whom ever and what ever our government says so. Sheesh get a clue!
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.)
While the data indicates an ever increasing number of managers at LLNL, the more significant issue is the amount of money apportioned to their salaries compared to pre-LANS managers.
LANL is a dead carcass but there is still some time left for the growing horders of well paid managers to pick off the remaining meat from the bones.
Managers (at least the non-Bechtel ones) live off overhead from programs. Fewer and smaller programs = fewer managers. I know of several cases where Group Leaders have been forbidden to hire Deputies because of programmatic cuts.
Group leaders do not need a deputy; neither do division managers!
Only department heads and above and the Alameda County Sheriff!
Group leaders do not need a deputy; neither do division managers!
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.
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.
McMillan claimed at his last All-Hands that he was preparing to reduce the size of management at LANL.
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.
Any Manager that needs a Deputy has no business being Manager.
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.
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