FFRDCs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Palantir’s CTO views both FFRDCs and UARCs as direct competitors. Google “18 Theses”. He wants them to shrink substantially in headcount & revenue ceiling — or go away completely. He also dislikes all of the Federal civil service labs.

Another goal of this crew is to break Mitre into several different companies, each smaller, which has happened once before. In the 1990s, Mitre spun out MitreTek due to USG pressure. MitreTek now is called Noblis.

The connection between Musk/DoGE, Palantir, and Anduril is Peter Thiel. So it is all connected together.

Yes. And this is not some kind of secret. Everyone at the FFRDCs and UARCs should know about this and be making plans accordingly for their careers.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Any insight into whether JHU’s APL has been impacted yet re: layoffs, budget cuts etc? Would this be a bad place for a federal scientist in danger of being RIF’d to pursue employment?

I have no specific info but I certainly wouldn't go to a UARC.

Why?

Because they either get caught up Palantir's war on orgs that compete with industry for software development or the general anti- any contract that ends in a report sentiment.

I work at APL and we are loaded with $

So was Booz.

Booz is fine.

That's certainly a hot take.

Give me a break. Booz is not fine at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Negative comments about MITRE are not true and wonder what is motivating them. Full of hardworking, thoughtful people that care about their work.

DP. Any organization with 9000+ people, any, will have some slackers and some waste. I have no doubt some are smart and hardworking, but it is completely impossible that any organization that size has no duds, no slackers, and no thoughtless people. The hard part for leadership in an organization that size is identifying which people underperform - and complex HR processes often are not effective in identifying underpeformers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Negative comments about MITRE are not true and wonder what is motivating them. Full of hardworking, thoughtful people that care about their work.

DP. Any organization with 9000+ people, any, will have some slackers and some waste. I have no doubt some are smart and hardworking, but it is completely impossible that any organization that size has no duds, no slackers, and no thoughtless people. The hard part for leadership in an organization that size is identifying which people underperform - and complex HR processes often are not effective in identifying underpeformers.

The Mitre's of the world have become so large it's inevitable they are in the crosshairs. We've given work to RAND and have seen the same thing even though it's smaller.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there any FFRDCs that are safe?

Probably not. That said, Mitre is by far the largest operator of FFRDCs so it is the most visible target.

Check out the Glassdoor reviews for MITRE. That place is messy.

[Anonymous]

This all will pass in a year. Are FFRDCs a bit bloated? Probably. Is it worth the risk to demolish them? No. Freeze their ceiling and step up audits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This all will pass in a year. Are FFRDCs a bit bloated? Probably. Is it worth the risk to demolish them? No. Freeze their ceiling and step up audits.

What risk? Are you paying attention to what's happening in government?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This all will pass in a year. Are FFRDCs a bit bloated? Probably. Is it worth the risk to demolish them? No. Freeze their ceiling and step up audits.

What risk? Are you paying attention to what's happening in government?

If there’s another terrorist attack after all of these RIFs and resignations, who has the analytic shop to advise on what to do next? That shop takes decades to cultivate. Get rid of it and see what alternatives you have. That my friend is the risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This all will pass in a year. Are FFRDCs a bit bloated? Probably. Is it worth the risk to demolish them? No. Freeze their ceiling and step up audits.

What risk? Are you paying attention to what's happening in government?

If there’s another terrorist attack after all of these RIFs and resignations, who has the analytic shop to advise on what to do next? That shop takes decades to cultivate. Get rid of it and see what alternatives you have. That my friend is the risk.

we will need a different king in place for that to matter; analysis is not high on priorities these days...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This all will pass in a year. Are FFRDCs a bit bloated? Probably. Is it worth the risk to demolish them? No. Freeze their ceiling and step up audits.

What risk? Are you paying attention to what's happening in government?

If there’s another terrorist attack after all of these RIFs and resignations, who has the analytic shop to advise on what to do next? That shop takes decades to cultivate. Get rid of it and see what alternatives you have. That my friend is the risk.

They're willing to endanger social security and the IRS. They fired nuclear safety people and only brought them back because of external pressure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check out the Glassdoor reviews for MITRE. That place is messy.

Most employees despised the previous CEO, his constant talk of “growth,” attempts to stand up “alt-FFRDC” business lines, and his tone-deaf, foot-in-mouth communication style on many company-wide CEO calls. He explicitly encouraged the mess that was made on Glassdoor. Such an out of touch jerk.

New CEO seems like a breath of fresh air. Even before the Trump administration took office, we’re hearing about better focus on appropriate FFRDC work (e.g., emerging technologies and approaches, work with high risk of failure that others might avoid, hands-on prototyping that transitions to industry quickly), raising the bar very high on technical quality, and differentiation from other beltway contractors.

MITRE has always said no to plenty of work the government asks us to do because it’s not a good fit for our FFRDC role. I think that approach is going to increase, even with the government-driven contractions that are underway.

Glassdoor reviews will likely improve over time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out the Glassdoor reviews for MITRE. That place is messy.

Most employees despised the previous CEO, his constant talk of “growth,” attempts to stand up “alt-FFRDC” business lines, and his tone-deaf, foot-in-mouth communication style on many company-wide CEO calls. He explicitly encouraged the mess that was made on Glassdoor. Such an out of touch jerk.

New CEO seems like a breath of fresh air. Even before the Trump administration took office, we’re hearing about better focus on appropriate FFRDC work (e.g., emerging technologies and approaches, work with high risk of failure that others might avoid, hands-on prototyping that transitions to industry quickly), raising the bar very high on technical quality, and differentiation from other beltway contractors.

MITRE has always said no to plenty of work the government asks us to do because it’s not a good fit for our FFRDC role. I think that approach is going to increase, even with the government-driven contractions that are underway.

Glassdoor reviews will likely improve over time.

Sounds like RAND right now. Our new CEO is all about growth, AI, and is focused on alt-FFRDC work to the point where I wonder if they even want their FFRDCs anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out the Glassdoor reviews for MITRE. That place is messy.

Most employees despised the previous CEO, his constant talk of “growth,” attempts to stand up “alt-FFRDC” business lines, and his tone-deaf, foot-in-mouth communication style on many company-wide CEO calls. He explicitly encouraged the mess that was made on Glassdoor. Such an out of touch jerk.

New CEO seems like a breath of fresh air. Even before the Trump administration took office, we’re hearing about better focus on appropriate FFRDC work (e.g., emerging technologies and approaches, work with high risk of failure that others might avoid, hands-on prototyping that transitions to industry quickly), raising the bar very high on technical quality, and differentiation from other beltway contractors.

MITRE has always said no to plenty of work the government asks us to do because it’s not a good fit for our FFRDC role. I think that approach is going to increase, even with the government-driven contractions that are underway.

Glassdoor reviews will likely improve over time.

The timing is bad for MITRE with Trump

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out the Glassdoor reviews for MITRE. That place is messy.

Most employees despised the previous CEO, his constant talk of “growth,” attempts to stand up “alt-FFRDC” business lines, and his tone-deaf, foot-in-mouth communication style on many company-wide CEO calls. He explicitly encouraged the mess that was made on Glassdoor. Such an out of touch jerk.

New CEO seems like a breath of fresh air. Even before the Trump administration took office, we’re hearing about better focus on appropriate FFRDC work (e.g., emerging technologies and approaches, work with high risk of failure that others might avoid, hands-on prototyping that transitions to industry quickly), raising the bar very high on technical quality, and differentiation from other beltway contractors.

MITRE has always said no to plenty of work the government asks us to do because it’s not a good fit for our FFRDC role. I think that approach is going to increase, even with the government-driven contractions that are underway.

Glassdoor reviews will likely improve over time.

Sounds like RAND right now. Our new CEO is all about growth, AI, and is focused on alt-FFRDC work to the point where I wonder if they even want their FFRDCs anymore.

It is a very good thing for the organization that they diversified in terms of funding sources over the last few years. It will still be very painful for them if the FFRDCs are cut or eliminated, but it will not be existential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out the Glassdoor reviews for MITRE. That place is messy.

Most employees despised the previous CEO, his constant talk of “growth,” attempts to stand up “alt-FFRDC” business lines, and his tone-deaf, foot-in-mouth communication style on many company-wide CEO calls. He explicitly encouraged the mess that was made on Glassdoor. Such an out of touch jerk.

New CEO seems like a breath of fresh air. Even before the Trump administration took office, we’re hearing about better focus on appropriate FFRDC work (e.g., emerging technologies and approaches, work with high risk of failure that others might avoid, hands-on prototyping that transitions to industry quickly), raising the bar very high on technical quality, and differentiation from other beltway contractors.

MITRE has always said no to plenty of work the government asks us to do because it’s not a good fit for our FFRDC role. I think that approach is going to increase, even with the government-driven contractions that are underway.

Glassdoor reviews will likely improve over time.

Sounds like RAND right now. Our new CEO is all about growth, AI, and is focused on alt-FFRDC work to the point where I wonder if they even want their FFRDCs anymore.

It is a very good thing for the organization that they diversified in terms of funding sources over the last few years. It will still be very painful for them if the FFRDCs are cut or eliminated, but it will not be existential.

How do you know? Do you work there?