-Gus
______________________________________________
The SSP voluntary numbers are going to be a lot higher than most people thought.
As of late Monday they were heading for the 300 mark. It seems that a fair number of staff want out of LANL and are leaving with that great big final paycheck on their way out the front door.
If more than 750 people sign up to leave and the ones who sign up late are not given the extra benefits, things get interesting.
ReplyDeleteChinese curse -
"May you live in interesting times."
I don't work at the lab. But, I live in Los Alamos and am curious about the goings on. Someone, anyone, please tell me that the last few posts have been a joke. I find it hard to believe that those responsible for our nation's nuclear secrets actually think this way. Best and brightest? That Mikey guy has to be laughing all the way to the bank. He's running Romper Room.
ReplyDeleteIt's not EITHER Romper Room. We're the best.
ReplyDeleteAND the brightest.
And if you think we're smart now, you should have seen us three years ago. We were really really really smart then.
Mikey said the SSPs would be capped at 750. If there are more than 750 volunteers, some of them will be rejected.
ReplyDeleteI really don't think there will be more than half that many, though.
Game theory would indicate that the best way to play the SSP might be to put in the papers by Wednesday to secure an early slot in the SSP and then reconsider your choice during the window they are allowing for retraction.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking we'll easily get about 400 people to take the SSP. Then we'll need to RIF 350 workers in January. This will be followed by a Phase III RIF by early summer when the budget is resolved. Plan on the Phase III RIF taking over a thousand employees. Then things will turn peachy-keen for a few years. Then we'll have the mother of all RIFs sometime in 2011 and LANL will become nothing more than a Pit Factory with 3000 employees. Then an asteroid will hit the Earth in 2012 and we'll go back to living in caves and eating bugs and leaves. There are lots of nice Indian caves around Los Alamos so we should be in fine shape. I plan on moving in to one of the bigger and better caves out in Bandelier.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they have figured out how they will deal with the more than 750 requestors?
ReplyDeleteSince, per Mikey, "we are not planning for a RIF," they probably didn't plan on this either.
Where did you get that idea 7:48?
ReplyDeleteI cannot find anything written about the first to sign up having a preference.
At the session the other day, the speaker said the target was 750. If more than that sign up, LANS will decide how many based on budget and data available at the time.
I have yet to see anything written to say that if you are rejected as a volunteer, you will be excluded from an involuntary rif for some period of time, e.g., 9-12 mos.
This is not a rumor.
ReplyDeleteSomebody (let's call him "Bob") taking SSP got a call from an investment broker who said he "understood" that Bob was getting money from a retirement fund soon and would Bob like to invest it with his company.
Apparently, NAMES of SSPs have "leaked" out. To whom? From where?
Big questions for LANS to answer, eh?!
Our AD says that if your application for SSP is rejected, then you are excluded from the involuntary for 12 months. But you might want to get that in writing...
ReplyDeleteIf the budget situation gets bad enough, then no one will be excluded, regardless of what you may have been told. It is still not clear what the final LANL budget will be for FY08, but the news out of Washington DC doesn't look very promising at this moment.
ReplyDelete