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To Senior Management:

Senior Management,

Direct or Indirect that is the question.

Being intelligent and part of senior management you likely already have a strong opinion however as a result of this comment perhaps a future pause or reflection could shape a future decision that otherwise would not.

The laboratory like the tide has shifted strategy over and over regarding the flow of costs toward or away from indirect (G&A and Site Support).

Currently it appears to those in the trenches the strategy is to move costs into indirect with the intention of better managing those resources.

I would like to bring to your attention an alternate thought from a time when the strategy tide was completely reversed.

When programs charge resources (labor and non-labor) directly the cost saving self-interest/motivation is high. For every dollar saved that specific program saves a dollar.
When programs charge resources (labor and non-labor) to indirect self-interest is the reverse. Spend every dollar since saving a dollar would only result in perhaps specific program savings of twenty five cents at best (if the stars, moon and sun align with a rate decrease after the miracle of no one else at the lab offsetting that savings).

Good intentions to manage better in my humble opinion are not as effective as making it in the self-interest of each PAD to realize cost savings.

I do understand that efficiencies can be realized with the synergy of combining like functions. Those opportunities should be a very clear and a large slam dunk to offset the hard results that naturally come from building self-interest in to the decision making process.

Thank you for your time,
Respectfully. A current and hopeful long term employee who loves working at the lab.

Comments

Anonymous said…
"A current and hopeful long term employee who loves working at the lab."

Love working at the lab?? Wow, I'm surprised the sour people who post negatively about the lab in the middle of the night haven't locked onto that yet. LOL
Anonymous said…
Stick it to them, Alexis
Anonymous said…
We need more threads where employees end up arguing points that are then shown to contradict statements made by lab management. Those are always entertaining, but may not be entertaining for the employee in the short and long run. The point being, lab employees should not be speaking on behalf if their employer if their employer is having to "finesse" the message all the time or are hiding embarrasing information. It creates more work for the PR department. You gotta face the fact that LLNL needs heavy doses of spin and PR.
Anonymous said…
Persona management much?
Anonymous said…
As I said BART is on strike for higher wages, better benefits and a defined pension program with full medical after retirement. What are you sheep doing to assure you have a life after 60?
Anonymous said…
LLNL is part one of the most regulated agencies in government. We have responsibilities for safety, cyber, and physical security that unless changed are costly. A previous director once said, correctly, we need to be at about 8000 employees to cover the necessary revenue to support the neccessary overhead. At the contract change we said we would grow our business $600M to make up for the egregious overhead of leaving UC system cost us with fee and taxes. We did not do that, and we continue to pay the price. This is the issue, not "what is direct or indirect." So get out of the weeks and focus on our failed plan and management. It ain't like it couldn't have been predicted!
Anonymous said…
July 2, 2013 at 2:57 PM

It is my hopes LLNL is cut to a population of about 4000 at the max. That is more than you need since NIF should be going bye-bye as the years go on as well as weapons and global security should be ramping up at Mach 1 from this date forward. It's no longer important to know if we can nuke them what's important now days is knowing who is going to nuke us from within, assuring we know who the moles are and who the home grown terrorist are.
Anonymous said…
That will never happen. LLNL will make cuts to weapons and global security to keep NIF up and going no matter how much global security is successful and no matter how much NNSA demands weapons work from LLNL.
Anonymous said…
July 4, 2013 at 10:48 AM

What a shame. Why should the American tax payer continue to fund a project that has failed and always will fail. Oh I forgot, we still pay for Obama SS protection too which is four times what any other President every had. Gee, I wonder why? I guess Foresat Gump summed up today's society pretty well. Stupid is as stupid does in all aspects.
Anonymous said…
Stupid is as stupid does in all aspects.

July 4, 2013 at 10:56 AM

Including misspelling "Forrest."
Amee said…
This is cool!

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