Tri-Valley Cares needs to be on this if they aren't already. We need to make sure that NNSA and LLNL does not make good on promises to pursue such stupid ideas as doing Plutonium experiments on NIF. The stupidity arises from the fact that a huge population is placed at risk in the short and long term. Why do this kind of experiment in a heavily populated area? Only a moron would push that kind of imbecile area. Do it somewhere else in the god forsaken hills of Los Alamos. Why should the communities in the Bay Area be subjected to such increased risk just because the lab's NIF has failed twice and is trying the Hail Mary pass of doing an SNM experiment just to justify their existence? Those Laser EoS techniques and the people analyzing the raw data are all just BAD anyways. You know what comes next after they do the experiment. They'll figure out that they need larger samples. More risk for the local population. Stop this imbecilic pursuit. They wan...
Comments
July 12, 2014 at 6:16 AM
We are still waiting for Anastasio's followup upward appraisal on LANL management. Could someone ask him the status when he comes "rolling in" to the NSSB on one of his "boondoggle" assignments?
One can't wear "trust" like a hat as needed for speech talking points and the like. It must always be part of ones attire. A long road indeed.
Many of these rules are more for
business rather than scientific lab however the basic idea still applies. The sad part if that the management sees itself being like a corporation, however the fail miserably by the rules below.
Suggestion #1—Form Relationships Built on Trust.
It seems like the management deliberately tries to reduce interactions with non management
and has no interest in trust or relationships. Management interactions go one one which is up.
Suggestion #2—Show Them Respect
Since our management only manages up and kicks down it creates the opposite of respect. Much of the lab managers feel scorn for the non managers and feel they are simply people who could not make it in management.
Suggestion #3—Nurture Creativity
Not an an NNSA lab.
Suggestion #4—Build Effective Teams
Lab management does not build teams and in some cases breaks up working teams that could be threat.
Suggestion #5—Make It Real
One of the first things to stress with your management team is what’s called “Making It Real.” This means being genuine and believable in interacting with their people.
Emails are sent out by the management that are so empty inane, and insulting to the intellect that there is little doubt that managers are only going through the motion of managing.
"Management bad, management bad, management bad. Rinse and repeat.
July 12, 2014 at 9:34 PM"
In case you did not notice the vast majority of the problems at the labs are a direct result of poor management. The contract change has resulted in extra managers and provides no incentive for good management or leadership.
culture at LLNS, understand and propose modifications to the NNSA set of performance metrics for LLNS. If it is not a material performance metric, LLNS doesn't care about it and will instead leverage performance voids to their advantage.
The real problem is you.
A typical LLNS style leadership response and they wonder why morale is suffering.
July 13, 2014 at 11:21 AM
Under any normal circumstances, advice such as given by July 13, 2014 at 10:59 AM would be seen as a solid and reality-based method for getting ahead in any field of endeavor. Unfortunately, the victimhood culture at the national labs has reached the point where rational discussion and clear thinking, not to mention self-reliance, is no longer tolerated or even recognized as valid. I have to hope that no employees who actually have experience and expertise, and therefore options, have fallen into this cesspool of self-pity.
A few years ago, my administrative manager in Computation scheduled a meeting with me in his office. I mentioned being busy at that time and offered alternate times to meet. He insisted on his time. Because of this meeting, I missed what turned out to be an important programmatic teleconference call.
The end result is that the Laboratory lost a million dollar project. Not a ton of money, but still a million dollars. This was part of a broader politicized effort involving multiple agencies. I was not on the teleconference to defend turf, and what would have been the Laboratory's role in the project went to a DoD contractor. When I told my sponsor in DC why I missed the call, he went off on a screaming rant, "You people at Livermore ..." He called back a few minutes later to apologize for his outburst. Good guy. He wanted to have funds sent to LLNL, but could not defend this without my participation on the teleconference.
An irony is that the organization funded to do the work has been using my software for the project, and has been informally consulting with me on a number of related technical issues. I'm told that this organization has been funded for followup work, so in all likelihood the Laboratory is out even more funds.
The all important meeting with my administrative manager turned out to be useless and could have been handled by email. But in his mind, as a Laboratory manager, he was more important than programmatic work or the prospect of programmatic work. Sadly, this is not the first time something like this has happened.
So yes, management is bad. Better said, management is incompetent and essentially worthless. And to be clear, when I say management, I do not mean those people directly funded by projects and programs. I mean people funded by overhead.
Seriously. What bulk value does Laboratory management add? Any? Negative ROI? Why do we pay them so much money just so they can make it more difficult to perform our work?
Fortunately, I will not work here much longer.
July 13, 2014 at 1:24 PM
Good. Now I can hire some Facility Engineers to replace you. Signed, Bret Knapp
Giving yourself real and achievable goals and making sure you can get there in a timely manner is key. Even if all you CAN DO is something as simple as being kind to a co-worker, DO IT.
Safety is NOT a goal, rather it is a necessity for making it to the goal appropriately. Ditto for the environment and health. Forget management, forget congress, forget the institution, it is up to you.
Re-purpose yourself. That is where the real happiness is. Be the change you seek. If you do that, your morale will improve.
July 13, 2014 at 12:48 PM"
What you a really saying is that everyone who is good should leave. Great for the institution. Well a large number of good people left, a number of good people are just waiting to retire and the last part is that the rest of the good people who are fighting to save the place will reach a point where they will leave also. That is just great, what sound advice. Sure on the individual level it has some value but what you are saying is to just let the place die.
"I have to hope that no employees who actually have experience and expertise, and therefore options, have fallen into this cesspool of self-pity."
If you work at the lab and you are technical person, (which I highly doubt) than you would know that is is precisely the experienced people with expertise that that are the most pessimistic about the labs. LANL actually did do an upward appraisal survey and it came back with dismal results. Ask yourself a simple question, what are the odds that over 80% of the workforce are just self-pitying fools who can no longer exhibit rational thought or that you are the one that is self-deluded and not being rational about the situation at the labs.
What are the odds that thousands and thousands of people across the entire complex are people that have "victim culture"? Compare this to the odds that you simply full of it, deluded, or bitter about something. This is just something for you to think about before post again. (I am sure you will shortly reply without having put in a moments thought to this point).
I have heard arguments like yours since the Nanos times and they really boil down to something along the lines of "all scientists and engineers are entitled lazy, arrogant, misfits, irrelevant and could never last in the real world, where the real world is working at Office Depot" I sense that this is really what you are driving at from and if that is the case you are indeed a very sad and irrational person.
In any case here is a chance to tell your story. Tell us how you made it in the "real world" and how you "know it all".
So while it's nice to hear all these Pollyanna suggestions on how to fix the lab morale, they are all stupid because they don't address the root cause - that the labs are just wasteful welfare cases for white collar workers. LLNL, Sandia, LANL? The triad of mediocrity. And oh yeah by the way morale sucks. Noncompetetive environment, striving for mediocrity, and low morale seem to go hand in hand.
I doubt you work at any of the labs. If so, you should leave immediately and find your salvation in private industry.
Clearly you have no clue about the great science still performed at the labs, despite management's and NNSA's attempt to curtail it.
Basic science (which I define as not directly connected to commercial interests) will always be driven by govt sponsored activities, either at labs or universities. There is enough competition in the research field to drive people along.
Your blurb about : And what kind of environment do you create when your business is not truly competitive?
is off the mark. It is the typical privatize everything argument , which got us into this mess in the first place. The reason for this is the typical attitude of US politicians and people in general that for everything there has to exist a metric, with which we measure success .
So then we create PBIs , and voila we loose sight of what is important
Clearly you have no clue about the great science still performed at the labs...
Typical lab attitude, stemming from an inability to distinguish great science from mediocre research oversold as great science, by managers who are equally unable to see the difference. Yes there are pockets, but they are rare.
July 13, 2014 at 9:10 PM
Yeah, right. So you can intentionally and disingenuously misinterpret my statements and put words in my mouth. Nope, find your fun elsewhere. I am long gone from the labs. 30 year career ending in middle management (PhD in physics). Don't need to provide you with more excuses to denigrate honest, rational thoughts.
Try the above systematic approach as opposed to stumbling from event to event without ever addressing root causes.
If you don't like cars traveling at the posted speed limit in your neighborhood, we can vent about it and repeatedly discuss it with the neighbors, or we can make the case to have the speed limit formally reduced. It doesn't mean we will never again have speeders, it just means we now have a reestablished
metric by which to address it. New NNSA performance metrics for LLNS is not a topic to address solo...
You're quite welcome, Jessy!
I don't disagree with this. People are responsible for their own happiness.
That's why I'm seeking change by leaving the Laboratory. While LLNL has a few areas of decency, overall it is not a very good place to work. There are better opportunities out there. Many of them. Just look around.
Does any other company have employees stand around and do nothing for two hours for an earthquake drill, like we had last week. I understand the purpose of the drill. It is important to know where to go and to hear general instructions. But two hours – standing around doing nothing? I spend about half my time each day responding to these types of forced requirements. The Lab is a joke.
July 14, 2014 at 8:17 AM"
Ah, POS is that you again? In any case you are one sad and very very bitter person.
July 14, 2014 at 7:16 PM
Ah, Mr. "angry and bitter" again. This time he added "sad" in hopes for more support. Only one person uses the term "bitter" on this blog, and his posts are so very predictable. How does satisfied with your career, proud to have served, happy about the outcome, and wishing the situation were better for current employees equate to "sad and bitter"?? I'm not even sure what "bitter" means. Have you every tasted anyone who was "bitter"?? Oh wait, politically incorrect question.
http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2013/08/dysfunctional-llnl.html
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Dysfunctional LLNL
My name is Kevin Moore and I recently left the Lab after 10.5 years. My new job has shown me just how dysfunctional LLNL is, and revealed the lab's greatest problem: it's inability to fire those who should be.
Repeatedly, I watched failed scientists/engineers not be terminated, but"coaxed" into management. These folks, typically with no managementexperience beyond some two-day LLNL coarse, made horrible managers. Theymoved their way through middle management, arriving to a place where theywere seen as a person who guides science/engineering at the lab. We then had a failed science/engineering with poor management skills trying to
build programs and direct the lab. The result is what we have today: a rudderless monolith with ghastly overhead.LLNL was a truly sad place to be, and the day I got out was one of the most happy periods I had in years.
If I can suggest anything to our government, come into the weapons labs with a team of competent strategists and start slashing useless managers and failed scientist. Use metrics like peer-reviewed publications to gauge a persons quality, not spot awards or other worthless internal recognitions.
Kevin Moore
Manager, Materials & Corrosion Engineering
Exponent Failure Analysis Associates
149 Commonwealth Drive
Menlo Park, Ca 94025
I have also been looking at some numbers for the labs and compared them some of the top 10 universities. I tried to compensate for things like not counting papers from Fermi lab and so on. For LANL I found a slight increase over the years, however for the other institutes I found a much larger increase in total publications across the board for the other institutes.
One argument I heard is that the science at the labs has not suffered but such a trend shows that the labs are falling significantly behind other institions so that labs are indeed losing there competence. The other point is why is there such such increase in production in the other institutes? One possibility is that things like laptops and advances in computer technology making it much easier to write papers. Another is that universities are actually growing and putting more money in science. I have noticed that at many universities that even through the number of faculty have not doubled the number of postdocs and research associates have. Anyone else have any ideas?
"Pre LLNS and post LLNS LLNL scientists are pretty mediocre by these measures."
http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/130410/srep01640/fig_tab/srep01640_F5.html
In 1990 Los Alamos is in the top ten cities in the world for physics knowledge production (cities not institutions, so cities with multiple institutes have a huge advantage) and Livermore is in the top 20. By 95 only Los Alamos was still hanging on.
"And lets not even count the number of Nobel prizes."
http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.50.1395
How many places have zero?
Low prestige, inability to recruit the best and most creative minds to lead their respective fields, low morale, low prestige
Or one of any other plausible sequences.
Vicious circle, really.
July 17, 2014 at 10:15 AM
I cannot speak for Nobel prizes, but here is my anecdotal story regarding publications.
I was to be a co-author on a paper that was eventually published in Science. I was the only LLNL author. My contribution was not directly related an active Laboratory project, although it was tangentially related to a former LDRD project. I was a diligent employee at the time so I asked to have my name removed from the paper when I could not get an account number to pay the $60 for the Review and Release process. No one objected to the science or the paper. I gave multiple Laboratory talks - including one to a DRC - about the research. The Lab didn't hesitate to take credit for work it didn't fund. I would have paid for the Review and Release out of my own pocket but there was no way to do so. I probably spent 2-3 days running around trying to deal with this issue, being passed from one management group to another.
So I lost out - and the Lab lost out - having a publication in Science. Not the end of the world, for sure, but one would think a scientific institution would pursue publications in noted journals. Nope. No LLNL citation due to its own bureaucratic stupidity.
It was probably this event above the many others that convinced me what type of place the Lab represents. Now I just play along with it. And I am good at gaming the system. I am very well compensated for doing almost nothing. I don't know how much he's paid, but I'm like Wally in Dilbert. Why bother to try in this type of environment. Just waiting for retirement.
"LIVERMORE, Calif., July 17 (UPI) -- Scientists wanted to better understand what conditions are like deep inside giant, carbon-rich planets. To find out, they blasted a diamond with the world's biggest laser.
"The goal of the shots is to try and create planetary core conditions on Earth," explained Ray Smith, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. "And by that I mean very high pressure and relatively low temperature."....
This better at least push LLNL above 200 publications this year...
It's one thing if you're in some engineering organization that doesn't focus on research and publications. It's quite another when you are, but your manager has no PhD, let alone, no substantial record of accomplishments and publications. Gotta suck for early career Sandians who are stuck underneath the thumbs of the mediocre.
July 15, 2014 at 12:48 PM
Three Vice Presidents of technical divisions at Sandia National Laboratories do not have a Ph.D.: Hruby, Walker, Vahle.
Adam Rowen a manager at Sandia Livermore does not have a Ph.D. either.
The previous 3 individuals are the first ever Vice Presidents without a Ph.D. in Science or Engineering to lead technical divisions at Sandia. A quick search on the internet shows that Adam Rowen went to a school in New Mexico.
July 17, 2014 at 10:01 PM
Oh my God we have another NIF goal. It won't be long before we can't meet this goal and the the next one will be "we (NIF) are try to create the conditions of pressures in the human bladder".
www.fisheadmovie.com
Educate yourself.
"...It's worse than lack of empathy. They somehow contributed to the conditions leading up to the suicide, and they are worried that doing ANYTHING will be a partial admission of liability. These lab managers are much worse than just lacking empathy..."
Are the above two comments in reference to the NIF engineering employee suicide in the Fall of 2012? In what way did management "contribute" to this tragedy? "They somehow contributed" is a serious claim blog or no blog. Just saying.
I am not challenging your HR quote or your general impression of managements response, but it is likely the LLNS legal team provided specific guidance to the departed persons management chain if it was a suicide.
If it was a suicide, was there an external investigation?
Of course, the lab is run like banana republic junta so it's no surprise they can get people to shut up and move on. Oh, and let's not forget that we're defending the country by maintaining old Cold War museum pieces. We have a higher purpose. We can't be bothered with minor human things like acknowledging a person's death.
On the coworker side, I doubt it was a lack of concern for the departed preventing open discussion.
If an employee makes a mistake with consequence, it becomes a printed "lessons learned" in the attempt to prevent a repeat of the event. If what happened to this employee could have been prevented by a different management "approach", the information shutdown is completely unacceptable and self-serving.
Excellent points!
Yes the distinction between blame and contribution is important and is a point 7-20-14 8:38pm may have missed. His point about one seeking help with suicidal thoughts is spot on though.
"Bad behavior" as you put it in any form can not be sustained or become chronic without endorsement from the larger organization. If the larger organization contributes to the behavior, or if they claim they were unaware, either answer is cause for concern. Again, it doesn't mean they were directly to blame.
The topic here is "low morale". We should offer solutions with our comments to the extent we can and endorse the life preserving advice of 7-20-14 8:38pm.
And the management responses are pouring in!
July 24, 2014 at 10:47 PM
Actually, Bret Knapp's current quote is "if you don't like it, there's the door". By the way, how that ole booger doing? Craig Leasure bought new furniture for him when he returns to LANL.
7-24-14 10:47pm, you have summarized the ingredients of sustained low morale at LLNS well. There will be few in management wiling to suggest change without compromising their own careers.
As long as LLNS management are effectively the "ghostwriters" of their own NNSA report cards why change?
If employees want real change at LLNS, collectively shine some light on the ghostwriters, and make constructive suggestions on the NNSA performance metrics that relate to employee morale, mission effectiveness, and the long term viability of this place.
Has the work environment improved in your area since this happened? If not, one can anonymously contact the LLNS Health Services Department for additional group grief counseling and the NNSA ECP Office for some helpful advice to improve the situation.
POS
When a company's values and workplace ethics evaporate, the only thing left to pursue are their OWN interests.
This can only become a chronic and expanding problem when the monitor(s) of said company enable the behavior.
Low employee morale is a symptom of an inadequate company and company monitor relationship.
In this scenario, the company leadership view themselves as "winners". Employees are thought of as tools with liabilities to be kept "in check" at all cost through carefully coordinated non-transparent actions.
Captures our current situation perfectly. Well said.
Optimists make things happen, and when they can't, move on.
How much has the lab really changed in 10 years. Not much. Granted a lab decay is ongoing, but the workforce quality is falling faster than the residual fallout can come from DC... that is the real problem.
From the other Blogs, the only logical answer is Diversity!
I disagree. LLNS is a failed experiment that has elected to disenfranchise its workers on a number of fronts. Low employee morale is logical outcome, not a previously existing or random occurrence. Without binding external guidance with consequence, expect more of the same this time next year, and the year after that.
Those systems were taken away from LANL because LANL is failing in every possible way, and even the C-students in DC can see that. So they continually reduce the LANL scope, hoping to get it small enough that LANL will finally get it right, or the scope will be so small that nobody cares any more.
But, having failed at safe-waste-drum-packaging, and crapping up the NATIONAL dump, I'm not sure there's much left. Sayonara LANL.
All in all, that makes me pretty optimistic!
Short of a secular version of a "come-to-Jesus” moment (external pressure), nothing will change here to improve low employee morale.
If you are seriously considering employment at LLNS, speak to a broad mix of LLNS employees first, don't just rely on what the LLNS recruiter tells you or what you read in the color brochures. If you plan on leaving in 3-5 years anyway, don't worry too much about low employee morale or its root causes.
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Looks like there might be another leg to this story under "status" /post 8-10-14 /parts 2 of 4 and 3 of 4.