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Wednesday, March 5, 1997

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RIF trial jury selected
Time for 'Reflections'
Career Development Advisory Council makes recommendations
So how much does it cost when the Lab delays its opening ...
PERS civil lawsuit
How well-trained is your eye?

RIF trial jury selected

A jury was seated late Tuesday after an all-day process of "voir dire."

Voir dire, a Latin term meaning "to speak the truth," is the question-and-answer session during which both the defense and plaintiffs' lawyers query the pool of nearly 95 potential jurors about their perceptions and attitudes that may bear upon their ability to fairly decide the case.

After questioning, both legal teams had the opportunity to challenge potential jurors for cause. The lawyers argued the challenges and the judge ruled on each one. Each side also has five preemptory challenges by which any person could be excused without cause.

The first 12 jurors were seated late Tuesday, along with four alternates.

After the jury was selected, the plaintiffs alleged that the Laboratory preemptive strikes were discriminatory.

Laboratory lawyers defended their dismissals and Judge James Hall ruled there was no evidence of discrimination and upheld the strikes.

Opening arguments are scheduled to begin today.

Time for 'Reflections'

The March issue of "Reflections," is now available -- the mailroom began distributing copies this week. Featured in this latest issue are articles on outstanding mentors at the Lab; the Women's Diversity Working Group; Women Helping Women, a group of women employees in the Science and Technology Base Programs office who help support and encourage women in their careers; the Lab's Expanding Your Horizons Program, which introduces middle school and high school girls across Northern New Mexico to science and math careers; February service anniversaries; Lab employees who officiate at sports events during their spare time; and more.

Career Development Advisory Council makes recommendations

An advisory council created to look at the Laboratory's career development, mentoring and succession planning approaches has recommended that Lab managers and employees focus greater attention on the development of their careers.

The Career Development Advisory Council will oversee the Lab's career development, mentoring and succession planning efforts, said Rebecca Phillips, deputy director of the Human Resources (HR) Division and a member of the council. The new career development effort, which includes six components, gets under way this spring.

Recommendations from a Laboratory Leadership Council action team that met during 1996 examined career development, mentoring and succession planning efforts at the Lab. Several members of that team also agreed to sit on the career advisory council. The LLC action team said career development, mentoring and succession planning efforts should be phased in and piloted in several organizations before Labwide implementation over the next few years.

The council also said career road maps should be developed so employees know about opportunities available at the Lab to further their careers and what skills, experience and education are needed to advance or change careers.

The LLC action team also surveyed 17 companies in the public and private sector, and other labs to learn what kinds of mentoring, career development and succession planning programs they use. The action team found that most of the companies have career development, mentoring and succession planning programs in place.

The team also incorporated information that the Lab's Women's Diversity Working Group collected on mentoring, Phillips said.

The LLC action team recommended that more emphasis be given to career development during the annual performance appraisal cycle, that the Lab offer a skills database so it knows the existing skills of the workforce, and that employees be encouraged to participate in more formal mentoring programs.

"While we recognize that individual employees must take primary responsibility for the course of their own careers, we believe that an increased level of Laboratory assistance in this area will provide large benefits both to the Lab and to its employees," the LLC action team said in its report to the LLC.

"The Lab has the potential to gain a more skillful and highly trained workforce with a greatly improved morale."

The Career Development Advisory Council has met twice. But the initiative has been in the works since last year when Laboratory Director Sig Hecker asked Warren "Pete" Miller, the Lab's acting deputy director for science and technology, to take a renewed look at career development, mentoring and succession planning at the Lab. Miller chaired the LLC action team when he was the Lab's acting Diversity (DV) Office director.

Miller said enhanced career development and mentoring programs will help the Lab better utilize the diversity of its workforce. "We have to maximize the potential and utilization of that workforce. It is a real asset, and we have to manage it as an asset," he said.

"The whole career development idea is to create this environment of maximizing this potential."

Members of the Career Development Advisory Council include Tom Garcia, the Lab's director of institutional development; Phillips; Ann Kuiper and Janet Moody of HR; Pam French of the Director's Office; Carolyn Mangeng, deputy director of Nuclear Weapons Technology (NWT); Ben Wampler of Chemical Science Technology (CST) Division; Dana Christensen, deputy director of Nuclear Materials Technology (NMT) Division; Carol Estes of Facilities, Security and Safeguards (FSS) Division; Bob Teller of Emergency Management and Response (FSS-20) representing the Employee Advisory Council; Kevin Jones of Accelerator Operations and Technical Support (AOT-6), representing the Science Engineering Advisory Council; and Mick Trujillo, acting director of the Diversity (DV) Office.

Phillips said the Lab already has some career development and mentoring activities in place. She noted that HR-Training and Development offers interviewing skills, job search and résumé writing workshops. The Lab also uses mentoring in a number of student programs.

Yet, employees who participated in focus groups on career development and mentoring last spring and summer said the Lab needs to do better in these areas, she said. "People were saying there isn't a coordinated approach to career development at the Lab," said Phillips. "Part of this effort is to pull it together and make it more effective.

"It's not supposed to squelch what's already happening but to make it more broadly available," said Phillips.

About 100 employees from throughout the Lab participated in the focus group and one-on-one sessions. Employees were asked what they needed from the Lab in the areas of mentoring, succession planning and career development, and how they felt about their own career development at the Lab.

Employees also were asked what types of career development tools, such as advising and mentoring have and have not worked for them, how they could have been better assisted at the Lab and by whom, and how employees see their role at the Lab in comparison with that of their management.

One employee wrote "I'd like to move up, but I don't know what the next job would be." Still others said the Lab does a good job of technical mentoring but doesn't do "managerial mentoring" well.

Another employee wrote that mentoring is a shared responsibility, and still another wrote that mentoring "is an expression of favoritism."

The responses, Phillips said, "were consistent with what we've been hearing over time."

Some responses ranged from employees saying employee development during performance appraisals isn't taken seriously to "division management cares about all of us," to the exposure to opportunities for involvement is important for an employee's career at the Lab.

--Steve Sandoval

So how much does it cost when the Lab delays its opening or closes altogether because of bad weather?

In the Jan. 9, 1997, issue of the Newsbulletin, the Laboratory's Early Dismissal/Closure/Delayed Opening Plan for determining whether to change the Lab's operating schedule because of inclement weather was described in detail. When weather conditions affect the Lab's operating schedule, as they did last Friday, it costs money -- a lot of money.

How much money? For this fiscal year, the Lab loses a little more than $241,000 in employee productivity for every hour that the Lab is closed during normal operating hours. This figure is derived by taking the budget allocated for University of California employee salaries this fiscal year (about $425 million) and dividing it by 1,762, the average total number of hours that a typical UC employee at the Lab works in a year.

If bad weather or some other emergency causes the Lab to close for the entire day, that equals more than $1.9 million in lost employee productivity. If, however, you simply were to take the Lab's overall operating budget and divide it by the total number of days that the Lab operates in a fiscal year, the cost for being closed an entire day is closer to $4 million.

Lab Deputy Director Jim Jackson said although the Lab obviously has a duty to the taxpayers to be as productive as possible for the money it receives, there are times when safety considerations must take precedence.

"The safety of our employees is always the overriding factor in determining whether we decide to take any action regarding the Lab's operating schedule," he said. "All we can do is look at current weather, road, parking lot and sidewalk conditions, find out what the weather forecast calls for and make the best informed decision we can at the time. It's difficult to predict how much snow will fall in this area to begin with."

Jackson said he knows that the Lab sometimes is accused of overreacting or not reacting fast enough when it alters the Lab's normal operating schedule because of the weather, but added, "We just do the best we can, but we'll always be subject to Monday morning quarterbacking."

--Ternel Martinez

PERS civil lawsuit

The attorney for some Laboratory employees who sued the Lab claiming they were denied the same early retirement incentives as other employees in 1993 has asked for a new trial and a new judge to hear the case.

Attorneys for the University of California Board of Regents in response have asked First Judicial District Court Judge Steve Herrera to deny the motion for a new trial and not to "recuse" himself from the case.

The Regents made the offer to members of the present UC retirement system, known as UCRS, only since the vast majority of UC employees are members of UCRS and the Regents have no control over the Public Employees Retirement System, or PERS, which is managed and controlled by the state of California.

The 41 employees who filed the civil lawsuit belonged to PERS. The university changed to the new retirement plan Oct. 1, 1961.

Employees under the PERS plan weren't allowed to participate in the early retirement incentive. They filed a lawsuit in February 1995 claiming they should have been allowed to participate in the early retirement incentive offering. They claimed their civil rights were violated and that UC breached its contract to the employees because they also weren't allowed to take part in the early retirement incentive offer, known as VERIP III.

Last summer, Herrera ruled partly in favor of the UC Board of Regents, dismissing the civil rights claim, but letting stand the breach of contract claim.

Then in late January, Herrera ruled that UC didn't breach its contract with the employees under the PERS system.

On Feb. 14, attorney Herb Silverberg filed a motion asking for a new trial and for Judge Herrera to remove himself from hearing the case. Silverberg asserts that Herrera is biased and there is some question about his impartiality. "Once there is an appearance of bias a judge no longer has discretion to remain on the case based on his own individual soul-searching, he shall recuse himself," Silverberg wrote in his motion.

Attorneys for the UC Board of Regents said in response to the motion that their is no new evidence to warrant a new trial and that the employees can't ask the judge to remove himself from the case because they are unhappy with some rulings the judge has made.

No hearing date has been set on Silverberg's motion.

--Steve Sandoval

How well-trained is your eye?

PHOTO: Roger Moerman, right, of the Department of Energy Training Resource Center in Hanford, Wash., listens as Larry Quintana of the Accelerator Production of Tritium Project tries to determine what's wrong with the timer he's holding. This exercise took place during a suspect/counterfeit parts awareness training session held last Thursday in the White Rock Training Center. The session was sponsored by DOE/Defense Programs in Washington, DC. The Receiving Inspection Team in Quality Management (ESH-14) is responsible for inspecting several items that come into the Lab, such as slings, flanges, circuit breakers, glove box components, HAZMAT containers, high-efficiency particulate air filters, fasteners (bolts) and other components defined as "below the hook" lifting devices. Last year, the RIT inspected more than 2,300 line items; of that number, 51 parts were found to be suspect. For more information on suspect/counterfeit items, call Ken Brandt of ESH-14 at 5-6377. Photo by Fred Rick

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