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!
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But for somebody who is seeking to become the director, I would have expected more discussion of where we're going (not just where we are).
The institution didn't have a budget for 5 years. We have another debt ceiling discussion in a month. The countries finances are in shambles.
....and you want the interim lab director to tell us where were going?
Good luck with that!
We won't really know what kind of Dir he is until the chips are down.
But this was a good start.
There are plenty of places to cut spending, from the operating budget, for needed cash.
Out of the employee's pocket seems both odd & sends a message.
Using part of the employee cip is a convenient way to do so.
NIF put us in this fiscal position, they should ante up to replenish the coffers.
Heresy, I know. We have to carry those guys on our backs until we all die together.
Are we in that much dire straits? I like my job here but my main complaint about the lab is the whole PA process and career development. It stinks and you people in management need to fix it. Don't tout it and then not deliver.
Knapp said the retroactive portion of the CIP (4 or 5 months worth) might be used to shore up the lab's financial position.
How long does it take a management company to hand out a pay raise.
Every year they have to tout it delivery or not, else part of their purpose disappears, and they would have to count on something other than this function to justify their high pay and rank. The fire station bell must ring, even for false alarms.
January 31, 2014 at 7:34 PM
Either you haven't been around very long or you haven't been paying attention. Pay increases for lab staff are "authorized" by DOE/NNSA but the money must come from current year operating budget. There is no extra money made available for any pay raises.
So you might want to consider whether it is better to have no raises, or to have some people laid off while others get raises.
He said the CIP would be implemented in April, so retroactive part would be 3 months, Jan - Mar.
And he's just keeping options open.
Plenty of examples of unneeded expenditures.
Employee pay raises are part of those operating expenses.
Employee pay raises are part of those operating expenses.
February 1, 2014 at 7:25 AM
Sorry, when was the last time you saw a multi-year funding proposal that included annual pay raises for employees?
The big problem with LIFE that struck me wasn't even technical, although the claim of 10-20 shots per second did seem pretty wild. The big problem had to do with the basic economics of LIFE. A shot generating 50MJ of energy works out to about a dollar's worth of electricity after taking into account the likely efficiencies. That means for this power generation scheme to make any sense at all, the cost of each capsule-hohlraum assembly, including any associated costs such as inspection and filling, has to be much less than a dollar. I think that the LIFE people were claiming about 25 cents each was possible, which is a ridiculous claim. You can't even buy something as relatively simple as precision ceramic ball bearings for 25 cents each, a fact that I'm sure the number-crunching venture capitalists would notice. For LIFE to claim that they could mass-produce high-precision capsules INCLUDING their associated high-precision hohlraum for 25 cents each is the stuff of fantasy.
Why is it considered absurd for a company to give its employees their pay raise from that company's operating funds?
Is LLNS suppose to depend on the kindness of strangers to fund their employees raises?
Hey hey. Are you trying to cast doubt on the viability of LIFE with cold and quantitative facts? Hollywood Ed is going to ride in on his pink unicorn and straighten you out.
Unsolicited comments and dissension are not acceptable.
In a nutshell, yes. Operating funds are the financial resources voted by Congress and awarded by Federal agencies. Employee salaries, and increases to those salaries, come out of those funds. The management fee also comes out of those funds. If you have some fantasy that raises will come out of the management fee, then please write President Napolitano and ask UC to step to the bar first and give raises in lieu of the research funds they distribute to the campuses. Don't hold your breath pending a reply.
Well said.
Employees do get pay raises, and employers pay for them.
Sorry for the reality check.
Akima employees "worked real hard" too, and for their collective efforts, well over 50 of them were laid off in such a manner to not trigger the CA Warn Act. Way to pay tribute to those employees LLNS.
Employees do get pay raises, and employers pay for them.
Sorry for the reality check.
February 1, 2014 at 11:38 AM
You are correct. And February 1, 2014 at 10:33 AM was merely pointing out the reality of how they happen at LLNS and LANS.
Then the operating funds should be sufficiently robust to cover the approved worker CIP in full as well.
Sorry, when was the last time you saw a multi-year funding proposal that included annual pay raises for employees?
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Every proposal I have ever been a part of has accounted for annual increases in compensation, benefits, and overhead.
This is a big win for the mainstream scientific community. LIFE was discredited and eventually cancelled. Guess what's going to happen to the laser EOS effort? It's already been discredited. We're all waiting.
Livermore management should understand that the critics of NIF are not going to go away. The cancellation of LIFE will only embolden NIF's critics.
Can you give us a few examples?
Didn't say otherwise. Contract labor comes in with different terms of employment. There should be no surprise if they are among the first to go when there is a funding downturn.
At this point, contractors should probably have no more than a two year appointment. Otherwise, I think we just keep that hiring vehicle around so that regular employees feel less "at will" themselves.
The current selection is only a formality and a motion that management has to go through. Why would the Board of Governors brings in someone from Los Alamos as an interim Director while we have many ADs who can do the interim job?
And if the poster above is correct that Bret has also applied for the Director position, I would bet theft Bret will be our Director. He seems to be very personable and easy going from my observations.
Just hope that if he is selected, he will make decision fairly and transparency to Lab employees.
The current selection is only a formality and a motion that management has to go through. Why would the Board of Governors bring in someone from Los Alamos as an interim Director while we have many ADs who can do the interim job?
And if the poster above is correct that Bret has also applied for the Director position, I would bet that d Bret will be our Director. He seems to be very personable and easy going from my observations.
Just hope that if he is selected, he will make decision fairly and transparency to Lab employees.
Befriend the working staff, the ones that actually get the job done.
These folks have been trampled over the last few years. A little compassion would go a long way in rebuilding employee relations.
The managerial types have taken care of themselves quite well, and need no further coddling at this point.
Befriend the working staff, the ones that actually get the job done.
These folks have been trampled over the last few years. A little compassion would go a long way in rebuilding employee relations.
The managerial types have taken care of themselves quite well, and need no further coddling at this point.
You've got to be kidding. Billions of dollars have been spent on NIF thus far and the best you can come up with is a new high pressure phase of tantalum? Hardly big headline news. Here, I'll even help you out: They have also published a paper claiming to have metallized diamond by shock compression. That's a bit better and somewhat higher on the scale of scientific interest than a new tantalum phase. Still a poor return on billions of dollars in investment, though. As for working with "world-renowned geophysicists and high pressure physicists", the diamond anvil experimentalists at the Lab do that, too. They do their work without a NIF-sized budget, though.
Seems like I heard something about the new Ta phase at least a couple of months back. Don't see why preparing a new paper on the 14 kJ capsule should have precluded them from at least submitting a paper for a new Ta phase.
February 4, 2014 at 6:30 PM
Um, you don't realize the post you are replying to was sarcasm?
Uh, no. Sorry, but when it comes to NIF and LIFE related things my sarcasm detector doesn't work very well.
February 4, 2014 at 9:02 PM
Your pretense of actually knowing something is laughable. Do you ever say "in my opinion" or is your opinion always truth?
I'm not convinced that the above post is sarcasm, either. If it is intended as sarcasm, it isn't a very good use of sarcasm. A 14 kJ shot, while far short of ignition, is a scientifically noteworthy and unique achievement worthy of at least a PRL.
I think that we need to distinguish between ICF and ignition on the one hand, and LIFE on the other. I'm all for ignition. As far as I can tell it may be worthwhile and achievable goal, and it would be great for the Lab if it can be pulled off. LIFE is another matter. As I wrote above, I think that it is "the stuff of fantasy". No way, no how was it ever, ever going to work from even an even basic economic viewpoint. LIFE was a bet that should never have been made.
Well Edison and Bell labs just worked on small projects. I understand one sometimes needs big focused projects but I think the vast majority breakthroughs start on much smaller scales. I suppose Congress does not like that and instead wants something "BIG" but Big is not always the way to go. I make no judgment on NIF, I am just pointing this out.
"...no path forward for LIFE (the only major LAB project that would have brought in enough money to fund both Engineering and Physics !)..."
You mean by lying through our teeth about the prospects, spinning a tall tale just to extract taxpayer money to fund us so we can play with our toys, write our papers and collect our paychecks and pensions? That is unconscionable, but sadly a typical lab attitude.
LIFE never had a snowball's chance in hell in working - not even if NIF had achieved ignition. That's something you should know if you, as a former Lab scientist, spent even a short time studying the concept.
It's not that we "wanted" LIFE to fail. It's that we knew that the idea was destined to fail because it made no sense. One doesn't choose to believe in things simply because one wants them to be true - or maybe in your case you do.
February 6, 2014 at 9:26 PM"
This argument that the lab is a waste of the taxpayers money is pretty thin. Consider all the things that the government wastes money on. Our paychecks are pretty small compared to the money fatcat corporations literally steal from the taxpayer. Ever heard of TARP?, QE1,2,3...N. Of course not that is beyond you. As for building "our" toys. These are not toys and in many cases they do pay off. As for you statement about writing papers, well that just shows how utterly ignorant you are. Really you want to use that argument? That kind of kills every drop of credibility you have. I am not saying that some money at the labs is has not been misspent, it just pails in comparison to what real waste out there. By the way biggest money waste at LLNL is the fee, where we in fact pay a corporation money to make the place worse. Name one added value that the fee brings to the lab? It is like this all over the United States. We pay private companies money to make things run worse. Ya capitalism baby, the republican way, free market and all, except it is not capitalism, it is crony capitalism. The same kind of "capitalism" that you in third world countries. But hey forget those problems lets slam the labs. Maybe you are angry because you got RIFed after the contract change? Well the scientists and engineers did not RIF you, NIF did not RIF you. You got RIFed so that a corporation could gets its fee to ruin the place. You got RIFed so that a small number of people could get richer and you to get poorer. Science had nothing to do with it. Ask yourself this. Is the lab better off now than it was 8 years ago? Do you care? No all you do is hate scientists and engineers. You love Justin Beiber, Miley Cryus and the Superbowl. You hate Obama, but fail to see that Obama is exactly the same as Bush. Wake up...Wake up.
February 7, 2014 at 7:34 AM
I'd rather he stayed crazy - if he were sane he'd be very dangerous. But his craziness "pails" in comparison to his ignorance.
February 16, 2014 at 3:42 AM
It isn't. It's just an example of unconstitutional overreach by the federal government.
You mean by lying through our teeth about the prospects, spinning a tall tale just to extract taxpayer money to fund us so we can play with our toys, write our papers and collect our paychecks and pensions? That is unconscionable, but sadly a typical lab attitude."
Yep, that's how you support a National Lab ! Livermore is just more honest than the rest, by and large. We know worse offenders. The various Labs exist for those rare times when the nation's existence is at risk. Other times just for "play".