Cascading results helps ensure action
The results of the Lab's 2009 Employee Engagement Survey are in, and the sharing begins today. Nearly half of the 9,378 employees who were invited to complete the survey took part and provided Lab leadership with valuable feedback on a range of items, from security, communication, and safety to management, leadership, diversity, ethics, and job satisfaction.First up to hear about the institutional results is the Laboratory's executive team (director, principal associate directors, and associate directors), who will be briefed today and begin action-planning discussions focused on addressing concerns identified in the survey.
Later, as part of the survey results rollout, most employees will hear about the results and subsequent action planning in discussions with their organizational managers.
Here's how the rollout will work. The executive team is briefed first and begins action-planning discussions. Next are division-level leaders, who will receive their briefings in early December and follow an action-planning process similar to that used by the executive team. The cascade will continue through January and February as division-level leaders go through the process with their respective management teams and employees, focusing on organization-specific survey results.
In March, after the cascading is complete, all Lab leaders will convene to discuss what has been done so far and continue working together on issues raised in the survey.
Why not share the results with everyone at the same time? To ensure that the results of the survey are understood and owned by all levels of leadership at the Lab and that subsequent action is taken on these results, senior management opted to cascade the information level by level by means of a process that includes discussion and action planning. This decision was influenced by the survey's lowest-ranked item: "I believe that action will be taken on the results of this survey." Only 17 percent of the 4,313 employees responding to this item indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with the statement.
Although this statement was the lowest-rated item in the survey, employees did feel more positively about other issues, such as job satisfaction, safety and security, and compensation. For example, the following statements were rated among the top survey items:
- "I am committed to the success of the laboratory" (91 percent of respondents marked "agreed/strongly agreed"),
- "I know the proper channels for reporting concerns about security (94 percent of respondents marked "agreed/strongly agreed")
- "I am satisfied with my overall compensation, including benefits" (62 percent of respondents marked "agreed/strongly agree")
Is this ordinary spin or a graveyard spiral? Brief your executive team today. You know - the ones who don't read this blog (wink).
71 comments:
That wonderful LANS communication in action.
Need to know, you know. Can't be too careful letting this LANS-proprietary info out where the public might see it. Must carefully spin it first.
Why not share the results with everyone at the same time? To ensure that the results of the survey are understood and owned by all levels of leadership at the Lab and that subsequent action is taken on these results, senior "management opted to cascade the information level by level by means of a process that includes discussion and action planning. This decision was influenced by the survey's lowest-ranked item: "I believe that action will be taken on the results of this survey." Only 17 percent of the 4,313 employees responding to this item indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with the statement."
Translation: The results are so bad that we need more time to figure how to handle this mess.
You little people can't handle the truth!
If the results had been good it would be released to the public with huge amount of hype "LANS does great job!!!" With this delay it is clear that the report has to be buried.
"and owned by all levels of leadership at the Lab and that subsequent action is taken on these results, senior management opted to cascade the information level by level by means of a process that"
The blame will be cascaded down.
Time to break out the JB Weld.
Oh yes, silence at LANS means there is trouble. They are trying to find a way to put lipstick on the pig ...
Will this affect my bonus?
--MIKEY
These surveys seem more common these days and must be seen by management as a deflecting or delaying action. In the nearby state of New Mexico, a parallel process is occurring in Santa Fe. The PERA, a State agency has a notoriously corrupt board of directors. They have submitted a survey on ethical behavior to the EMPLOYEES!
Boys and girls,
LANS is not being paid to make staff happy. LANS is being paid to follow NNSA's directives to reduce staffing and narrow LANL's mission to the point where Plutonium production operations is all that is done here.
That said, it must be a bit awkward for Anastasio and all the top Bechtel-infused management to have placed themselves in the position of now having to release what are undoubtedly overwhelmingly negative job satisfaction survey results. What were they thinking to have conducted the survey in the first place? I suppose this is yet another bit of evidence which demonstrates the poor quality of lab management. As if we needed any more proof.
On the other hand, how good do you have to be to manage RFS (Rocky Flats South)?
I think the way LANS is handling the results of the survey is simply disgusting. This kind of cheap spin shows complete lack of basic honesty and integrity.
It is also stupid. Everybody who works at LANL these days already knows how abused and demoralized the staff feels. There is no need to hide this. We also suspect that our upper management lies most of the time. Why reinforce this perception in such an obvious manner? This is just dumb.
Just tell the truth LANS. If nothing else, do it for a change.
"Just tell the truth LANS. If nothing else, do it for a change."
Why? Will it affect my bonus?
-MIKEY
You know, you can almost hear the LANS Corporate thought process on this one:
Wow, this really sucks. How can we possibly make it worse? Bingo! Let's have a staged "results rollout", where we only share the actual survey results with Mikey and the PADS so that they can try to figure out how to spin the awful findings. THEN we'll present our bogus version of the survey with the employees. No need for them to see that actual survey results.
Yeah, that's what we'll do. Damn, we're good!
Surprise, surprise... you won't be seeing the results until we've figure out a way to "spin" it and fully massage all the data. We'll tell you about the survey results when we're good and ready.
The important "lesson learned" from this little survey is that our incredibly talented LANS executive team has finally discovered the root cause of all the problems at LANL. It's our employees' fault! They have a bad attitude toward our wonderful LANS/Bechtel management team.
Not to worry, though. We'll soon be starting up online training courses and rolling out a new program to fix this bad attitude problem. It's called "Reflection Improves Futures" (RIF) and I'll be working closely with my wonderful upper management team to have it rolled out sometime in early FY 2011. Believe me, engagement survey results will start looking much better once we've purged all the "bad" data points that are in this survey.
Now, STFU, get cracking on those PBIs, and force a great big smile on your face! I want to make my bonus for this year.
- MIKEY
"Unable to correlate the conflicting sensory mis-impressions, the pilot may become afflicted by a temporary case of vertigo during which the pilot's mind and body are unable to judge his position."
(Graveyard Spiral)
Yeap, that sounds like an pretty accurate picture of the LANS upper management team. They seem to have no idea what's really going on in the trenches at LANL.
No sense advertising bad news until you have an answer to the immediate question "what are you going to do about it?" Since I suspect no one in LANS management has any idea what to do about it, this will take some time. Postponing the asking of a question that you don't have an answer to is a perfectly understandable defensive tactic. Not admirable, or indicative of managerial intelligence or competence, but understandable.
We have got to get a mole into the system so that we can get the raw input to this survey and get the truth out.
11/17/09 11:14 AM - I am keeping my hopes up that someone higher up in ranks is so pissed by the Ewok and his inner circle to leak the raw results to this blog - whatever...
Hey,
Speaking of trusted information sources, what's going on with LANS' new blog? I'm retired so I can't check it out myself.
The really proper way for this survey to work is that we fill it out and it goes to the DOE. The, Mikey's bonus depends upon whether or not morale is as good has he has been saying.
I think people may be jumping to conclusions here. I took the survey and I don't recall answering any questions regarding upper management. It seemed more geared towards things like whether safety was adequate. In other words, it didn't contain any questions that would be useful for fixing any of the real problems at LANL. It struck me that the whole thing was just an irrelevant exercise.
this will be just like the PBL (performance based leadership). Anyone remember that? We went through all the gyrations, identified problems with our managers and then...nothing happened, no follow up, no action--NOTHING. Some of the things identified were even bordering on sexual harassment but nothing happened.
When I took the survey, I was pretty sure I was wasting my time. But, fine, I played along. I was definitely not one of the 17% who thought anything would actually be done, but this just adds insult to injury. With a heaping dose of salt on the injury. So they think the employees can't handle the truth?? The same people who are entrusted with plutonium and matters of national security can't handle the results of a survey, when they already know how bad it is? And then to not only have a staged rollout, but one that lasts at least 5 months??? This is beyond idiotic. It's LANL-otic.
"...focusing on organization-specific survey results."
Anyone remember identifying their organization when they filled out the survey?
Right, that's because you weren't asked. It was coded into your ultra-anonymous personal login ID.
A mole is not needed.
Public money bought this survey, and public money paid the employees for the time they used to fill it in.
Filing a FOIA request for the report delivered to LANS, and the raw data should do it.
It can't be classified, UCNI, OUO (unless discretionary--and what exemption category would that be?) or Export Controlled.
Ask for it by name! You've got five months to get the answer before whatever LANS wishes to report to the employees might be delivered.
The most useful thing the blog operators could do is file the FOIA, get the report, and publish it online for the world to see as soon as possible. Not on LANS bougs glacial roll-out schedule.
It's insulting that management thinks that employees should wait months to see the results their tax dollars paid for becuase employees thought nothing would be done about the survey.
Like DC double-speak, the reasoning given behind the hold-back doesn't even make any rational sense. And we're supposed to buy it?
I suppose one thing is proven wrong...that LANS would not take action on the results of the survey...the ARE!...stifling it!
11/17/09 2:54 PM wrote ..."5 month staged rollout my ass. LANS is going to bury the survey results."
Bingo.
Someone needs to spill the results to the real blog (this one) that actually shares information instead of hiding it.
I already gave my input directly to Anastasio and thanked him for forcing me out of my job, forcing me into a crappy facility job, not allowing me to apply for other jobs, demoting me, freezing my salary, and having Brett "Mongo" Knapp attack me. What did he do, NOTHING, which is exactly what will become of the survey results, NOTHING!
"Nearly half of the 9,378 employees who were invited to complete the survey took part and provided Lab..."
How many of you whinners here did not fill out the survey?
It's spelled "whiners", dipshit.
Mike and his team are the worst sort of managers. They cannot even stomach the truth in the mirror each morning. Pathetic. Truly pathetic. I honestly cannot fathom why they started this taxpayer funded charade in the first place. Did they honestly expect people to give them a good grade on their performance to date?
perhaps they were being clever by combining whiner and winner...dipshit.
Lovely. A thread all about the losers in LANS management becomes a thread where the posters flame each other for spelling. Typical. And the reason why management will always win.
Maybe this is all part of Mike's plan to further lower the staff morale so he can make NNSA's target of a 5% attrition rate for this fiscal year.
If you had any doubts, you should know by now... LANS doesn't give a damn about lab employees. This 5 month delay tactic is yet another prime example. It's yet another "Fuck You All" (FYA) from Mikey.
I'm guessing that this 5-month phased rollout must mean that LANS can no longer claim that only a few vocal malcontents read and post to this blog.
What a bunch of dipshits. LANS needs to go.
"It's spelled "whiners", dipshit."
My apologies -- I intended to say wieners.
Please continue to fight amongst yourselves and back-stab each other while I pick your lovely pockets and head for the bank. I just knew this place would be easy pick'ins!
- RILEY BECHTEL
"Please continue to fight amongst yourselves and back-stab each other while I pick your lovely pockets and head for the bank."
Ok. Where are all of the chemistry folks (speaking of the backstabbers)?
11/18/09 11:21 AM: Ok. Where are all of the chemistry folks (speaking of the backstabbers)?
Must be on travel!
Sure sounds to me like most of them are still posting on the blog, 12:26.
And 12:43, nobody of these "wieners" have yet asked what SSM stands for. So they all MUST be LANL employees, mustn't it?
Btw, has any of you wieners or Doc Aq bashers gotten hands on the raw survey results yes? no? pity.
Executive Team sr mgrs will blame the division leaders and force them to deal with it. ET will take no ownership. DLs these days are part of middle mgt and are as impotent as those beneath them. The survey should have asked questions about specific mgt levels as the old surveys did - it will never happen.
A lot of people I talk to have already chalked this up as another jerk off exercise. C'mon, really, didn't most people besides insulated and clueless sr mgt pretty much have an idea of what these results would be?
Here's the key point about this situation:
The incredibly low morale at LANL and the way employees feel about LANS management won't ever change because NNSA won't be going away.
LANS is paid a handsome fee to do whatever NNSA wants, but NNSA is totally dysfunctional. Therefore, LANS is also dysfunctional.
LANS can talk about "feeling your pain" or "listening to staff", but it won't change the poor working environmental, high project costs and crazy Work Free Safety Zone policies being forced down LANL's throat. It's these types of things that are wearing down the staff.
There really are only two choices left at this point:
A) Learn to ignore the crumbling lab that is falling down around your feet, or...
B) Leave.
Sorry to have to say this, but that's what we've got in front of us. It's not going to get any better from this point out.
It's a case of the infamous "PBIs, Baby!" and it is only going to get worse due to the dysfunctional oversight continually coming down from DOE/NNSA.
11:48 forgot the choice that most people will make.
C) Stay and whine.
I am thankful that our LANS executive team is taking the time to do this process right. I can wait 12 months to hear the results if that is what it takes to do this job correctly.
"Cascading" is a brilliant idea. Employees should be extremely thankful that LANS is obviously taking this employee survey very seriously. You can trust LANS to do the right thing. Give them time to do it.
Thank you, Mike, for caring enough to watch over the "little people". You are following in the footsteps of our previous great directors, Oppenheimer, Bradbury, Agnew, and Hecker. Your heartfelt engagement of the scientific staff on issues that are important to us all is second-to-none. If it isn't too much trouble, would you consider having a monthly brown-bag lunch where you tutor us on the finer points of public speaking? Keep up the good work, LANS!
"Cascading"? Sounds like LANS is in some type of very nasty run-away nuclear reaction!
"Cascading"? Sounds like LANS is in some type of very nasty run-away nuclear reaction!
11/21/09 12:12 PM
Oh, it's a nasty reaction all right.
cascading is another term for letting shit roll down the hill from each and every f-ing worthless manager and onto the worker.
11/19/09 11:48 AM
Is right on the mark.
Unfortunately, no one in a position to change matters (aka Congress) understands this or cares.
I've also heard from sources in CA that the UC Regents are not happy with LANS and really unhappy with LLNS, but there is nothing they can do about it. Bechtel is driving LANS/LLNS and UC is hanging on for the ride.
Could you elaborate 3:54 about why UC is unhappy with LANS?
UC made a deal with the devil when they partnered with Bechtel. What did they think was going to happen?
11/21/09 5:45 PM
They (UC Regents) no longer hear directly from the Lab Directors at their meetings. They get their information on how rosy things are from LANS/LLNS Board Chairman (also a Regent) Pattiz. The Labs and the directors are no longer accountable to them - yet UC's name is still being linked to problems at the labs.
UC helped create the illusion we were just another UC campus. But we've always been in the business of caring for and feeding the military industrial monster that holds our planet hostage. The devil, like UC, can be deceptive.
" UC helped create the illusion we were just another UC campus. But we've always been in the business of caring for and feeding the military industrial monster that holds our planet hostage. The devil, like UC, can be deceptive.
11/22/09 9:29 AM"
Science has always been a whore to the military going back to the days of Archimedes. This has led to the wholesale destruction of our earth, death to millions of people, billions of plants and animals, and has made humanity evil and jaded. People are starving all over the world and money is being given to NNSA, NASA, NSF and NIH, all so these "scientists" can get rich and the military can get "toys", toys that kill. This is the only thing that comes out of science. I agree that UC is the devil and all those other universities that deal with Los Alamos are just Johns paying for tricks.
9:29 am: " But we've always been in the business of caring for and feeding the military industrial monster that holds our planet hostage."
Uh, stuck in the 60's, huh? Far out, man.
11:20 AM: "...all so these "scientists" can get rich and the military can get "toys", toys that kill. This is the only thing that comes out of science."
Wow! The only thing?
I hope there aren't many people in the US who feel the same way about science or we're doomed to slip back into the Dark Ages.
11:20 am: "This has led to the wholesale destruction of our earth"
I wasn't aware that the earth had been destroyed. I can't imagine having missed that, but of course I did sleep late this morning.
Yes, 12:25 PM, the Earth was indeed destroyed at 6:22 am this morning while you were sleeping.
But don't worry... science built it back by 6:25 am. Thank goodness! Just in time for my morning coffee.
I hate it when this "destroyed world" thingy happens. Good thing the Earth could be re-booted with a handy back-up copy.
Well 11/22/09 11:31 AM, you need to get out of your office more. Read a newspaper once in a while. Checkout what proportion of the US population believes that the earth is no more than 5,00 years old; how many believe that we never landed on the moon; etc.,etc. Feel the ground slipping away from under you, Dr. Scientist.
Feel the ground slipping away from under you, Dr. Scientist.
11/22/09 5:15 PM
Nope. You can believe whatever you want. But you can't escape the truth. If you try, it will bite you in the ass when you least expect it. Even worse than avoiding it is denying it. I guess the science deniers want to go back to lifespans of 40 years and birth survival rates of 40%. Actually I think they are funny, especially driving around in their hybrid vehicles.
8:22 PM, agreed. those breast nazi/anti-vaccination/chiropractor daughters in Los Alamos are the biggest anti-western scientist/medicine establishment around. Funny, especially when you discover how many babies die each year due to a lack of medical intervention.
If you want to find a population with growing respect for science and especially for scientists, then head to the East. Not to the US east coast but to across the Pacific Ocean to Asia.
China is spending billions building "science cities" and Singapore is working hard to become the next bio-research center of the world.
The US is quickly fading. Just look at the technical grad schools in the US. Almost all of the recent grad-level scientists are from foreign countries. Many of them are finding life is better back in their home country and are leaving the US after they finish college.
Meanwhile, back here in America, NNSA hands their famous national labs over to a greedy, seedy construction company (Bechtel), treats the science staff like shit to be scrapped off their shoes, and all the while our Congressmen rack up the corporate lobby money. It's mind-boggling!
Two new topics...
1. How big is the professional annual salary increase at LANL this year? Livermore will spread around 1% in January, minus significant medical and tax increases.
2. For the sports minded, llc managed LANL and LLNL are like the "post LA debacle" Raiders, all three are pretenders to once proud traditions that they can no longer claim.
For team members who have tasted success previously ----- the poor coaching, weak free agents in key positions, egotistical owners, dysfunctional organization, petit martinets blaming others for their poor play, and the loss of team knowledge of how to succeed ---- are heartbreaking,
Hand out on payday, excuses on game day..
Staff are at 1.8% but lower once each higher up takes their cut.
OUr medical stayed about the same. Mine went up a minuscule amount but I'm not complaining. However, our property taxes increased 36% due to a school bond.
"How big is the professional annual salary increase at LANL this year?" - 10:43 PM
A figure of 2% across the board for all employees is what I heard. Of course, after the money finds its way through the various Directorates, the actual raises may be smaller.
1.8% staff/manager
3.6% tech
1.0% admin
1.8% staff/manager
3.6% tech
1.0% admin
11/24/09 8:35 AM
...and, of course...
20% Mikey & Company!
9:42 am: "...and, of course...
20% Mikey & Company!"
Only 20%? How am I suppose to live in the style that I'm accustomed to with tiny annual raises like that?
- MIKEY
double bubble, toil and trouble how do we make the Employee Survey go away?
Graveyard spiral? Nah, LANS will always find a way to rise from the dead like a bunch of flesh eating zombies.
We'll never be able to get rid of this Bechtelian crowd who have taken over the lab and plan to devour it.
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