Talk about Bartlett

[let-it-ride]

Having Jrs. doing the work and a SR. or two as oversite will be the next trend in Commercial.
In the DOE sites, the trend, already is to hire locals as Task Qualified Technicians. Instead of paying a Sr. $30/hr, they get a local and pay them $12-15/hr.
The DOE has allowed this to happen and condones it at many sites.
Remember, before TMI 1979,  HP/RCT was not an influential and necessary function.
Now it has returned to that time where HP means 'Holding Up Progress'.
What has been going on in the DOE/DOD world, is now catching up in the Commercial world.
Welcome to the New Age of Nuclear Power.

Now Bartlett, will supply people no matter what the circumstance. If a Sr.is getting $30, Bartlett is charging $60. A TQT is getting $15, Bartlett is getting $30.
It has ALWAYS been that way. Does anyone REALLY think Bartlett or ANY company will give up anything for the techs when almost anyone can fill the job?

[Rennhack]

Hear that the company is being sold to Areva  Any comment?

I know you asked Eric, but...

That rumor has been around since Bruce sold the company.  The information I have (and I have everything  that can be public) is that Bartlett has been for sale since it was bought.  The new owners had a 5 year plan, and the 5 years are up.  There are several interested parties, if you heard a rumor that company X might be buying Bartlett; they are probably one of the interested parties.  Bartlett isn't 'just for sale'; they are actively working on finding new owners.  There are many interested parties.  The deal should be finalized by the end of 2008.

Here is a short list of some of the 8 groups I have 'heard' are interested in buying Bartlett:

Areva http://www.areva.com/
EnergySolutions http://www.energysolutions.com/
The Brock Group http://www.brockgroup.com/
The Shaw Group http://www.shawgrp.com/

[Rennhack]

Now Bartlett, will supply people no matter what the circumstance. If a Sr.is getting $30, Bartlett is charging $60. A TQT is getting $15, Bartlett is getting $30.

I don't know which break room you got your information from, but you are dead wrong.  If ANY company could charge a 2.0 multiplier, I would start staffing outages tomorrow with a 1.5 multiplier (that's $45 for a $30 tech).  The truth of the matter is that the multiplier is VERY VERY low, that is why there is no competition.

I write proposals for various nuclear companies.  I KNOW what I am talking about.  The cost to employ a person, with no benefits or minimum benefits is between 23 and 34%.  That is called a 1.23 or 1.34 multiplier.  Anything they charge past that would be profit, cost or more benefits for the employee.
MOST companies charge 1.3 to 1.45 for a technician. 

I don't mean to jump on you, it's just I keep seeing people post the same incorrect information all the time.  Bartlett (or any company for the matter) does not make much money off of a single technician.  The money comes in the volume.  The profit on a single tech is about $1-2/hr, depending on operating expenses.  If you have 1 million billable man hours... that's a million dollars profit.  – If you have 4 guys working 40 hours a week, that's $160  a week profit. – I can go to Michigan and make better money returning cans for the 10 cent deposit. – But get a project with 300 people working 40 hours a week... That's $625k/yr profit.

You don't have to believe me, but it's the truth as I know it.

[Laundry Man]

I REALLY HOPE THIS IS A NASTY RUMOR!

Nothing against Areva - I like working with them but they can be cowboys. How would you control them if you're on their payroll? Talk about a conflict of interst...................

I guess instead of contractors assisting house with Refueling & SG's they'll be working in the Aux building doing surveys, smearing, clearing, ..........hmmm.....isn't it cheaper to train a bunch of Jr's to do the work with a few contract Sr's as oversight.................? 

This would not be much different than several years ago when Westinghouse bought NUMANCO from Charlie (God bless him).  If the big W needed support for one of the packaged outages, techs would be pulled from another site to fill the spots.  Sure did piss off some of the clients.
LM

[Eric_Bartlett]

On a Positive Note......

Bartlett Impressed me this past week!

RG!

OK, I just picked myself up off the floor after reading that!  How did we manage that RG?

[Eric_Bartlett]

Eric, Hear that the company is being sold to Areva  Any comment?
LM

Bartlett has met with a number of potential buyers, i do believe Areva was one of them. I truthfully haven't paid attention to who is looking at us, until its a done deal it doesn't affect me.  After i find out who makes an offer then I'll pay attention, until then i just try to get by day to day.

[Eric_Bartlett]

Now Bartlett, will supply people no matter what the circumstance. If a Sr.is getting $30, Bartlett is charging $60. A TQT is getting $15, Bartlett is getting $30. It has ALWAYS been that way. Does anyone REALLY think Bartlett or ANY company will give up anything for the techs when almost anyone can fill the job?

I wish we could charge twice what we pay like you state, but alas in the real world thats not the case...far, far from it in fact. In the 20 yrs I've been doing this I've never seen a mark-up at 100%, in fact I don't ever even recall seeing a mark-up as high as 50%, not in this business, not on the radiological side of things...

I don't know which break room you got your information from, but you are dead wrong.  If ANY company could charge a 2.0 multiplier, I would start staffing outages tomorrow with a 1.5 multiplier (that’s $45 for a $30 tech).  The truth of the matter is that the multiplier is VERY VERY low, that is why there is no competition.

I write proposals for various nuclear companies.  I KNOW what I am talking about.  The cost to employ a person, with no benefits or minimum benefits is between 23 and 34%.  That is called a 1.23 or 1.34 multiplier.  Anything they charge past that would be profit, cost or more benefits for the employee.
MOST companies charge 1.3 to 1.45 for a technician. 

I don’t mean to jump on you, it’s just I keep seeing people post the same incorrect information all the time.  Bartlett (or any company for the matter) does not make much money off of a single technician.  The money comes in the volume.  The profit on a single tech is about $1-2/hr, depending on operating expenses.  If you have 1 million billable man hours… that’s a million dollars profit.  – If you have 4 guys working 40 hours a week, that’s $160  a week profit. – I can go to Michigan and make better money returning cans for the 10 cent deposit. – But get a project with 300 people working 40 hours a week… That’s $625k/yr profit.

You don’t have to believe me, but it’s the truth as I know it.

Mike - Thanks for the explanation - you saved me some typing - the truth as you know it is as accurate as can be other than that a 45%mark-up is also extremely high - cut that in half brother and you'll still be above the industry average.

[Rennhack]

Mike - Thanks for the explanation - you saved me some typing - the truth as you know it is as accurate as can be other than that a 45%mark-up is also extremely high - cut that in half brother and you'll still be above the industry average.

I've seen some DOE and other non-comercial contracts with 1.45 multiplier.  Small contracts mind you, nothing where there is much competition.

[NJ]

Just wondering when the 2009 Spring Outage Wishlist is coming out.  Two or Three weeks keeps going by.

[Eric_Bartlett]

Just wondering when the 2009 Spring Outage Wishlist is coming out.  Two or Three weeks keeps going by.

I should have it complete by the end of September - rough draft is done, just double check'n some shutdown dates, durations and needs.

Eric

[Shawnee Man]

In the professional arena, I just worked a contract at Dresden and the multiplier was 2.0769. Sorry thats all I can tell ya. I would have to kill ya.

[SloGlo]

shawnee man.... yinz dit da impreshun yer under payed?

[NJ]

Thanks Eric, I'll keep looking for it.

[RAD-GHOST]

OK, I just picked myself up off the floor after reading that!  How did we manage that RG?

I know the feeling, I had to do that TWICE!   

I'll have to keep you posted, I haven't eliminated Luck from the Equation......Time will Tell!

Later, RG!





       

[Shawnee Man]

shawnee man.... yinz dit da impreshun yer under payed?

Slo Glo, Maybe I will make as much money as you when I grow up.

[PWHoppe]

I still get called "Tech A" by some techs that knew me back then...

I've always considered you an "A Tech"

[RAD-GHOST]

On a Positive Note......

Bartlett Impressed me this past week!

RG!

OK, I just picked myself up off the floor after reading that!  How did we manage that RG?

EB,

Now to worry, I don't see either of us, repeating the above statements this season.....

Happy Holiday................RG.................

[scottt66]

 

I used to work as a house employee for a utility and recently decided to go on the road to find a better utility to go house with more room for advancement. I always thought the contractors who complained about bartlett when they came in during outages were just the complaining type since my site doesnt pay well and the bottom of the barrel was all we ever got. Plus I live in williamsburg VA and had frequent contact with Ballard through mutual friends and thought he was a stand up enough guy.Well after working for bartlett for just one year I must admit I was wrong. From the lying by recruiters to the blatant disrespect by that idiot in per deim I now see this company cares nothing about the contractors. I just got off the phone with the per deim girl to fix a problem that MY SITE COORDINATOR caused and was totally treated like I was stupid and like I had caused the problem. Plus I have to pay money for their mistake! Its not the money but the principle. A BS MBA and Six Sigma Training and I'm dumb . The recruiters would straight lie over the phone to try and force me to go places I had no business going. Luckily I managed my money before I left my house job and repeatedly was in a position to tell the recruiter to stick it several times. I truly feel bad for the individuals who have to be treated like this to make a living. My "experiment" on the road has educated me on how one company, when too big, can mistreat the little guy time and time again.
I have recently taken the job of program RP training administrator at another utility starting in june. I will never forget how Bartlett treats its workers. Soon I will announce where I am so that contractors will come and I will help them get through the Northeast Exam and the NRRPT in the hopes that they can get out of the grip of this terrible company. My plan is to be an RPM in 5 to 9 years and by then I hope to have enough influence to rid our site and hopefully the utility of Bartlett all together. Is this holding a grudge, no not really, its more of doing the right thing to help others. Bartlett needs competition to be forced to recruit workers and not have workers beg them for work.
It really is a sad sad state of affairs concerning those who rely on Bartlett for work.   

[nowhereman]

ah...mr scottt66
your post/rant almost left me speechless, but here goes, " at your site all you ever got was the bottom of the barrel" .....well thanks for slamming all your fellow technicians.....

plus I don't get how someone with a BS/MBA and six sigma  training with a house job could look at a bartlett wish list of outages and figure that the grass is greener on the Bartlett side. and to complain as vehemently as you have about the "per diem" issue, just shows you have an attitude problem.....( I can call the bartlett office and have an issue resolved  usually under a minute.)

either you have an attitude problem or this is a just another rant by a troll.

[hoghunter]

Amen brother!! You hit the nail on the head.This guy thinks he's all it.I started worked for Barttlet in "87".I've worked for a few others to,but the bottom line life is full of UPS and downs. I found out through the years this isn't my world it's our world and we have to work together.I have been treated pretty good overall by Bartlett,we all will complain about this or that (human nature).  I would like to comment on the statement about kicking Bartlett out.Over the years I've developed a habit to eat,watching TV,ECT and several others  that take money so if you don't like it just leave it, don't try to put yourself above everyone else.A friend in Mich. told me once " don't open your trap unless you are willing to pay and don't leave mad just leave.I see a pattern here,A person is house but feels he is above them, then he goes to Bartlett and was above them now he's landed somewhere else,now we ask how long before he's above this one.I know I shouldn't even state on this cause for every action there is a reaction,but I've just remarried and hope that maybe I can get out someday and spend it with the best thing that has came my way.

[IPREGEN]

I see some of the posts are based on a true story but are not really the truth. The multiplier is called the mark up. It is not anywhere near as high as what is seen above and it normally drops after the overtime kicks in. The company does not get all this mark up as cash for rolling around in because it goes to pay the cost of running the office with expenses and salaries. Feel free to start your own company. Also there is the cost of borrowing against the payroll billed to the utility. Banks do not lend it for free and the techs all want to get paid on time even though the utilities are notoriously slow payers.  As for as working for Bartlett. I did it from 1985 until 2000, 15 years and never was screwed over, lied to or cheated on pay. Then I went house, then I went to a non-nuke utility. The bottom line is
1. the company is entitled to charge more than they pay you, the mark up is reasonable and is also similar to non-utility technical field marks ups.
2. If you screw with your food chain (the contracting company) do not expect to be a priority placement for them. When I did the resume reviews and you were a returnee with no prior issues, you were golden, if you were a problem, you went to the bottom of the pile. If you had previously committed and did not show up, you were rejected, after all how did I know if you would do it again. I would overstaff by a couple of techs just in case we had no shows. If everybody did show then we were a little fat, and you know what that means, we could get rid of problem people ASAP. If I had never heard of you and nobody else at the station had either, I made calls to see if your previous sites would hire you again. That's what I did, who knows what happens now.

[Eric_Bartlett]

I used to work as a house employee for a utility and recently decided to go on the road to find a better utility to go house with more room for advancement. I always thought the contractors who complained about Bartlett when they came in during outages were just the complaining type since my site doesn't pay well and the bottom of the barrel was all we ever got. Plus I live in williamsburg VA and had frequent contact with Ballard through mutual friends and thought he was a stand up enough guy.Well after working for bartlett for just one year I must admit I was wrong. From the lying by recruiters to the blatant disrespect by that idiot in per deim I now see this company cares nothing about the contractors. I just got off the phone with the per deim girl to fix a problem that MY SITE COORDINATOR caused and was totally treated like I was stupid and like I had caused the problem. Plus I have to pay money for their mistake! Its not the money but the principle. A BS MBA and Six Sigma Training and I'm dumb . The recruiters would straight lie over the phone to try and force me to go places I had no business going. Luckily I managed my money before I left my house job and repeatedly was in a position to tell the recruiter to stick it several times. I truly feel bad for the individuals who have to be treated like this to make a living. My "experiment" on the road has educated me on how one company, when too big, can mistreat the little guy time and time again.
I have recently taken the job of program RP training administrator at another utility starting in june. I will never forget how Bartlett treats its workers. Soon I will announce where I am so that contractors will come and I will help them get through the Northeast Exam and the NRRPT in the hopes that they can get out of the grip of this terrible company. My plan is to be an RPM in 5 to 9 years and by then I hope to have enough influence to rid our site and hopefully the utility of Bartlett all together. Is this holding a grudge, no not really, its more of doing the right thing to help others. Bartlett needs competition to be forced to recruit workers and not have workers beg them for work.
It really is a sad sad state of affairs concerning those who rely on Bartlett for work.   

My first reaction is WOW! " I got to track down who ever pissed this one off and chew them a whole new _ _ _ !  because they obviously (per this post) did some low down dirty thing(s) to this individual to cause him to go on a tirade like this..." so i decided to look into things.

My second reaction is who is the guy that is so full of himself that he can knock down every contractor ever put to his site by stating "bottom of the barrel was all we ever got".  Thats pretty harsh to lash out at all your co-workers and I'm sure if you thought about it you'd acknowledge that that statement was a bit untrue as many capable, skilled and exemplary employees have funnelled thru your site over the years.

Scottt66 I am truly sorry you had a bad experience with our company, if I could rewind it all and make it a blissful experience I would, but alas I am unable to do that...what I can do is look into your allegations and address them with those individuals responsible for your unpleasant experience. 

Lets start by saying I know who you are and you know who i am so feel free to give me call anytime, if you cant get thru to me go to the operator and have me paged as I would love to address your concerns.  I will state what I know to be the truth, maybe not the whole truth as there are always 2 or more sides to a story, but at least the truth from the recruiting end of things. 
first off you are an x house tech
second we were contacted by a bni field mgr in charge of the site you were house at and asked to get you into a Plant A because you were considering going house there
so the recruiter pushed, made some calls and got you in
you weren't offered or you didn't take the house job at Plant A
do to the non existant house job you decided to go to plant C and asked recruiting to get you in
the recruiter cut a deal with ya to do plant B prior to C to help us out - tit for tat, scratch'n backs, etc...
you ended up working sites A, B & C  - with excellent evals I must say
2 weeks later this post pops up

now I'm not trying to be confrontational I'm just trying to figure out what happened so please bare with me...when or at what point did the recruiter(s) lie to you and about what?  You make the statement but don't explain it.  Whether you believe me or not I do care about the contractors and I will not tolerate anyone working in my department that doesn't place the welfare of the work force first and foremost on their priority lists.   But don't get me wrong, just because I genuinely care about the contractors doesn't mean I'm going to roll over and let some one dump on my recruiters without giving me hard core examples of their accusations.    Now with that said I am concerned that you felt you were lied too and I'd really like to know by whom and what the lie was so it can be addressed.   

As far as perdiem goes...alas I have no say there but I will raise the concern to the Director of Finance about how his people talk and treat field personnel.

Congratulations on your new position with your new employer - I hope it all works out for you. 

Question regarding the last paragraph of your statement how does helping technicians get thru the Northeast Exam and NRRPT enable them to "get out of the grip of this terrible company".   Doesn't it just make them more marketable for us to put to more and more positions. 

"My plan is to be an RPM in 5 to 9 years and by then I hope to have enough influence to rid our site and hopefully the utility of Bartlett all together."

You ask "is this holding a grudge" and you state you don't think so, I have to kinda disagree with you - your post seems more than a standard fly off the handle temper tantrum. 

"Bartlett needs competition to be forced to recruit workers and not have workers beg them for work."  I don't know what industry you've been working in but I can tell you I, we, Bartlett welcome all of the competition this industry can muster.  In fact we not only owe it to all of the technicians that helped us get to where we are today but we owe an especially big thanks to all of our competitors over the years for helping define and shape our company.  If it wasn't for the Numanco's (both old school and the one we bought), the IRM's, ARC's, PSESI's, Hydro's, the GTS's, the NSS's, etc, etc, etc competing against us all of these years we would have not been able to grow to the point we are at - sometimes the best promotional tool for us is our competitors failure...failure to staff a client, failure to provide continuous employment for their techs, failure to just be able to compete with us. 

Anyways I have gone on way to long as I just meant this to be a "hey Scottt66 give me a call so we can talk about your concerns and issues" type post.  I apologize to those that have had to suffer through my rants and tirades in the past and find yourselves doing so again.

As always should anyone have a problem with any person, department and/or policy at Bartlett please contact me with specifics so that I or another dept head can look into and address your concerns.  If you have a problem with me specifically then I can and would be more than happy to get you on the line with my immediate supervision.  Anyways, Scottt66 give me a shout when you have a free moment. 

Thank you all for your patience with my rant - hope y'all have a good weekend, a fun and safe summer and a productive & profitable Fall season.

Eric

[retired nuke]

Eric, as always, you are a class act. All that mud slung at you, and didn't even sling any back shaking it off yourself.

I worked for Bartlett off and on for about a decade. Sometimes well, sometimes not so well. But when I needed work, Bartlett was always there (remember getting me to RFETS when i needed to get out of town?...THAT was funny...)

I just wish my utility would open the bidding honestly, and bring Bartlett in here.

Scottt66 - remember the person you crap on today could be the a$$ you have to kiss tomorrow. Just glad (or hope) that you ain't at my plant, that attitude will not make for a team environment.

[SloGlo]

A BS MBA and Six Sigma Training and I'm dumb .

aye gotta axe da unspoken question, cause yinz obviously bin in da biz four more dan a cupla years....

why ya in hp 'n knot in da business whirled? 

eye could sea ya swinging a meter iffen yer company ya was pushing paper at went bust in da last few years.  butt dat don't look like yer case.

[nukewood]

I , too, have worked for Bartlett off and on for over 25 years and have not run into the problems indicated in this scathing post earlier today.Eric and his recruiters have always gone out of their way to accommodate my whims and have been able to keep me as busy as I need to be, working nukes around an erratic lifestyle; failed businesses , divorce, etc. They also do not seem to hold a grudge when I find myself working for a competitor from time to time. I am hoping this outage season ,with its shortage of techs will work to our benefit, but that is another issue. I simply had to respond to this issue by adding a little balance.