Back in early 2005 when the bid preparation activities for the LANL contract were hot and heavy, NNSA's Tom D'Agostino justified the 10-fold increase in the new LANL contract award fee by stating that "increased efficiencies of operation" by the new Corporate M&O would "more than offset" the additional cost of the contract.
Now, five years later we see that the real additional cost of running LANL is on the order of $200 million more than it was back in the days of non-profit operations when the University of California ran the place for a mere $8 million per year. Since LANL is now run by a for-profit corporation, it has to pay Gross Receipt Taxes to the state of New Mexico, which accounts for most of the additional cost of operations over and above the current $79 million award fee.
Have we seen any cost savings due to increased efficiencies of operation by the new corporate M&O of LANL? Let's innumerate some of the efficiency improvements that the NNSA and LANS, LLC have brought to LANL:
- JB Weld! Stuffed into the USB ports of every lab computer in sight. In addition to making use of the computer less efficient, it voided the warranties of thousands of LANL machines.
- Ladder Training.
- Shoes that GRIP!
- LOOK out for each other!
- Tripling the number of upper-level managers.
- NNSA-mandated 5% annual staff attrition rates.
- Glovebox computing.
- Efficient loss of all email accrued during the 2008 holiday shutdown.
- Efficient (and friendly) service by the laboratory's Personal Security Group.
- Abysmal "Employment Engagement" survey results, with planned 5-month results "rollout".
- "Secret" NNSA lab Performance Reports.
- Automatic LANS, LLC annual contract renewal, in perpetuity.
- On again, off again manned guard stations.
- Ballooning overhead burden. This may have something to do with the 40 - 50 additional highly-paid top level managers who now enjoy employment at LANL. It may also be related to the increased efficiency of operations.
- A new, efficient T&E system, with blazingly fast turn-around.
Considering that one person, NNSA's Tom D'Agostino was the sole person responsible for selecting the Bechtel-led LANS, LLC to be the new LANL contractor, and
considering that the promised "efficiency improvements" never materialized, andconsidering that Mr. D'Agostino has declared that the annual NNSA Performance Evaluation awards by which NNSA judged LANS, LLC deserving of an Outstanding, 90% performance rating this year are Secret, Not For Public Viewing,
You don't suppose that there is a government/corporate cover-up in progress, do you?
Nah, me neither.
--Doug
115 comments:
To be fair, Doug, ladder training existed before LANS.
I have no reason to doubt you, 11:32. However, I apparently matriculated after 20 years at LANL without ever having enjoyed that particular form of higher education.
This is change we can believe in.
I would have thought that practically anybody would have done a better job of running LANL than UC, but I was wrong. Perhaps because D'Agostino chose to retain UC as part of LANS, we now have the worst of both the ineffective UC world, and the greedy Bechtel corporate world.
Heckofa job, D'Ag!
The biggest issue with LANS is: Marked improvement in safety and security? It has not happened!!
You might even say that there is an Immense Coverup in progress.
Doug, that long list of "accomplishments" is just the beginning. More great "achievements" are coming this next year, just you wait. Things are going better than ever at LANL under the new LANS leadership team.
Why... it's LANS-tastic!!! *
* Trademark copyright LANS-Bechtel LLC, 2006-09, all rights reserved.
You forgot to mention Concur (LANS' new travel system) in that list. Now, there is a real winner of a improvement at LANL!
I would have thought that practically anybody would have done a better job of running LANL than UC, but I was wrong.
Careful what you wish for – you might just get it. Or rather, you “got it”. Now enjoy!
A lot of the training, such as ladder training, is, in theory, whorth while. The problem is that most of the time you get about one hour's worth of training in an eight-hour session. I supposed that this is some of the new LANS efficiency.
Either there is a coverup or D'ogasstinko is simply incompetent.
A few other "efficiency improvements":
1) The staff have to process all cost corrections themselves through the Oracle business system - even if the business office or the program office caused the need for the cost correction.
2) The staff have to front the money for travel - travel reimbursements sometimes take months. It's not uncommon for the staff to be owed thousands of dollars. Concur simply does not work.
3) The staff are forced to charge illegally - functions like writing proposals, taking general training, and attending all-hands meetings are not allowed to be charged to overhead, we are forced to choose a sponsor that has enough available funding so the cost of performing these functions won't be noticed.
4) Random drug testing is done to maximize the convenience of the pee collectors - at the cost of decreased staff efficiency - drop whatever you are doing now, chug some water, and drive to the pee station -immediately-.
5) Snow and ice removal has deteriorated causing an increase in injuries and lost time. The staff have been intimidated to not file DOE reports.
6) The research library budget has been gutted.
7) On-line lab policy resources haven't been keeping up to date with the rate of changes imposed by the managment, this leads to much confusion and time wasted.
8) Management removed drinking water from buildings with contaminated water supplies.
9) Rules and regulations that each staff member must memorize exceeds 5000 pages > much of it is conflicting nonsense (and you thought the health care bill was too big).
10) Physical security has declined dramatically - less guards and a new guard gate that the public is allowed to drive through without even stopping.
11) Emergency/hazard communications to the staff has ceased. The staff are the last to know that an emergency is taking place.
12) Funding has dried up for things like replacing faulty equipment, even including safety equipment (like ladders). We have to take ladder training, but then climb on old rickety ladders.
Don't forget one other big benefit we have now with LANS. All salaries can be kept secret as well.
Doug, Doug, Doug...
A bit bitter for someone who is long gone from LANL, aren't we? Now, on the other hand, if you--as a taxpayer (assuming you are paying taxes) are upset about how your tax dollars are being spent, you might have something to gripe about. Although I'm still employed at LANL by LANS, I am also a taxpayer and it irritates me from time to time to see how my taxpayer dollars are being spent. But why stop at LANL? Jeez... take a look at expenditures in any governmental initiative!
In any case, I respectfully suggest that those of you that have departed this hallowed institution take pleasure in the fact that you are not here and get on with your life. Most certainly you have better things to do with your time than to snipe away at an organization/institution/governmental agency that you cannot (and will not) influence in any way or form whatsoever. For most, this blog serves one--and only one--purpose: to provide a cathartic venue for expressing frustration over things that we cannot change.
Accept it. Get over it. And get on with it.
BTW, as noted by 1/3/10, 11:32 a.m., ladder training has been in place for quite awhile. It was implemented after the (then) KSL employee fell off a ladder and suffered serious injuries back in the Nanos regime.
6:06,
Nope, not bitter at all. And yep, glad I don't work there anymore. I'm in a healthy company now, doing interesting work, and most importantly, not encumbered by incompetent management/client(s).
I am, however, still fascinated by how effectively the NNSA and their corporate partner are ruining what was once (a while back, admittedly) a respected national laboratory.
The responses from the current crop of staff at LANL to the new corporate improvements to operational efficiency, as evidenced by the comments to this blog are also quite interesting.
And BTW to your BTW: Nanos doesn't really count as UC. I tend to think of him more as the icebreaker introduction to LANS, LLC. His inspired "ladder training" is but one example supporting this point of view.
A Postscript, as well: Given the number of daily visitors to this blog that we see coming in from the Virginia/DC area -- I would not totally discount the ability of information presented here to influence decision makers...
Sheeple aren't bitter, they're just very accepting of their miserable circumstances; the kind of employees we love to keep around our Lab. As for taxpayers...they be damned!
-This, according to Sir Richard of the Royal Order of Sexual Harassers and, as adhered to by his stable of loyal medieval Pages; 6:06PM being among them
Don't understand all the difficulties with Concur. I have not had a problem with Concur since it was implemented. Of course, I gave up all travel!
While we're on the subject of Concur, again, let me point out that practically every Microsoft shop runs Concur as it's Travel Reimbursement app.
Yes, it's a piece of crap. But guess what: everybody else wedded to Microsoft for their enterprise solution uses it. My company uses it. Get over it.
You all wouldn't want to develop the reputation of being a bunch of whiners, would you?
It just keeps getting better and better now that NNSA and the for-profit LLCs like BW(XT) have been put in charge of the nuclear weapons complex. Here's more proof in this latest Pantex news article.
Come on, people, join the LANS team and let's see if we can beat the Pantex score of 95% for this next year!...
----
Pantex report card: Performance exceeds expectations
Amarillo.com; 1-3-10
Contractor B&W Pantex received an "outstanding performance" rating and earned $32.2 million in fees for managing and operating the Pantex Plant last fiscal year, said a National Nuclear Security Administration evaluation.
Pantex, about 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, assembles and dismantles the nation's nuclear weapons. The plant also stores tons of plutonium recovered from dismantled weapons.
The NNSA's report said B&W's overall contract performance "substantially exceeded" the agency's expectations and said the contractor earned a rating score of 95, its highest performance score to date. B&W Pantex earned $32.2 million out of $33.8 million it was eligible to receive.
"We are extremely pleased with the rating," said B&W Pantex President and General Manager Greg Meyer. "We had some challenges to overcome due to budget issues, but we diligently planned the work needed to accomplish the objectives set for the site, we met our milestones usually ahead of schedule, and we looked for ways to accomplish work that was not on the schedule."
The contractor completed 118 percent of its scheduled nuclear weapons dismantlements and completed many ahead of schedule, the agency said. Several years ago, the government released numbers of nuclear weapons dismantlements, but those numbers are now classified.
www.amarillo.com/stories/010310/
new_news2.shtml
With all this great news about Pantex I would expect that all our former Pantex boys (Mallory, Beard, etc) will move back to Pantex since they would make better bonus money there? Incidentally, one of the reasons that Pantex is doing so great is that NNSA significantly and successfully REDUCED Pantex workload, goals, and milestones. Again, just like LANS, the bar was lowered to get the fees, otherwise known as the MONEY. Anyone (even LANS) can get a 95% on a take home, 2 question, multiple choice, yes or no exam when your given the answers, have a year to complete it and your mommy (i.e. NNSA) helping you.
Anonymous at 1/3/10 5:05 PM listed some "efficiency improvements."
Here is one the merits an audit by the GAO:
3) The staff are forced to charge illegally - functions like writing proposals, taking general training, and attending all-hands meetings are not allowed to be charged to overhead, we are forced to choose a sponsor that has enough available funding so the cost of performing these functions won't be noticed.
This is just plain fraud!
Have you heard about the new hires at the lab that will enforce parking regs by ticketing you vehicle, or towing it away and then you pay some fee to get it back?
This is the way that LANS is making up the shortfalls in the underfunded pension system (as opposed to the retroactive 20% increase in G&A).
Contractor B&W Pantex received an "outstanding performance" rating and earned $32.2 million in fees for managing and operating the Pantex Plant...
Hoop-de-doo!
Must have been around ~150-200 vs the ~1500-2000 they use to do as a means of leveling the monthly workload. What used to take ~200 direct man-hours per dismantlement now takes ~2000 MH/per. Hoorah! – Bonuses & raises for all!
"Several years ago, the government released numbers of nuclear weapons dismantlements, but those numbers are now classified." (PANTEX Article)
There's your new government "transparency" from the NNSA. They have greatly lowered the bar in terms of the number of required dismantlement at PANTEX and they are now hiding this fact from the public!
NNSA has obviously biased the grading curve upward in scoring their lucrative "for-profit" LLCs, but who is grading the NNSA? They deserve an "F-" for their blatant dis-honesty.
6:43 am: "Have you heard about the new hires at the lab that will enforce parking regs by ticketing you vehicle, or towing it away and then you pay some fee to get it back?"
Sounds like it must be part of Mikey's new plan for "morale improvement"... otherwise know as the "5% Attrition Plan" for making the NNSA's figures for this fiscal year. PBIs, baby!
6:06PM tells us to accept what is, to get over it, to move on with our miserable lives. Now that's an Orwellian philosophy if ever there was one. Ok then, let's just follow the rest of the herd to the slaughter house. Listen oh ye among the masses...resistence is futile!
I left LANS during the SSP and I too am fascinated by the the types of incidents and policies and just the huge volume of money being reaped by LANS management. I am also hopeful that the Washington folks are able to pass an acquisition policy which prohibits any government official who votes for and/or selects or evaluates a government contractor's performance from ever working for said contractor/partner in any capacity, including any newly-formed LLC's - that would make simple business sense and take away any real or perceived appearance of impropriety of government officials benefiting from his or her determination of the $ - it really is that simple.
1/4/10 6:39 AM,
Of course it is. That's why CFO sends out guidance telling you not to do it.
Move along....nothing to see here.....
According to this audio interview with station WFED (link below), NNSA plans on enforcing usage of disk-less thin clients throughout the weapons complex.
The days of having your very own desktop PC to do your scientific work at LANL are probably soon coming to an end. "Glovebox computing" is quickly approaching, the needs of the scientific work force be damned....
-
National Nuclear Security Administration moves into 21st century
January 4, 2010
Federal News Radio - 1500 AM
www.federalnewsradio.com/
index.php?nid=19&sid=1855270
If you can't do your work at LANL using only a thin-client and a copy of MS Office, then I guess you'll soon be out of luck.
This will be great of the bloated hordes of clueless managers at the lab, but not so great for all the technical staff who need to make scientific deliverables and bring in funding.
Oh great. Because thin-client computing has already been proven to work SO WELL for scientific instrumentation and data acquisition systems on the classified side.
CONTROL is what it's all about, 8:37, not productivity. Haven't you learned anything yet?
PBI's, baby.
Taking the tools of science away from the scientists....
...NNSA, the bright future of Dumb!
LANS executive management, being the top NNSA "ass kissers" in the complex, will of course be the very first to implement this new NNSA disk-less mandate.
And why not? Microsoft Excel, for balancing Mikey's bulging bank account, is all that is really needed to fulfill LANL's current software requirements.
- Need some software? Get a Division Leader and CIO exception.
- Need a keyboard? Get a Division Leader and CIO exception.
- Need a mouse? Get a Division Leader and CIO exception.
- Need a mouse pad? Get a Division Leader and CIO exception...
LANS and NNSA should be able to halt all productive science from occurring at LANL in no time. The Work Free Safety Zone (WFSZ) concept is quickly spreading out around the lab.
Here's part of the transcript from that NNSA CIO interview on the coming of disk-less thin clients across the whole weapons complex:
"Nuclear Security Administration goes thin and green"
(Federal News Radio)
The National Nuclear Security Administration has set a goal of reducing its carbon footprint by as much as 30 percent over the next 25 years.
..Robert Brese, NNSA's deputy chief information officer, says the agency already is off to a good start after moving its classified network to thin client, or diskless, computing. A thin client environment is where the user has a keyboard, screen and mouse, but no hard drive to store information on or run applications from. All the storage and applications are stored on a server that the user connects to through the agency's network.
.."We've significantly reduced our security vulnerabilities because that type of matter is not lying around people's desks and we don't have to worry about 'did we get things locked up at night'," he says.
And now it's testing the use of thin client computers on its unclassified network.
..Brese also expects thin clients to save NNSA money.
"You can change the lifecycle of your desktop from roughly three years out to five years," he says. "That is a 60 percent delta in how often you have to revitalize these things."
But for NNSA it's not only about thin clients and technology. Brese says as the agency upgrades or builds new facilities it will increase both its security and energy efficiency of its buildings.
And the agency will expect its contractors to shoulder some of the load to decrease NNSA's overall carbon footprint.
www.federalnewsradio.com/
index.php?nid=35&sid=1855586
"The Work Free Safety Zone (WFSZ) concept is quickly spreading out around the lab."
I wish to remind everyone that this concept was first introduced by Nanos during his shutdown. I agree with Doug -- Nanos' primary function was to introduce LANS, LLC (via their good friends at the NNSA) to the new riches to be had from running the military industrial LANL contract.
The other DOE labs doing basic science and national security type work (ORNL, PNNL, etc) will soon be eating our lunch in terms of winning new projects if this keeps up for much longer.
NNSA is effectively killing off almost all the science being done at their research labs with these insane new policies!
Pete Nanos was only "Nanos Lite".
LANS is becoming a full strength "Nanos-ite" compound. It's a very deadly substance when in comes in contact with science.
"PAY ATTENTION!" say the bright yellow posters placed around LANL. Yeah, we are. This place is dieing.
Geeze, 11:10, where the fuck have you been? This is the plan -- eliminate all non-plutonium science at LANL. See
http://nnsa.energy.gov/defense_programs/documents/LANLFactSheet_v9.pdf
for the details.
Here's the opening paragraph:
LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY (LANL):
NUCLEAR DESIGN AND ENGINEERING AND PLUTONIUM
Complex Transformation – Preferred Alternative
NNSA is moving forward with a vision to achieve a smaller, safer, more secure, and less expensive enterprise that leverages the scientific and technical capabilities of our workforce, and meets national security requirements. The current Complex Transformation Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (SPEIS) effort is a major step in this process, and updates a Programmatic Environmental
Impact Statement that is now more than a decade old. Our transformation strategy embraces the notion of modern “centers of excellence” by focusing on core competencies, eliminating redundancies, and maximizing the consolidation of special nuclear materials (SNM).
You (remaining) people up there on the Hill are a bit slow on the uptake.
Most of the people posting here are not up on the hill. They may have been at one time, but many of them no longer work here. That is obvious.
Another advantage of thin-client systems for the unclassified side is that when some bonehead senior manager sends out an email with classified information in it, EVERYONE can be shut down at once. Not just the poor bastard who received the email.
(p.s. who here can actually afford to buy a new computer every three years? For me, a five-year replacement cycle would be an upgrade!)
Most of the people posting here are not up on the hill. They may have been at one time, but many of them no longer work here. That is obvious.
said 1/5/10 7:37 PM
Really? Go ahead...convince yourself. Do the ostrich thing. Stick it in a hole. Sorry, you already have. Now THAT is obvious!
Next thing you know 7:47 will be trying to convince us that every comment here (except his own) positively, absolutely had to have been submitted by Chris Mechels.
There's been quite a bit of newsworthy national and international discussion lately regarding the fact that the loss of employee satisfaction results in less innovation, less teamwork, less productivity, etc. The attitude of LANS "if you don't like it leave" is slowly smothering any chance of this institution from recovering its downward spiral. Being complacent with a steady paycheck and doing as little as possible was not a UC LANL work ethic but is sure becoming the LANS norm. Yes, there were problems and issues with UC management but the core competency of science at the Lab was recognized as the best in the nation and the rest of the world for a long period of time. So those of us who retired or resigned watch in bewildered disbelief at the results of "competition". The 90% score merely reflects that LANS did not f-k up and a s a result, LANS/NNSA did not receive negative publicity. Yes, LANS avoided risk but we lost the tremendous science that could have been generated.
Most of the people posting here are not up on the hill. They may have been at one time, but many of them no longer work here. That is obvious.
1/5/10 7:37 PM
So?
As further evidence that the Complex is doing such a great job. This seems to contradict the 90% plus score that LANS and Pantex received.
Lifetime Extension Program (LEP)
Executive Summary
JASONs Report: JSR-09-334E
September 9, 2009
The surveillance program is becoming inadequate. Continued success of stockpile stewardship requires implementation of a revised surveillance program.
We conclude this section with a concern. All options for extending the life of the nuclear
weapons stockpile rely on the continuing maintenance and renewal of expertise and
capabilities in science, technology, engineering, and production unique to the nuclear weapons program. This will be the case regardless of whether future LEPs utilize refurbishment, reuse or replacement. The study team is concerned that this expertise is threatened by lack of program stability, perceived lack of mission importance, and
degradation of the work environment.
Everyone ready for the Tuesday afternoon All-Hands with Mikey?
I'm sure he'll be able to clear up the reasons for the incredibly low morale scores on the recent LANS Engagement Survey. Maybe it was all just a fluke that comes from employee "misunderstandings"?
Yeah, that's the ticket! LANS only needs to work a little harder to "educate" their employees and then everything will be dandy.
Maybe Mike can put Bret Knapp in charge of a LANS morale improvement project as his next big task.
7:37 PM - Most of the people posting here are not up on the hill. They may have been at one time, but many of them no longer work here. That is obvious.
Oh just wait until the new stream of lawsuits against LANS and their management team appear this year. Should be yummy and keep those crackpots in Lab Legal busy for a while...
Ahhhh... the Director's All-Hands is scheduled for *tomorrow* (Wednesday).
True to form, LANS didn't announce the date and time for this until the day before the meeting. I don't think LANS wants many people showing up for Q&A.
Im going to ask about day care!
Poster 10:29 PM gives a pretty good example of the growing self hatred and hatred of others that is seen within many of the employees who remain stuck at LANL. It's like a big, dysfunctional family with NNSA and LANS at the head.
BREAKING NEWS out of Washington DC tonight... Sen. Bryon Dorgan has announced he will not run for re-election in November:
*****
Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Byron Dorgan, a three-term North Dakota Democrat, won’t seek re-election this year, a decision that likely will diminish his party’s chances of retaining 60 votes in the 100-member chamber.
*****
Sen. Dorgan sits on the powerful Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee which overseas DOE and NNSA. He has also been a key supporter of the NNSA research labs after St. Pete vacated this post in the Senate.
Sen. Dorgan's loss will hurt support for the NNSA in upcoming years as the Democrats in the House seek to drastically scale back the NNSA's budget.
Here's a typical news post from last summer showing Sen. Dorgan's views on the nuclear weapons complex:
------
Senate Appropriators Unenthusiastic About FY 2010 NNSA Request (June 5, 2009)
American Institute of Physics
www.aip.org/fyi/2009/072.html
Chairman Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and his colleagues on the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee exhibited little enthusiasm for the FY 2010 budget request for the National Nuclear Security Administration. “It’s hard to imagine that so little is truly in need of change over the coming year” said Dorgan in his opening remarks at the June 2 hearing.
Senators on this subcommittee seemed considerably less enthusiastic about the basically flat budget request than did their House counterparts. While House subcommittee chairman Peter Visclosky (D-IN) commended the Administration for a “fiscally responsible and prudent strategy” while awaiting the results of the forthcoming Nuclear Posture Review, Senator Dorgan said he was “not sure this is justification enough” to delay decisions about facilities or changes in the agency’s requested budget. “The fact is NNSA is going to have a very active future” said Dorgan, citing its responsibilities for stockpile stewardship, life extension, warhead dismantlement, nonproliferation and securing vulnerable supplies of global nuclear materials. While acknowledging this is a transition year, he predicted a flat FY 2010 budget would make it difficult for NNSA to fulfill all of its missions, and would put additional pressures on weapons instrumentation and infrastructure that have science and nonproliferation applications.
-------
First, Sen. Pete Domenici, and now Sen. Bryon Dorgan. The NNSA is probably headed for some nasty budgetary cutbacks with these big losses in political clout.
The LANS takeover has been a tremendous success. You just have to understand the goal.
Science? No.
Efficiency? No.
Safety? No.
Doing a better job? No.
Providing for the maintenance of the stockpile? No.
Headline avoidance? Oh yeah.
And, to top it off, the new guys running it all can make campaign contributions. What's not to like?
LANL is a great place to work and LANS is making it even better! The recent morale survey results need to be taken in context. That type of survey would show similar results even if done at almost any other company in America. The results are in the norm.
Even though LANS scored in the norm, that's not good enough for LANS. We can do better. Roll up you sleeves and get ready for a fantastic new year of improvements at LANL.
We are LANS, hear us roar!
11:01
If you are looking at a 5% attrition rate for the year, how can you call that a fantastic year? Is the management not trying to find new work for the lab? Does a manager no longer need to bring in funding to be considered successful?
"Poster 10:29 PM gives a pretty good example of the growing self hatred and hatred of others that is seen within many of the employees who remain stuck at LANL. It's like a big, dysfunctional family with NNSA and LANS at the head."
No, I am just showing my contempt for the idiots on this blog. There is a difference, however subtle it might be to your frail mind.
I doubt 4:49pm has the ability to see the irony...
Suzi Q. Seestrom is seeking input from the Blog on Integrated Work Disaster System (IWDS) and the work authorization policies she developed. Come on everyone lets give her input!
Anonymous at 1/6/10 3:43 PM writes:
"Does a manager no longer need to bring in funding to be considered successful?"
I don't recall this having been the case in recent years. Staff members bring in the WFO projects. Managers just collect the overhead. Every staff member and technician is a profit center.
REALLY! Did you ever hear of a manager getting RIFed because s/he didn't bring in funds to cover the personnel? NO! But, if the staff member is not covered, then s/he is RIFed. Unless, of course the person is in an overhead group in which case funding is always assured!
2007: 693 posts
2008: 403 posts
2009: 254 posts
The trend is clear. In a year or so the only ones left will be Mr. sheeple talking to Mr. !!!, with an occasional entry by someone to "call bullshit"
So, Mikey gave a Director's All Hands today. Did I correctly hear the phrase "pension contributions"?
Of course he also said "We have no plans to reduce pension benefits." Where have I heard that phrase before... "We have no plans..."?
And he capped his fabulous performance off by telling everyone that all of the safety programs at the Laboratory won't accomplish anything, we just have to come to work *wanting* to not have accidents.
(Apparently the leadership team has been reading _The Secret_ and confusing it for a business book?)
Anyway, if he's right, I gotta ask why we have to spend so much time in training, audits, writing IWD's, etc. Instead, let's all just THINK our way to zero-accidents!
Managers and support workers are a protected class at LANL. Technical staff (the reason that LANL even exists) are not. In fact, it's getting even more brutal now that LANS/Bechtel took control.
The number of managers and support workers are increasing to new levels of absurdity. However, the number of lab TSMs is decreasing as more and more TSMs decide to leave LANL. And why not?... the pressure put on TSMs to continue bringing in more funds to feed this enormous overhead is becoming unsustainable and many TSM positions are finding that they have less and less job security as their funding sources run dry.
As a TSM, you eventually begin to ask hard questions as to why you're busting your ass for this badly broken system. When you finally realize you have no answer to this question, you leave... and LANS celebrates reaching a little closer to their mandated 5% attrition rate for NNSA.
Mikey finished another incredibly lame All-Hands meeting this afternoon and this time he didn't even bother to bring any pretty view-graphs with him. He just mumbled his way through with his notes.
Here are the important points:
* TCP1 workers will be shucking in 2-4% of their salary by April 15th to cover a $76 million shortfall in the pension. There goes your meager Jan 15th raise.
* No Science Complex building will ever be built until DOE says it's OK and they may decide to just say "NO!".
* Everything at LANL looks great under LANS... except for recent safety stats which suck, but that's the fault of the employees and not LANS. Better fix it quick, people!
And the morale survey? You know, the main reason given for holding this All-Hands meeting? Mike spent all of 2 minutes talking about it. He said that LANS will get back to employees about it at some later date once the management chain has completely figured out how to handle it.
Amazing, huh? And he gets paid $1 million per year for this pitiful performance! This All-Hands should prove effective at causing even more technical staff to head for the exit doors. Maybe that's its true purpose?
More on Sen. Bryon Dorgan's announced retirement and its impact on the NM weapon labs...
"Labs Lose a Friend with Sen. Dorgan Retirement"
ABQ Journal
By Michael Coleman
Wednesday, 06 January 2010
New Mexico's national laboratories - and especially beleaguered Los Alamos - will lose an important friend on Capitol Hill when Sen. Byron Dorgan retires next year.
The North Dakota Democrat is chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, and controls the purse strings for the national laboratories. For years, Sen. Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican, was the E&W approps subcommittee chairman and routinely directed billions to New Mexico's laboratories.
When Democrats took control of the Senate in 2006, Dorgan took over control of the subcommittee. Domenici openly fretted about the implications for New Mexico's labs but was soon reassured by Dorgan's commitment to the labs.
In 2007 and 2008, when many anti-nuke Democrats (and others who were simply exasperated with Los Alamos' numerous security breaches) were calling for deep budget cuts, Dorgan resisted.
In 2007, he told me in an interview:
"At the end of the day, the national laboratories are a significant asset for the country -- they are a national treasure-- and we will have adequate funding for the laboratories," Dorgan said.
In 2008, he called the labs "jewels."
"They are America's jewels. They are the seedbed of new science, new inquiry, new discovery and new research," Dorgan said. "At some point, we'll need to develop some kind of stabilization plan for funding these national jewels. Our competitiveness in the world depends on our science and our research and …we need to be very attentive to and very concerned about our national laboratories and the funding for them."
It's unclear who will replace Dorgan as subcommittee chairman. That depends on how the membership of the Senate Appropriations Committee shapes up after the 2010 elections. But employees at New Mexico's national laboratories surely hope it's someone with Dorgan's commitment to their work.
www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/
component/content/article/18084.html
Hmmm, a $76 million shortfall this year with TCP1. Almost the exact same amount as the annual LANS partners profit fee award!
Hey, I think I've got an excelleant idea how to fix that LANL pension shortfall....
Too bad foreign nationals at LANL couldn't attend today's All-Hands meeting in the Domenici Auditorium or even view it on their very own lab PCs.
But, maybe if they politely ask a nearby lab Q-cleared citizen very politely, they'll tell them exactly what they "need to know".
I've got to suspect that many of the FNs are beginning to feel like 2nd class "labbies" at LANL since LANS and NNSA took over.
* TCP1 workers will be shucking in 2-4% of their salary by April 15th to cover a $76 million shortfall in the pension. There goes your meager Jan 15th raise.
How in the hell can LANS be $76M short in TCP1 only having been managing this fund for ~4 years. This money was stolen from UC and now is being raped by LANS. Why doesn't LANS use it's fees to cover this shortfall, never in a million years. Also, notice how LANS is duplicating the actions of UC to require contributions as a smokescreen for their complete mismanagement of TCP1. And for those of you who say that LANS does not manage TCP1, then why are they mandating contributions? There will eventually be huge litigation on this fund to the point where the Bechtel Corporation elite and Chicago attorneys will end up with all this money.
Incidentally, LANS has frozen my salary and many other workers (NOT MANAGERS) at LANS. They don't advertise this to those of you still get puny raises!
GET OUT OF THIS PLACE AS SOON AS YOU CAN!!!
Does anybody ask questions at these All Hands meetings?
Does anybody ask questions at these All Hands meetings?
1/7/10 7:59 AM
Yes, well known LANS managerial 'yes-men' like Tony Redondo and Bill Priedhorsky can always be counted on to ask some questions of Mikey.
The amazing thing was that no staff members asked Mikey a single question about the abysmal results of the recent Engagement Survey. Mikey got a complete free pass on that one. We're all a bunch of scared sh*tless sheeple, I guess, including me.
2007: 693 posts
2008: 403 posts
2009: 254 posts
The trend is clear. In a year or so the only ones left will be Mr. sheeple talking to Mr. !!!, with an occasional entry by someone to "call bullshit"
1/6/10 7:24 PM
I'm pretty sure that NNSA and LANS (Bechtel/BWXT) are eagerly looking forward to the day that this LANL blog has zero posts during the year and the for-profit "get rich quick" team can then proceed along their merry way without any fears of embarrassment.
Maybe 2011 will be your magic year, 7:24 PM. Will that help you with your 20% bonus when it occurs?
4:21 AM: "GET OUT OF THIS PLACE AS SOON AS YOU CAN!!!"
I think that sentiment is now being felt by a fairly large portion of the remaining staff.
I've got to suspect that many of the FNs are beginning to feel like 2nd class "labbies" at LANL since LANS and NNSA took over.
1/6/10 9:53 PM
You don't have to suspect, because they ARE 2nd class! Duhh...
In Mary Neu's Jan 5th CLES update she wrote .... "Lastly, I want to touch on the Employee Survey, the results of which came out in December. Nearly half of you took the time to respond, which is a positive engagement--Thank you. The results are revealing... We are clearly not doing as well in diversity, gender, and mutual respect, however...Following the Director's lead in an All Managers meeting in December, I have been encouraging to all CLES managers to make diversity and equality an ongoing focus, in a manner parallel to the way safety and security have been highlighted in the recent past, with shared messages and stories at meetings and direct workplace engagement. With focused attention beginning in 2010, we should see the improvements, as we saw with safety and security. Many of the other lower scoring questions on the survey related to communications and confidence in leadership. Both of those are ongoing challenges that must be addressed issue-by-issue and day-by-day. Please continue to communicate with colleagues and managers at all levels. My commitment to you is that within CLES, where we can effect positive change in our organization, we will, and when the issues raised are either beyond our control or beyond our scope, we will do our best to communicate that context so that you can understand why it might appear that problems are not being addressed. I encourage you to download the survey and look over the results.
OK, Mary, for improvements in diversity and equal opportunity, why don't you start by removing the "old boys club"? You know, Gene Petersen and Basil Swanson? Those two have done great damage by continuing the sexist behaviors from Al Sattelberger. They promote their Wed pm drinking buddies -ie John Gordon - and discount the real brains in the hydrogen program, Fran Stephens. Likewise, why are women and minorities discounted in C-division and paid over 20% less than their male peers? Let's see: compare Dave Thorn vs. Jeanne Robinson. Or how about Pat Brug vs. Ann Schake? Wolfgang Runde vs. Lisa Coletti? Let's not even look at the technician ranks.
Mary enforcing diversity is more than sending out a holiday email acknowledging that there is more than Christmas that is celebrated. If you really meant to change things, start with kicking out the "old boys club" and promoting women.
You won't. You are just talk and nobody believes a word you say.
2007: 693 posts
2008: 403 posts
2009: 254 posts
The trend is clear. In a year or so the only ones left will be Mr. sheeple talking to Mr. !!!, with an occasional entry by someone to "call bullshit"
1/6/10 7:24 PM
799,945 Visitors since April 1, 2007.
Readership is far more important than authorship. Nearly 1,000,000 readers. Eat me LANS!!!!
Looks like Mary Neu is firmly on top of the low morale problems at LANL. This whole "low morale" survey story will soon become a non-issue that will be quickly forgotten by the employees who remain at LANL. No one will remember it one year from today. And morale? LANS will be able to drive it even LOWER, you betcha!
Gosh, from the sound of Mikey at the Wednesday All-Hands, it has already been forgotten by the top management. He gave it less than 2 minutes of discussion at his meeting.
This LANS team is sure good at burying inconvenient truths. I guess the employees were right when only 17% predicted that LANS management would take any action on the poor survey results. They know their upper management team very well by this point.
But Mikey knew it was only going to be 17%! He predicted it, because he's *that* in touch with the workforce!
(Seriously, man, even if it were true, why would you be proud of such a thing?)
4:21 am: "How in the hell can LANS be $76M short in TCP1 only having been managing this fund for ~4 years."
Uh, the stock market crashed big time last year and the year before?
For those interested (one person, apparently): the additional verification step now required before you can post all of your anonymous comments is due to the fact that your moderators got tired of rejecting 20 - 30+ Viagra/Porn/GetRichQuick spam postings each day.
Deal with it, please.
Doug-
How do you distinguish between a LANS manager's post and a "viagra/get-rich-quick scheme"?
young and talented women like fran stephens need to leave. they are getting nothing from this place and they could easily have successful programs elsewhere.
I hate to interupt the free flow of grousing and personal attack, but I have a simple question about a technical matter.
Does anyone have a comment about MagViz which seems able to do wonderful things with airport luggage albeit with superconducting devices. What are its obvious limits? Ferrous metals? Cost? Speed?
DOE Gives Nuclear Labs One Heck of a Long Winter Vacation
Enjoy your vaction.
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2010/01/doe-gives-nuclear-labs-one-heck-of-a-long-winter-vacation.html
"How in the hell can LANS be $76M short in TCP1 only having been managing this fund for ~4 years.
1/7/10 4:21 AM"
My understanding this is a complex-wide shortfall--it is not specific to LANS.
"For those interested (one person, apparently): the additional verification step now required before you can post all of your anonymous comments is due to the fact that your moderators got tired of rejecting 20 - 30+ Viagra/Porn/GetRichQuick spam postings each day.
Deal with it, please.
1/7/10 10:22 PM"
Hmmm... I thought it was Viagra that keeps this blog up!
I think that the decline in posts is related to the hopelessness of the LANS employees.
Some of us think that this blog contributed to the departure of Admiral Butthead. Unforetunately, we have recently come to regard his brief regime as the good old days.
"due to the fact that your moderators got tired of rejecting 20 - 30+ ...GetRichQuick spam"
I thought that was the whole point of LANS. ;)
I listened to Anastasio's pep talk about "great improvements" at the Lab over the past year. This man is either (a) completely delusional or (b) a liar. No third option.
How can this man be the director of a key national security lab? Who grades his performance? Tom D'Agostino? That man is either (a) completely delusional or (b) a liar. No third option.
oh.. wait .. I'm starting to see a pattern here.
"Looks like Mary Neu is firmly on top of the low morale problems at LANL."
If morale is not a PBI why should LANS really care?
young and talented women like fran stephens need to leave. they are getting nothing from this place and they could easily have successful programs elsewhere.
3:45 AM, this statement represents A LOT of the women in chemistry at LANL. It is truly a shame so many are treating like shit. Carol Burns, Ann Schake, Rebecca Chamberlin, Mary Barr, Sara Scott, Christy Ruggerio, among others, have had to deal with this for years - all brilliant and all marginalized compared to their male peers.
The major NNSA PBIs involve security and safety issues. Morale doesn't count, and strangely enough, neither does science!
Since PBIs bring in the LLC profits and support the big executive salaries, the only things really important to LANS are safety and security issues. I'm sure most of you picked up this not too subtle hint during Mikey's recent All-Hands meeting on Wednesday.
Given this awful truth, is it any wonder that LANS values management and support above all else? It is managers and support people who are involved in keeping the safety and security problems to a bare minimum.
Conversely, LANS sees the science side of LANL as *CREATING* safety and security issues! Guess who is going to be most valued, rewarded and secure in their job positions moving forward given this setup? Also, realize that LANS only needs a very small number of "favored" scientists to create a massive amount of PR based on minimal research output.
Employees do not work for LANL, they work for a profit-based LLC called LANS. It seems to me that many employees at LANL still do not realize this fact. If the LLC sees their annual profit fees are in danger from of one particular group of employees, they'll take actions against the employees causing risks to the employers' profits.
Under this ugly scenario, LANL is no longer a genuine science lab and will only continue its long slide into mediocrity. No amount of Director view-graphs trumpting lab "sucesess" will change the reality of this situation. The truly bizarre part of this whole messed-up situation is that this setup is perfectly OK with NNSA!
My guess is the NNSA is keeping the Performance Reports secret because they clearly demonstrate that the *only* issues the NNSA cares about involve safety and security at the labs. Nothing else has any importance to them.
Given this, the best way for LANS to achieve a perfect 100% rating (and the maximum profit fee) would be to simply shut the lab down. LANS is working hard at trying to achieve this goal.
ORNL has said they're hiring one new computer scientist each week. Their science budget has increased by over 30% just this last year.
Not all the national labs are in trouble. It is LANL and LLNL that are in decline. The other DOE labs (and the semi-NNSA lab at Sandia) are doing just fine, thank you very much!
LANS has been very bad for science, but great for the BMW car dealerships down in Santa Fe and ABQ!
I don't think that we want to count the number of posts on the blog. The number of poste is, I believe, driven by what is going on.
More relavent statistics would be the number of comments and the number of readers.
However, I do feel that many LANS employees have a strong sense of hopelessness. Those above the age of 50 are just keeping their heads down until retirement. If the job martket were better, I think that we would be losing even more of our mid-career top people.
"DOE Gives Nuclear Labs One Heck of a Long Winter Vacation
Enjoy your vaction.
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2010/01/doe-gives-nuclear-labs-one-heck-of-a-long-winter-vacation.html
1/8/10 6:36 AM"
hmm...i thought this was going to be a complaint about the excessive winter break on the taxpayer's dime. you know, you don't need to take off 6 work days. many of you don't deserve it.
"young and talented women like fran stephens need to leave. they are getting nothing from this place and they could easily have successful programs elsewhere.
3:45 AM, this statement represents A LOT of the women in chemistry at LANL. It is truly a shame so many are treating like shit. Carol Burns, Ann Schake, Rebecca Chamberlin, Mary Barr, Sara Scott, Christy Ruggerio, among others, have had to deal with this for years - all brilliant and all marginalized compared to their male peers.
1/8/10 10:59 AM"
you forgot mary. :) honestly, why women continue to stay in c-division is beyond me. and the "liberal supporters" are just blowing smoke up their asses.
1/7/10 7:49 PM You are right; the decline in readership interest is much less prounounced than the decline in posts:
2007: 177,122 Returning visitors
2008: 158,861 Returning visitors
2009: 138,490 Returning visitors
So Mr. sheeple and Mr. !!! appear to have an interested audience well into the next decade.
1/8/10 4:43 PM wrote "you forgot mary. :) honestly, why women continue to stay in c-division is beyond me..."
And many women have left C-Division ... Nan Sauer, Sara Scott (10:59 am was wrong), Jenn Martinez, Jackie Kipplinger (aka Doc Aq), Lia Thomson, Eleanor Dixon, Tamara Taylor, Amanda Bean, Liz Bluhm, Jan Danis, Kim Thomas, Judy Eglin, Eve Bauer, Barndy Duran, and many, many more. Why Rebecca Chamberlin came back is a mystery.
In fact, I think more women have left C-division than stayed in C-Division. Something to think about, Mary. Why is that? And what are you going to do to change that and make it so women actually WANT to work in C-division?
Now THAT is where you impact the diveristy element ....
Nah, Mikey, give the blonde witch another bonus!
As one of the women listed in 1/8/10 6:23 PM--For the record, I left C Div not because I was being discriminated against as a woman but because it was becoming harder and harder to make a living doing R&D. I followed the funding trail to programmatic weapons work.
and Mary Barr was never in C Div. I think she spend most of her career in the former NMT, the to D and AET.
I think extremely highly of Carol Burns. There's only one problem and she met him at U.C. Berkeley, her husband. I had the honor to see Mike's credentials and grades from Berkeley. They were in one word "poor". To say that Mike "squeaked through" at Berkeley is an understatement. He's got all you guys in his Directorate "snookered". Unfortunately, most if not all of our Senior management are in this category of "flukes".
Given that the PBIs are solely based on security and safety, those of us who are doing technical work are the most likely to cause security and/or safety incidents. THUS, it is quite clear that such scientists, engineers, and technicians represent threats to Mikey's bonus. We must be eliminated.
Quite a change from the days of Oppenheimer.
Hey 6:55 am, get your facts straight. Carol Burns met Mikey in good ole' LA. Hometown sweethearts. Mike followed Carol first to Rice and then Berkeley, where he started his career as a non-PhD engineer working at Livermore. I admit Carol could do much better but please get your facts straight or else the rest of your point seems like caca.
To 9:57 PM: On that list, not too many impressive names. No wonder you couldn't sustain an R&D program and had to leave.
No wonder you couldn't sustain an R&D program and had to leave.
1/9/10 11:12 AM
Apparently you haven't noticed, but the cost of doing business at LANL makes it extremely difficult for anyone to maintain an R&D program, no matter how good they are. Where the hell have you been?
Yeah, that's right 11:12 am. Just a bunch of dumb chicks! We all know girls should not be scientists. Even Mary Neu supports that sentiment. Scientist jobs are for men. Women should know their place at LANL and sign on to be technicians and work for the smart men.
"...it was becoming harder and harder to make a living doing R&D. I followed the funding trail to programmatic weapons work."
1/8/10 9:57 PM
Except, now the outrageous costs at LANL are even beginning to cramp the programmatic weapons work, too! There are no safe places left to "hide", except in management and possibly in certain support orgs at the lab.
"Except, now the outrageous costs at LANL are even beginning to cramp the programmatic weapons work, too! There are no safe places left to "hide", except in management and possibly in certain support orgs at the lab."
True, but the impacts are felt a lot less if your budget is $20-30MIL versus a P.I. who is pulling in what, $500K-$1mil?
Hey 6:55 am, get your facts straight. Carol Burns met Mikey in good ole' LA. Hometown sweethearts. Mike followed Carol first to Rice and then Berkeley, where he started his career as a non-PhD engineer working at Livermore. I admit Carol could do much better but please get your facts straight or else the rest of your point seems like caca.
1/9/10 11:10 AM
I agree the grades were caca!
"...a P.I. who is pulling in what, $500K-$1mil?"
Only if your name is Klimov or Hollingsworth or Nastasi, etc. In other words, if you do quantum dots or nano. If you do condensed matter physics or work with plutonium or blow shit up ... not so much.
"True, but the impacts are felt a lot less if your budget is $20-30MIL versus a P.I. who is pulling in what, $500K-$1mil?"
1/9/10 5:50 PM
Not true. If a $30 million program is cut by 33% ($10 million), then about 20 TSMs need to be laid off.
However, if a single PI who brings in around $500k is short by 33% ($165k), then they can likely find some way to cover for that "small" amount at the end of the year.
You have it backwards, 5:50 PM.
Let's go a bit further. How about shutting down this post, too? Do it for your buddy, Pete Nanos.
No need to stop while you're on a good run. The Nanos' era has now been successfully validated by the recent turn of events.
Time to re-write LANL's history. I, Pete Nanos, was the one who picked up LANL from the gutter and directed it on its current "path to greatness". LANS is just finishing up what I started.
It's time for LANS to think about naming a new building in my honor. That will show those remaining buttheads and cowboys at LANL who really won this epic battle.
- PETE NANOS
Another post that is receiving nothing but garbage. Time to turn it off too.
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