-Gus
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Blogmaster,
There have been a lot of questions about the disappearing llnl blogs. Would you make a new top level post for this subject? Maybe the llnl blog owner will appear and mention what happened.
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28 comments:
Repeating, why are these LLNL blogs actually disappearing completely? It's not that they just go dormant, they actually get yanked completely.
Vlad posted one or two more stories yesterday (Dec 1), then suddenly the entire site and his Google Gmail are gone.
Ditto the other LLNL sites. WTF?
Maybe he forgot to pay his bills ? High cost living in the Bay Area ? Too busy looking for another job? Maybe something more sinister ? Are the blogs an LLNS front ?
Who cares? All of the LLNL blogs have been flaky.
Who the hell cares what happened to the Livermore blogs? Why not spend your time focusing on the fact that DOE is going to pick LANL to be the (get ready for it) *Production* Pit Manufacturing location for the Weapons Production Complex.
Or how about thinking about the fact that LANS is RIFing 750 people to cover the increased cost of doing business that their presence as M&E operator at LANL has caused.
Oh, I forgot for just a moment: Gen X'ers only care about a paycheck. And Baby Boomers only care about their benefits, to include, perhaps, free day care.
Forget I mentioned it; silly me. Go back to wasting your time wondering were the LLNL blogs went.
I see concern about the blog's as a serios question. What did happen to them? What is next?
The last poster seems to be a little, big, prick.
Talk about a self centered SOB Hi there 12/2/07 5:28 PM But then again that's the way some people are.
Somebody needs to multiply 750 by whatever the actual cost of an FTE is at LANL. Let's be conservative and say $250k. That comes out to
$187,500,000
Last I checked that was a wee bit more than the management contract is costing.
This forum would have a lot more credibility if it had less vitriol and more substance. The problems are substantial and real. It is highly counterproductive to act like petulant five year olds so much of the time.
I hoped you enjoyed plucking that $250K number out of your ass, 6:06.
Anastasio's own number for this year's budget deficit due to increased cost of doing business is $175 million. Toss in another $41 million for (oopsie) LANS-approved KSL overcharges and you're starting to get close to explaining the need to RIF 750 people.
Hey, I'm just tired of seeing the statement that the RIF is to cover the new contract. That is certainly PART of the reason. There are other factors as well and clearly the numbers add up to a lot more than $70 million.
I guess I'll just have to resign myself to having a more refined sense of entitlement than the average person who posts here.
I'd guess the actual cost per employee is substantially higher than $250k. $300k might be low. I don't know. Feel free to do the math with whatever number you choose.
Some one needs to sponsor another Livermite blog just so we can get rid of these pesky LLNL posters here on this blog. They rarely seem to add much to the discussions at hand.
Based on the people listed, by position, on the current RIF list, if you add up all of their salaries, ignore benefits, and completely ignore overhead (because one person's overhead is another person's salary), the total reduction in salary costs to LANL from the 750 targeted people would be about $69,600,000. With benefits and other things that are mored complicated to calculate, the ~$70,000,000 becomes something like $100,000,000 in saved costs.
These estimates are person by person, group by group.
Just a couple of facts as well as they can be known at the moment.
If someone has better facts, please post them and tell us how you got them.
Thanks.
At LLNL we were told by George that the cost per employee has risen since the LLNS take over from $200K to between ($400K to $600K ) per person depending on how many support people these overpaid individual needs. They say they're only going to get rid of 900 people by March 2008. That would save then $360M if they used the new cost, but if you use the old cost of $200K per person and they still need to meet that $360M deficit they only have to can 1,440. So why do we keep hearing 2,200 and 2,400 to be released by Oct 2008.
I agree with 12/2/07 6:26 PM Who will step up to the plate. I will warn you it will take a great deal of time out of your daily life. Make sure you post a disclaimer on your blog and I would suggest that you read every post before it gets posted. If there are any personal names involved, do not allow people to post. Enjoy
The average cost of most employees at LLNL varies between $150-200K. This includes salary and benefits including retirement but excluding overhead. So the numbers really don't add up.
Bullshit, 7:35, you dickwad.
LLNL's rates are right up there with LANL's, and for the same reasons. LLNL's costs are ~ $450K per year for a TSM. That's the fully-burdened cost, not just salary.
If you Livermites are all as ignorant as your little 7:35pm buddy, then a RIF at your lab sounds like a pretty good idea too.
"Some one needs to sponsor another Livermite blog just so we can get rid of these pesky LLNL posters"
Wow! You must be one of those "my shit doesn't stink" kinda guys.I never did think the folks at Los Alamos were of the same caliber as those at Lawrence Livermore. Thank you reaffirming that belief.
With that crappy attitude I'll bet you are one of the few, and one of the first, who gets booted out the gate. please check back and let us know won't you?
Signed
Irrelevant Lawrence Livermore Employee
7:46
I don't normally stoop to your uneducated, ignorant level, but if you consider salary plus health benefits plus retirement the cost is actually between $150-200K. As I stated quite clearly I didn't include overhead. I hope you can grasp this simple concept. Sad, little worm.
Its very disappointing to see LANL people and LLNL people throwing rocks at each other on this blog. It serves no purpose. I work at Livermore Lab and I am very concerned about the disappearing LLNL blogs. We use the blogs to find out what is going on - its a good way to pass information. I read "LANL: The rest of the Story" as not only am I concerned about what happens at LLNL, I am also concerned what happens to all the affected LANL employees.
It is unfortunate that this website is populated by the paranoid, delusional, and crude. It would be so much more effectual to discuss the issues at hand without sinking to such base behavior as name calling. This does not reflect well on LANL personnel.
But it reflects accurately.
"Who cares?"
Were are all in this downsizing together. There are different timelines, and different excuses, but it's all the same focus, downsizing. We can learn from each other.
Also, if you do care about this blog, I would think you would want to know what happened to the other ones.
Finally, of course LLNL people show up here. This is a great blog site. :)
(Well, except for the name-calling trolls..but they are probably not employees and their posts can be safely ignored)
5:28 pm: "And Baby Boomers only care about their benefits, to include, perhaps, free day care."
If you think "baby boomers" are in need of free day care, you must mean for their grandkids. Do you even have a clue?
Look guys - here's the facts. HR will provide (it's not a secret) the "standard" labor rates and work hours for all employee categories. TSM labor rates are by salary band, and graded series by level. Multiply the labor rate by the hours and you get the budget (burdened) cost per employee. For a TSM making $110k - $120k a year, the cost to the group (indpendent of whether he/she works for NNSA or DHS) is about $300k. Group-level managers have all this information. Look it up.
For someone in the $120K to $130K salary range, the hourly rate for FY08 is running about $205 per hour at LANL. Remember, however, that this is after the project money has been delivered to your group.
To this $205 per hour rate you must add things like LDRD tax (8%), DOE tax for WFO work (3.5%), various Program Manager taxes (say 8%), CTN's new 3% tax, etc, etc, etc. Adding in all the front loaded taxes that are taken out as soon as the money hits LANL will put the hourly rate closer to $260.
Assuming you work 1750 hours per year, this comes to:
$260/hr x 1750 hrs = $455,000 year
Of course, remember that this does not include any money for travel or equipment. Add in just a little bit of each and you are quickly at around a level of $480 K per year. This FTE rate quickly goes even higher as the TSM salary moves up.
If you want to know the core of the budget problems at LANL, you will discover them when you look at our astronomical FTE rates for direct funded projects. Almost no one can afford us any longer.
New LLNL BLOG is at:
http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/
12/2/07 10:27 PM said
"Assuming you work 1750 hours per year, this comes to:
$260/hr x 1750 hrs = $455,000 year"
40 hrs/week x 52 weeks = 2080
2080 - 1750 = 330 hrs
330 hrs equqls 8.25 weeks of vacation/sickleave/holidays . . . I'm suprised that LANL has had so many "incidents" - they never work. Also, $260/hr x 2080 = $540,800. I don't know about you, but I want to be paid for my work - or are you factoring in a 15% reduction in our salaries to meet the new costs.
Sponsors don't have to pay for vacation, sick days, or holidays. It's folded into that hourly rate. Therefore, unless a worker never gets sick and never takes vacation, the 1750 hours figure is close to the one to use for computing yearly FTE costs for a TSM.
The 1750 hours of average annual direct-charged time has been around for a while.
A few years back, we had this rush project. So, everybody worked extra hours without compensation for the exempt personnel. Over the year, few people took more than a minimum amount of vacation and nobody got very sick.
BUT! The project manager had based the budget on 1750 work hours. With little vacation or sick leave, most people only took the 12 holidays (96) hours and ended up charging (and working) about 1900 hours. This caused the cost of the project to increase and the project manager had a fit. He went so far as to suggest that we come to work but charge vacation.
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