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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It looks to me like the layoffs are due to funds mismanagement which is due to the wrong priorities.
A good example is Syncplicity, targeted for 1000s of people but has only something like 65 users.
Waste of money? you decide.
Directly terminated? No EIT status followed by EBA status for the career employees before termination?
SL means "Supplemental Labor" such as the Akima employees at LLNS.
Cricket. Cricket.
All LLNL employees released from the an LLNL program are returned to their home organizations to find other positions - not walked offsite (EIT/EBA status).
October 8, 2014 at 8:16 PM
In the recent RIFs from the LANL Security program, terminated employees were informed by the same people who then walked them off site, personal belongings from their offices to be collected and delivered by someone else at a later time. Hard to believe that LANS and LLNS have different policies in this regard.
"...SL's are supplemental labor employees
/ contractors. Contractors are released from LLNL if they lose funding - these are the terms of the employment contract..."
Against LLNS supplemental policy, SL are not always released as a buffer to funding fluctuations to preserve career positions. This was the case in NIF in the Fall of 2012. By policy, when there was a "fit", career employees were to be given the assignments formally held by supplemental labor. This did not happen, but there were some "good ol' boys" given assignments before the down turn that were "made to fit".
The take away? If career employees want to work at places like NIF with large budget fluctuations, understand workforce reduction does not follow established LLNS policy, it follows the buddy system. No one will be there to help you including the managers responsible to monitor and enforce LLNS employment policies. SHRM is passive and silent on these matters The LLNS Supplemental Labor and EIT/EBA policies are just in place for 20,000 ft. DOE/NNSA fly overs. Sorry.
"...All LLNL employees released from the an LLNL program are returned to their home organizations to find other positions - not walked offsite (EIT/EBA status)..."
Yes, but the clock is ticking to your individual RIF, and you must provide a weekly report to the very same organization that decided to release you in the first place. Many new assignments are not formally posted and have a limited paper trail, leaving room for any manager(s) to put the kibosh on your chances of acquiring a new assignment before the sand runs out in your employment hour glass.
By no accident, EIT and EBA policies are not uniform across LLNS directorates or divisions within directorates allowing for maximum management discretion and in some cases abuse. Don't look to SHRM for assistance.