Thursday, January 29, 2015

Enhanced Resume



Enhanced Resume

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
E-mail xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

OBJECTIVE

To Work in production/research in a hands on capacity with a company utilizing my technical skills and experience.

DESIRED OCCUPATION: Materials Technologist

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Employer:  xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Title:  Food Service Manager
Location:  Pittsburgh, PA
Duration:  11/2008 - 4/2011

Talk about stupidity and arrogance.   Aladdin Food Service was hired to improve food service and cut costs.  It did neither but caused all of us peons a lot of grief.  People were hired who had no business in a supervisory position.  Decisions were made with no forethought what so ever or any input from the people who had to carry them out.  Change was the order of the day.   The workload as a result was increased dramatically.
Kickbacks to Aladdin from suppliers were commonplace.  One supplier admitted that they tacked on 7% for billing purposes as a result of kickbacks.  Apparently it is legal but not totally ethical.  There is a fiduciary responsibility there which is lacking.
I was fired for not behaving properly towards Chef David.  I politely asked him if it would be possible if he and the rest of Aladdin employees would use the front door as I had to take time out from my work to open the door for Aladdin’s Staff.  I was eventually rehired and Chef David (pompous ass) was eventually fired.
Brad (VP of Aladdin’s Kosher Div) set all of us peons down and lectured us that he would like us all to remain at xxxxxxxxxx but in past experiences he found most employees left when Aladdin came in.(Huh!)
Brad also set a group of us down one day when it looked like the contract to Aladdin was going to be terminated and told us that if he goes we will go.
Brad was finally relocated to New Jersey but unfortunately Aladdin still remained.
I worked part time 12-16 hours a week.  When I was told that I have to work 40 hours a week on demand and all Jewish Holidays, I gave them my 2 week notice and left.


Job Duties:  Kosher supervision of food. Helped to serve patients and in the prepping and cooking of food to maintain appearance, nutrition and taste.

Employer: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Title: Food Service Manager
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Duration: 11/1997 - 11/2008

Job Duties: Ordered all materials and foods necessary for production Actively engaged in the planning of patient menus.

 Innovated new methods of freezing patient meals. Actively involved in sanitation.

Helped to serve patients at several area hospitals.

Helped in the prepping and cooking of food to maintain appearance, nutrition and taste.

There is a tremendous turnover in dietary personnel, well over 200%/year.  Training is minimal and primarily a legal sign off procedure.  The administration does not seem to care about its employees.   Morale is low.   Turnover affects patient care and increases costs for training, but the administration i e xxxxxxxx (totally out of his element) and his paramour xxxxxxxxxxxxx (rules with an iron fist) are not concerned about anything except their way of doing things.
xxxxx was an expert in everything.  She was a food dietician for 19 years and was then elevated to food service director.  Some of her stunts:  ordering delivery carts too big to fit through patients’ room doors,  ordering very expensive delivery carts (kept the food both hot and cold) but boy did they require maintenance.

Even employees in the kosher kitchen have problems.  Appearance, taste and quality have gone out the window.  xxxxxxxxxxx who is now in charge, intermingles funds, collected from sales of meals to satisfy extra labor costs which he feels is needed in the department.
xxxxx spends much of his time on the phone talking to either his Mother or spouse.

xxxxxxxxxxx was another case in point.  He argued with all his superiors at UPMC
To the extent that he was terminated after just a few months.  Shortly before leaving he threw out and/or destroyed 75 years of records of the kosher Kitchen.  When I asked him  why  he did that xxxxx said,  “I will not have my name associated with anything that I do not  consider halachically correct”.

Employer: Servsteel Inc.

Title: Production Coordinator
Location: Morgan, PA
Duration: 11/1995 - 11/1997

Job Duties: Coordinate and facilitate production to ensure that materials, people and equipment were available to most efficiently use available resources.
Interesting work environment. Union and management detested each other.
I okd some ceramic gates that were slightly substandard and had them fail in use.  Molten steel everywhere.  Fortunately no one was injured.  Last time that I listened to coworkers.
I was to develop a lined wooden mold to cut production costs.  I did not realize that I was not to contact anyone.  I did contact suppliers etc and found out what I already knew, that it was not technically feasible at that time.
I kept inventory of all raw materials and notified my superiors when they were to reorder.  They never listened and we always ran out.
Needless to say that I didn’t last 3 months.

Employer: Simple Treat

Title: Food Service Manager
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Duration: 11/1988 - 11/1995

Job Duties: Supervise and facilitate the preparation of breads, cakes and pastries.
Yum, yum but watch out cholesterol.
Sherman Weinstein was one of those rare bosses, knowledgeable and fair.

Employer:  Prime Kosher
Location:   Pittsburgh, PA
Duration:
Title:  Mashgiach
Kosher supervision of facility but with main effort on koshering and traboring (deveining) meat.
Under Rabbi xxxxxxxx, supervising Rabbi, who may have known less than I about the kashrus of food.
To our Deli Manager, Don, who took enough products without recording them to support himself and also make the Deli look good.  I was continuously finding packaged deli in the trash bin outside where it would be picked up after hours.
To xxxxxxxxxxxx who always told me that I was wasting too much meat in my koshering.  His idea of a pay raise was to pay me under the table so that I wouldn’t have to pay taxes.
To the butchers John and Gary who always cut more meat than necessary, wasting hundreds if not thousands of dollars every week.


Employer: Ceramic Color and Chemical

Title: Ceramic Engineer
Location: New Brighton, PA
Duration: 11/1981 - 11/1988

Job Duties: My experience includes the calculation of compositions, weighing, mixing, processing, firing and testing of inorganic pigments, enamels, glazes and glasses.
Our motto was: We pollute on land, sea and air.  Funny thing that happened, while I was working there.  A large tank(5000 gallons) of sulphuric acid, supposedly neutralized, leaked onto the ground.  Over the years it leached into the ground and corroded a large steel gas line buried 30 feet below the surface.   I used to go right after a rain and ignite the gas bubbles that came to the surface.   That’s fun? Or crazy?
Bill Wenning, our boss, was always willing to demonstrate to anyone that he was smarter and tougher than anyone else.
A favorite story Bill used to tell was about a gentleman who used one of Ceramic Color’s products in a tunnel.  It failed.  The gentleman committed suicide.

Employer: Gerber Plumbing Fixtures

Title: Ceramic Engineer
Location: Woodbridge, NJ
Duration: 04/1978 - 11/1981

Job Duties:

Ran daily check to control specific gravity and viscosity for plant use. Analyzed glazes to determine cost effectiveness. Developed colors and glazes in the laboratory and implemented their manufacture in production.

Calculated new compositions and modified older existing ones. Performed all necessary checks to evaluate new products and raw materials. Innovated new methods of mixing and milling colors. Increased atmosphere and effective quality control.

Investigated and tested refractories for thermal shock and corrosion resistance reducing refractory costs by 30 to 50% Identified inclusions in finished ware and ascertained their source; losses were running 15 to 100% due to contaminated raw materials.

Tested raw materials for particle size, chemical composition and mineral content, maintaining high quality standards.


Wrote and instituted testing procedures for contaminants in raw materials. Engaged in mineral analysis using petrographic microscope.

Never trust suppliers.  We were running losses at times of 100%.  The ware looked like tapioca pudding.  It was finally traced to our trucking company that was supposed to use dedicated trucks for the transportation of feldspar, but they also carried aragonite (calcium carbonate) on their return leg.
 Jim Stavrolakis was hired to turn things around.  PHD type who spent 80% of his life on the road.  Nice, quiet man but a hatchet man nonetheless, fired so many people, that no one else in the company (who were left) would work with him.  He was terminated as a result.  While he was wondering what to do with his life, he was in the midst of a divorce, the president of the company (Oscar Gerber) and the company controller ( Bruno Spiewak) had the misfortune to check on him.  They were worried about him.  They were both blown away and then Jim committed suicide.
Jim once told me that if I want to get ahead in this company that I should court and marry the boss’s daughter
I called off sick one day for a job interview in Florida.  It didn’t pan out.  The following day Jim came over to me and was wondering why I had to go to Florida to heal my cold.  Spies are everywhere.
Found out after I left how my raw material inventory was off.  Assistant plant manager and many of the employees were caught.  They produced more ware than they recorded and sold the excess on the side.  2000 to 3000 toilet bowls were sold every year courtesy of the Woodbridge Underground.  Hugo Golin, Plant Manager, was instrumental in discovering the theft when a “customer”  inadvertently asked to purchase an item when the plant was closed.


Employer:  Metro Glass
Title:  Glass Technologist

Job Duties:

Ran daily check to control specific gravity and viscosity for plant use

Calculated new compositions and modified older existing ones. Performed all necessary checks to evaluate new products and raw materials.

Tested raw materials for particle size, chemical composition and mineral content, maintaining high quality standards.

Wrote and instituted testing procedures for contaminants in raw materials. Engaged in mineral analysis using petrographic microscope.

Actively participated in 3 to 5  furnace heat ups per year.

Checked furnace atmosphere on regular basis in all plants.

Plants were running 10 to 15% losses due to stones (unmelted material) and cords( glass which has not properly melted).   Green glass was running chrome stones on a regular basis as well.
We busted our butt trying to determine what the source of all these stones were, of course our suppliers and workers were all doing a perfect job.
PGS, a sand company in Southern NJ was responsible for the major share.  When confronted with evidence that there sand was contaminated, they admitted culpability and even gave us a tour of their facilities to show how they tested for them.  Why didn’t they tell us before hand?
Lavino,  a chrome ore supplier also stated that there product was great and met all specs until we showed them that it was coarse and would not melt in our glass tanks.  Why didn’t they tell us before hand?
The workers In Carteret, N J. third shift discretely increased machine speed to to obtain bonuses without telling anyone.  A glass tank has to be preheated before increasing pull rate otherwise batch stones and cord will result.  Inventory of materials went out of kilter and shortages were rampant to the the tune of 2000 tons per year.  My friend Tom Stavish (batch and furnace) was caught off guard.  You don’t expect that your own people  would turn against you.  The glass cullet piled up.  Were we young and naive?

One of my jobs was to test the atmosphere in smoke stacks at various heights generally from 50 to 75 feet up.  One time in Jersey City, the rotting platform attached to a stack, that I was standing gave way. I almost bought it that time.

My boss, Robert Dreyfuss was pretty tough.  He had us work around glass tanks without proper gear to save the company money.  Our clothing and shoes would literally burn up from the heat.
One time he sent me to the airport to pick up a package. I didn’t have the money to pay for the package which was shipped COD.  I returned empty handed.  He was furious.  He assembled all the engineers and had us empty out our wallets and pockets.  There were several of us.  Together we didn’t have $20.  I was only making $12,600/year. What did he expect?
Larry Gould, an electronics technician asked for two days off for a Jewish holiday.  Bob said that he would ask his friend who was a reformed rabbi for an answer.   Of course his rabbi friend sided with Bob that Jewish holidays are celebrated for one day only.  Larry was forced to work on a Jewish holiday.
When I gave him notice that I was leaving for another job he fired me on the spot, immediately notifying security that I was not permitted back in the plant.  He probably felt that I was a bad influence.

Employer:  GTE Sylvania
Location:    Versailles Kentucky
Duration:
Title:  Glass Technologist
Duties:  Ran quality control laboratory to insure quality glass with uniform properties.
Install and maintain coating line for glass tubing.
Maintain water treatment for plant: including cooling towers and glass tanks.
Run area pollution surveillance for lead and contaminants from plant.

Never trust a weasel.  My Father told me not to trust Pearl Rutter, calling him a weasel.  I didn’t listen.  I was held responsible for erratic properties of the glass in the lab.  I did not know that Pearl was making unauthorized changes to the glass composition every day because that was the way he used to do it.  I found this out after I was fired.
It didn’t help when I told my supervisor that the glass tank heat ups could be a disaster.  Steel girders which were supposed to be continuous were not.   The crown was insulated and abutting the tie rods.  Cooling loops were closed and not usable.  Nowhere did anyone take into account the rapid expansion of refractories upon heating up. Trust Ray Biles, Engineering Supervisor and Ken Rock, Plant Engineer in their lackluster oversight of plant engineering and maintenance.
Ray was the gentleman who fired me,  most likely to cover up his ineptitude.  I E When I told him that I found what  was causing a particular piece of equipment to continuously get out of alignment, he became furious.  Maybe, my wording wasn’t very good.  If my memory serves me correctly I said,   “The ass hole who cut out 6 inches of reinforced concrete and replaced with 1 inch thick steel was at fault.” Ray said, “I am the asshole.”  The rest is history.
. 
The only job that I had where someone attempted to kill me.  An 18 inch wrench was dropped from a catwalk above my head narrowly missing me by inches.  When I looked up, no one was there.

Employer:  IBM
Location:   Lexington, Kentucky
Duration: 
Title:  Blueprint copier
Duties:   Copied blueprints for anyone who wanted them.
Was terminated when I went to summer camp in the Kentucky National Guard.  Hey IBM, nice supportive spirit of our men in uniform.

Employer:  Small Civil Engineering Firm
Location:  Lexington, Kentucky
Title:  Lab Supervisor
Duties:  To test all incoming concrete samples, log it and report to my supervisor, the results.  I was terminated after 3 months and still don’t know the reason why.  I was told that I didn’t take charge of the laboratory well enough. To be fair, I was the only person employed in the lab and also kept it  as clean as a mud lab could be.  I was not permitted in the main offices.

Employer:  Lexington Mall
Location:   Lexington, Kentucky
Duration:
Title:   Security and Maintenance
Basically I cleaned the place and called the police whenever anything went crazy.  Scary job,  alarms were always going off and I had to let the police in with their shotguns and automatic weapons on the ready.   Finally we traced the problem to kids living at night in the movie theatre and traveling from store to store thru the false ceilings.   Those ceilings were over 20 feet high.  How they got up and down is still a mystery to me.


Employer:   Lexington Fayette County Sewer Authority
Location:  Lexington, Kentucky
Duration:
Title:    Sludge Treatment Worker
The title says it all.  We removed the solids from the waste water.
Notes of humor:  Your coworkers can easily screw you to make themselves look good by not providing sufficient capacity so that you can do your job.
Mr. Monroe was in charge of the facility and made unauthorized changes to some equipment which invalidated the warrantee.  I believe they were centrifugal extractors but they never worked
Equipment and roads were not maintained as I can attest.  Try going up a hill with 0 visibility, defroster and wipers didn’t work, in a snow storm where the bed of the truck occasionally disengaged.   It happened and I suddenly found the truck with its front wheels in the air.

Employer:   Anchor Hocking
Location:   Lancaster, Ohio
Duration:   1968
Title:         Technician
Developed glasses as specified by supervising engineers.
Worked on ceramic glass bake ware similar to Corning Ware
Destroyed all paper work when we lost patent legal action to Corning
Worked on chemical tempering using cuprous chloride.
was a bust.  It strengthened already strong glass items such as glasses and percolator tops but did not increase the strength of weaker articles
Testing was poorly done.  To obtain better results poor results were either thrown out or ware was retested until better results were achieved.
My favorite was our CEO/President was shown a demonstration on pretested ware (percolator tops) to show how effective chemical tempering was.  When I blew the whistle on our testing techniques, I became persona non grata.  


EDUCATION

Major: Glass Technology

School: Alfred Univ., Coll. Of Ceramics

Location: NY

Degree: B.S. Glass Science

Completion Date: 06/1969

SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Ran Daily checks to control specific gravity and viscosity for plant use.
Analyzed glazes to determine cost effectiveness.

Developed colors and glazes in the laboratory and implemented their manufacture in production.

Calculated new compositions and modified older existing ones.
Performed all necessary check to evaluated new products and raw materials.
Innovated new methods of mixing and milling colors.

Increased production effectiveness by controlling firing time, components, kiln atmosphere and effective quality control.

Investigated and tested refractories for thermal shock and corrosion resistance reducing refractory costs by 30 to 50%.

Identified inclusions in finished ware and ascertained their source; losses were running 15 to 100% due to contaminated raw materials.

Tested raw materials for particle size, chemical composition and mineral content, maintaining high quality standards.

Wrote and instituted testing procedures for contaminants in raw materials.
Engaged in mineral analysis using petrographic microscope.


DESIRED LOCATION:

Within 10 miles of: xxxxxxxx


Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Old Age

Old age is something to look forward to, to kick off your shoes and inhibitions and relax for the remainder of your life. Or is it?
Most of us will be unable to continue our lifestyles when we retire due to fiscal foolishness and irresponsibility.. 
We will have to move to a building or area that will accommodate senior citizens only.  Isn't that wonderful?   Just think, everyone in your surroundings growing old together gracefully without the distractions of noisy families and their kids.   If we are fortunate, we will have the meals provided for us.  More fortunate, we will have entertainment provided as well.  Just think we have TV and the Internet and Restaurants and Shows to go to.  We will be be fed like Kings and Queens  almost to overindulgence,  then have to go on diets because we are overweight.
Why exercise when we can drive or be driven?  Why interact with people of all ages, races, nationalities and religions,  when we can can stay with our own peers and grow old gracefully?
Just think, with proper care, one can spend a quarter to a third of one's life in a retired or vegetative, I mean blissful state.
My Sister lives in one those retirement communities where everyone growing older together is maybe not quite so blissful .   Seventeen years ago, it seemed like a nice idea but reality has taken hold.   Her peers are dying at an alarming rate.  Since many of her peers now require aides and housekeepers to care for them, robbery and violence is now occurring where it had never occurred before.
Personally, I would not rather spend the remainder of my life in a blissful mode in the Garden of Eden.  I would much rather spend my time in a more positive manner living life to its fullest, surrounded by family, friends and neighbors and. working until the day that I die.  I do not want to spend my waning years in a building or area surrounded by people who I do not know being stuffed with food like an animal for slaughter and entertained as a contented cow.
A place and a way must be found for older people to work and thrive as long as possible in their own homes and environs.  This would do two things:  1. It would bring older people back into society in a constructive manner and  2.  It would limit the cost to society of supporting people in their Golden Years.

Obamacare

A very liberal person that I know accused the Republicans for the present form of Obamacare.   Apparently, the Republicans tried to implant a stipulation to control the cost of pharmaceuticals in Obamacare knowing full well that it would cause the very powerful pharmaceutical companies to oppose and thwart Obamacare.   As a result this cost control measure was never enacted in Obamacare.
It is also interesting to note that the US is the only nation in the world not to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to reduce the cost of drugs.  As a result, research costs are borne almost entirely by the US consumer to defray the world wide discounting of pharmaceuticals.  
I wonder which is more:  the research costs or the advertising costs?
Why are medical costs so high?   I have a theory.   Don't we all?   It is a combination of several factors:
1. Very powerful pharmaceutical companies find it in their interest to keep the cost of drugs high.
2.  Medical schools subsidized in part by very powerful pharmaceutical companies churn out physicians who rely on high priced drugs and practices for their patients' medical needs.
3.  The failure of physicians and people in general, to avoid the high cost of medical care by proper lifestyle, diet and the the judicious use of supplements.
4.  The high costs that hospitals generate without any accountability to the actual costs involved.
5.  The failure of insurance companies to reign in the costs of medical care.
6.  The flagrant abuse of the the system by dishonest and unethical physicians and entrepreneurs.
7. The overuse of the system by the ill informed public.
 8.  Bush did it!!

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Enhanced Resume

While writing/updating your resume, do you sometimes have the urge to let it all hang out?  To tell it the way it really was?   I am trying to decide whether or not to publish what I affectionately call My Enhanced Resume.  Fortunately or not, many of the leading characters are no longer with us but to those who are of recent memory, I will have to xxxxxxxx their names out in sense of proprietary.  Also, I don't want to get beat on.  You would have to be somewhat naive or stupid if you don't recognize yourself though.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Coney Island

We used to spend summers at Coney Island at a bungalow colony.  I don't recollect that we did this to often though, maybe once or twice in the late forties or early fifties.  Of course, those bungalows have long since been replaced by 20 story apartment buildings.   I haven't been back to Coney Island in 50-60 years though and I cannot imagine the changes that have occurred.
Our life revolved around the beach and the boardwalk  We never seemed to go further than the Half Moon Hotel  on one end and Seagate on the other.





http://cdn.brownstoner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Half-Moon-Hotel-postcard-1930s.jpg
http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2013/06/past-and-present-the-half-moon-hotel-coney-island/

and filled in between with amusements and food.






https://www.google.com/search?q=steeplechase+coney+island&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=HvqyVMDiE4ymNquMg5gO&ved=0CC4QsAQ&biw=1024&bih=657

Steeplechase was a fun place but nothing compared to what we have today.   The most exciting part was the horses which rode on a rail (similar to a monorail roller coaster).  Inside the building were a a few amusements:  a large slide and not much else.



 http://www.store.gabilas.com/images/1174248531317-2113696974.jpeg
http://www.store.gabilas.com/

 Shatzkins on the Boardwalk for knishes.  I remember that they were rectangular and open ended, filled with potatoes, kasha and cheese  filling which were topped with blueberry, pineapple and other sundry delicacies.  Not for the weight conscious or faint of heart.





The Merry go round at Coney Island on the Boardwalk. We loved  to ride on the outside horses and attempt to obtain a ring (the gold ring good for another free ride, but it took 5 iron rings to do the same.) from a little device which was situated near the Merry go round.  You had to lean out to reach it.

Our Aunt Rose and Uncle Max Singer owned a supermarket in Seagate where we often shopped.  Their 3 sons: Jerry, Murray and Paul also worked there as well.  I remember them cutting out coupons from the Sunday papers which they then used for the profit of their business.

On the beach,  young men came around with insulated containers some selling hot knishes ( potato or kasha,) or frozen ice cream and ices.