There has been a bit of chest-thumping on the
Perfect Storm post about how many of the staff at LANL could easily get other jobs. This comment caught my eye as sort of saying it all:
Starting next month a lot of folks at LANL are going to get the chance to prove that they can get a job elsewhere.
--Gussie
Years & years & years of ineffective-to-nonexistent UC and DOE management, followed by Nanos, the contract rebid, staff apathy, Bechel's LANS, more ineffective management + bucket loads of corporate greed: RIFs are the inescapable result. Darwinism in action.
ReplyDeleteSow, reap, yada yada yada.
Even the best LANL scientists would not last 5 minutes against real competition for scarce resources. LDRD is shooting fish in a barrel. The real academic world is a bit tougher.
ReplyDelete7:53pm
ReplyDeleteSign your name if you really stand by your statement.
9/4/07 8:02 PM
ReplyDeleteLet's see! You want 9/4/07 7:53 PM to stand by his name when you don't even have the guts to stand by yours?
Ha! Ha! Ha!
I think most people at LANL who claim it will be trivial to get a new job have simply not had to compete in the job market recently - especially if they're not talking about a lateral move to another national lab. Universities don't just have job positions open all the time -- they are quite competitive. I've seen a few people thumping their chest recently about leaving, then interviewing at companies with strong research arms or three letter agencies in the east, only to admit defeat and focus on finding funding to stay at LANL. It's the same old attitude that led to slogans like "The Worlds Greatest Science ..." -- lots of people ate up that sort of garbage and have a self image as "The Worlds Greatest Scientists...". Sure - we have quite a few really, really good people. But face it - there is at least an order of magnitude more people who are *simply average* populating the lab. They just have a healthy (if over inflated) sense of self esteem, and like to shout assertively about how hirable they are without actually ever having to prove it.
ReplyDeleteAnd 8:02pm - that sort of statement is laughable when posted anonymously. Glad to see a healthy sense of humor still exists around here...
Yeah, right.
ReplyDeleteIf it's all the same to you, could I skip the middleman and just put my name directly on the RIF list?
8:35 must be a truly nice person. His assessment of the general "state of excellence" of LANL staff was dead-on accurate, and yet it was presented without malice. Nice job: seriously.
ReplyDeleteMyself (admittedly a not-so-nice person on occasion) prefer to characterize LANL has having on staff a disproportionate number who are legends in their own minds.
Try to contain your glee at this situation, Gussie.
ReplyDeleteNo glee. A lot of my friends still work there.
ReplyDelete