Changes at NWS? Possible layoffs?

A strange thing happened online this weekend ... well maybe not so strange... as it's hard to hide things online.  An advertisement for a job at the NWS for someone who specializes in layoffs.  Like a scene out of a movie where someone comes to town to fire people.. in Tennessee Williams "This Property is Condemned" the character Robert Redford plays is brought to town to decide which railroad workers to lay off and in what order.  I'm sorry.. isn't that what many democrats had against Mitt Romney he said "he liked firing people?? Perhaps he could take on the National Weather Service who it seems is looking to make layoffs.  One of many possible changes it seems that is usually kept under wraps, but was figured out online as they began advertising. Honestly... you can't make this stuff up...

No... I'm not making this up and it's not some teasing link from Drudge, but from the Washington Post and all over Twitter.

Really worth reading the article in the Washington Post.. it's better than reality TV.

Read the article... a quote below comes from their blog post. It's a great read.. please do read it!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/help-wanted-national-weather-service-seeks-financial-chief-to-institute-employee-reductions/2012/11/16/89280c82-3029-11e2-9f50-0308e1e75445_blog.html

"Original blog post, from Friday, 4:13 p.m.: The National Weather Service (NWS) has a key job opening: Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Buried in the announcement for this critical vacancy lies a surprising revelation: it seeks an applicant to carry out the task of reducing the NWS workforce."

Good news at least one person IS being HIRED... 

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/330824800

SALARY RANGE:	$119,554.00 to $179,700.00 / Per Year
OPEN PERIOD:	Wednesday, November 07, 2012 to Monday, December 10, 2012
SERIES & GRADE:	ES-0501-00
POSITION INFORMATION:	Full-Time - Permanent
DUTY LOCATIONS:	1 vacancy in the following location: Silver Spring, MD, USView Map
WHO MAY BE CONSIDERED:	Applications will be accepted from all groups of Qualified Individuals who are U.S. Citizens.

Has a nice salary, the job posting is show here:

Note #4 "4.  NWS efforts to achieve modernization and streamlining goals including employee reductions, automation, "end-state" resource targets, and business process engineering related to conversion of NWS budgets and system acquisition accounts to base operations and maintenance."

Listen I understand that everyone has to cut back in today's economy...

However after the debacle of the way Sandy was passed off like a hot potato from the NHC to the NWS... and that argument goes on and on as to whether the decision to make a High Wind Warning or a Hurricane Warning is still being argued...  is this the time to "streamline" the NWS or give them more money?

I mean IF you are a big believer in Global Warming being one of the biggest enemies we have as a country... a planet.. wouldn't you want to hire MORE weather forecasters to keep us informed of what is going to happen next?

Understandably we spend a lot of money on this research, that money has to come from somewhere. So we pay more money for research on Global Warming and then we cut back the forecasters and "streamline" departments that actually forecast the weather vs researching what might happen down the road...  Note I highlighted the salient part in yellow...

????

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/sunday-review/a-ray-of-hope-on-climate-change.html

"In relative terms, the sums for clean-energy research that many scientists and economists support are not huge. A politically diverse group of experts recently set a target of $25 billion a year in federal spending on research and development (some of which could come from phasing out ineffective programs). That amount is slightly below the budget of the National Institutes of Health and only 3 percent as large as the Social Security budget. Other experts put the ideal figure closer to $50 billion.

At the recent peak, in 2009, all federal spending on clean energy — including money for research and subsidies for households and businesses — amounted to $44 billion.  This year, Washington will spend about $16 billion. The scheduled expiration of a tax credit for wind, originally signed by the first President George Bush in 1992, would help reduce the total to $14 billion next year, and current law has it continuing to fall in 2014."

Note the dollar numbers I am quoting and one thing I know from first hand experience is the NY Times does it's research. And, as President Obama has made Global Warming a priority, one would imagine the Federal Government spends way more than President Bush did...while looking to hire someone to streamline and do "employment reductions" ...there just are no words here...

A more recent article from the NY Times:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html

There's lots of money for studies on Global Warming (big cash cow) so... wouldn't you figure you need more not less forecasters?

A lot of questions... very few answers.

Are we in the business of weather forecasting or weather wishcasting???

A lot of budget cuts coming down the line in more ways than just human resources.

But, hey if you got the resume.. now's the time to apply!

Besos BobbiStorm

Note: "use of the logo does not imply an endorsement by NOAA/NWS"

Ps... MUST BE A US CITIZEN...  and good at streamlining...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE-xgjrJrOc <



Book of plays...

Movie...


They made the movie into a big name, blockbuster film playing up the seedy, sex lives of the characters. Redford does a good job as the railroad worker who comes to the railroad town to shut down the railroad because of budget cuts during the depression. Sound familiar? You can buy the movie, but know it doesn't end well......