JPL Workforce Update | Hacker News Reader

JPL Workforce Update

jpl.nasa.gov

61 pointscptroot12 comments

> PL staff has been advised that the workforce reduction will affect approximately 530 of our colleagues, an impact of about 8%, plus approximately 40 additional members of our contractor workforce. The impacts will occur across both technical and support areas of the Lab.

This is horrible!

That is the worst way I’ve ever heard of being fired.

Sit at home and wait for an invite for a virtual meeting. After the meeting you will receive a email specifying if you have been fired. What the hell! Oh and forward that email because you are about to lose access.

Given the size of the layoffs I'd imagine it's preferable to be at home and receive the news virtually if you're being laid off. It might be unpleasant being part of the group making their way to the exits en masse.

When I was part of a mass layoffs, it was an incredible feeling of camaraderie because I was there in person with my coworkers.

You are right, though there probably exists an even worse way: the same layoffs, but it happens while you are on paid leave, so you don't get the memo, but the announcement, meeting and effect occur in 2-3 days and you find out the day after that:

- there are layoffs

- you are to be impacted

- you are no longer part of the company

- you don't have access to your work email address and work site

All at once after a nice deserved vacation, when you are returning to work with fresh ideas on how to improve the operational safety of the Mars Sample Return mission ready to share to your now ex-colleagues.

I guess JPL has calculated they the chances of Congress getting their act together are slim....

As far as I can tell, NSF grants are also stuck in "wait for appropriations" limbo as well.

It is possible that this reflects the wishes of the voters and their desire to moderate federal spending, especially expensive outlays such as Mars Sample Return. Perhaps NASA can collaborate with the China National Space Agency instead.

I'm pretty sure very few voters, perhaps save a few nihilists, are in favor of continual congressional dysfunction.

"Starve the beast" [0] is the very popular strategy among conservatives to force spending cuts through such dysfunction... it is quite a few nihilists who feel that way.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

It's also possible that what you're saying is complete b.s. and that voters just want a government that can put their insane political brinkmanship on the shelf for a minute and pass a spending package that lets us pretend we have a fully functioning first world society. It's not possible to know, since we don't get to vote on it.

Frankly, the Mars Sample Return concept sounded long on optimism and short on simple solutions. "Hope Perseverance is still around to hand over samples in 6 years" or "send helicopters to retrieve sample containers" seems like less like a plan and more like a wish.

https://www.space.com/nasa-troubled-mars-sample-return-missi...

JAXA's MMX Phobos mission seems more appropriately scoped. Phobos might have a few pebbles kicked up from Mars

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_Moons_eXploration

JAXA estimated mission cost: $417 million NASA estimated mission cost: $8 billion?

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13144292

A Reddit thread on the layoffs

https://reddit.com/r/JPL/comments/1ale1s3/chaos_at_jpl/

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