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Monday, December 5, 2011

THE FIVE STAR HILTON SUITES OF NASHVILLE TENNESSEE

The HILTON CORPORATION opened a brand new hotel in Nashville in the early 90's, after the Houston Oilers moved to Nashville to become the new Tennessee Titans football team.

It was a 12 store structure with 330 suites, not rooms...SUITES. A most impressive lobby, two banquet rooms that would accomadate 700 each with a removable wall that could be romoved to accomadate 1500 guests for a single event.

The hotel also enclosed the "PALM" restaurant of New York fame and the "Eddie George" bar, star running back for the Titans football team.

I got a job there through a temporary service. On my first assignment there, I left the service at 7:10 a,m, and got to the hotel at 7:30. At  9 a.m. the head chef, Kyle Inman, called me into his office and asked me if I wanted to work for the hotel. I started work as a HILTON employee the next day, contrary the 90 day contract the HILTON had with the temp service...the company bought the contract out. Obviously the chef was impressed with something...or MAYBE it was because I was just DOING MY JOB...WHAT THEY PAID FOR?

Two weeks later they promoted me to "Executive Steward", I was the HNIC,, directly under the Executive Chef, Kyle Inman.
The hotel had only been in business and was in extremely poor condition, as far as cleanliness, structure in management, mainteneance and order.

Every 6 months businesses have to get a Health Inspection and the Hilton Hotel was due for one. When the inspector came and give the hotel its bi-annual inspection it was embarassing to say the least...a "52", out of 100 points possilbe. If you scored less than 50, the Health Department is required by law, to evict all personel and guest and chain and lock the doors as it has become unfit for human inhabitants....WOW!!!!
This was a HUGE shock to the "HNIC's" at the HILTON.

"HNIC's" ARE THE "HEAD NIGGAZ IN CHARGE"

The Health Department said they would be back in a week for re-inspection in a week.

The General Manager, Tom Ryback, was called to Miami to meet with the owners of the Hotel, the Souffeur Family...obviously for an ASS CHEWING.

The Assistant General Manager, Ms. Cheryl Seckmann, called a meeting of all department heads and wanted answers as to the condition and operation efficiency at the hotel...as did the owners. There were over 60 people at the meeting all sitting around one huge table in a banquet room. I was in awe at the people that...WERE NOT DOING THERE JOBS.

IT WAS QUITE OBVIOUS TO ME, BY THE ERGENCY AND ATTENTION THAT THE HEALTH SCORE HAD, THAT "ALL" THE SUPERVISORS WERE UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYE OF THE "HNIC's", AND I WAS ON ANOTHER "FACT FINDING" MISSION.

While in the meeting everybody was blaming the stewards, my employees, for not doing their jobs, and they were correct. But they made it seem like the current condition of the hotel was "my" fault.

The truth of the matter was, I had only worked at the hotel for about two weeks, and, it would have been impossible for me to have been the sole cause of the chaos...but the individual that is responsible is sitting at "this table".

I asked Cheryl Seckmann where Tom Ryback was, the GM, and she said he was in Florida, meeting with the owners of the building.

I asked Cheryl what "exactly" is Tom Ryback job description.

She stated he is the GM and the liaison betweer the Souffeur's, the people that owned the building and property, and the HIlton Corporation, whom obviously owned the business itself.

Then I asked her, what her job title was?

She stated she was the Asst. GM.

I then asked....What is your "exact" job description?

She stated, "IT IS MY JOB TO MAKE SURE THIS HOTEL RUNS EFFICIENTLY"

A silence fell over the entire room and the meeting was ended,
WE FOUND OUT  "WHAT"  THE PROBLEM  "WAS"  
AND  "WHO"  WAS AT FAULT.

Everyone at the meeting was certain I had just got my "walkin' papers". I told them, Cheryl is not stupid, if I am smart enough to find out the problem, I probably have a solution too, which I did but I needed one "tool"....authority.

When I told her what I needed as far as a "tool", she called the entire kitchen staff together, over 40 people, and stated Jack is incharge in this kitchen, only to answer to the Head Chef, Kyle Inman, the guy that offered me the job, on my first day.

THE ONLY THING KYLE "EVER" TOLD ME WAS, KEEP DOING WHAT YOU ARE DOING JACK...IT DIDN'T MATTER WHETHER IT WAS MY JOB DUTIES OR SMOKING A CIGARETTE OUTSIDE.

A week later when the Health Department showed up for re-inspection, we got a 96.7 on our score.

GUESS WHAT, TIME TO ASK FOR THE PAY RAISE I WAS OWED.

THE COMPANY HAD NO CHOICE AND IT WAS DESERVED AND
KYLE INMAN MADE IT HAPPEN....NETWORKING AND COMMUNICATION
IS HOW YOU GET THINGS DONE.
A week aftre that the Health Department came back and we scored a 99.7, everyone was impressed, but Tom Ryback, who had just came back to the hotel was stunned.

One day in the kitchen everyone seemed, well, Weird, running all over trying to look busy. One waitress said, "you better get busy, the GM is in the kitchen."

I did what I was doing, meandering around to make sure everything was done correctly and looking for something to do.

When I run into this extremely well dressed gentleman about my age, I stated, "you must be Tom Ryback?"

He said, "Yes, I am, and who are you?"

I said, "I'm Jack Davis."

He lifted an eyebrow and smiled and said, "So you are the individual I have been hearing so much about."

We parted company and...DID OUR JOBS.
WE HAD EARNED EACH OTHER'S "RESPECT" 

It is very easy to get something accommplished, give the people what they need to do the job as far as "tools", and any information they need to make  the "right" decisions.

SOMETHING THE ASSHOLES OF THE BAY AREA
"DO NOT" DO...DO YOU DICKHEADS...?

AND WHAT YOU ARE PISSED OFF AT IS:

I'M NOT STUPID ENOUGH TO GET CAUGHT
IN YOUR "SOCIAL RAT TRAP"
YOU CALL SAN FRANCISCO, LOL.

SUP NIGGAZ...DON'T HATE THE PLAYA,
HATE THE GAME, RIGHT?

After 4 months of employment and a new GM and Head Chef, the company was running at an acceptable level of performance but obviously the payroll had become a concern. This was noted by me, by the individuals they were targeting about job performance, one being myself.
I told all the "new" supervisors that I was doing my job, and doing it well and they needed to "get the fuck off my ass" and find some other "fag" to fuck with. YEP, they didn't like me because of....well I don't know, but I could tell they didn't want me working there any longer, at least some of the staff did, and I could have cared less.

I WAS NOT THERE TO KISS THEIR ASS...
I WAS THEIR TO DO A JOB.
AND IT WOULD BE DONE MY WAY,
THE "RIGHT" WAY,
AND IF THEY WANTED IT DONE ANY DIFFERENT...
THEY COULD DO IT THEMSELVES,
AND FUCK IT UP LIKE YOU DID BEFORE....
PLAIN AND SIMPLE.

The owners sent a chef, Mark Davis, up from one of their hotels in Miami Florida and he took over the grill of the Eddie George Bar. Kyle Inman was still the Head Chef in the main kitchen, where I worked. Me and Mark Davis DID NOT get along but he was not stupid, so as long as he needed me I was to be kept in employment, but the resistance to my authority was mounting.

The staff of the grill kitchen was not doing as I requested and it was causing problems that I would not be accepting of, since it was making everyones job difficult.

The chef in the grill tried to write me up with to violations of "company rules", but I was a supervisor, in a position to "override" rules when needed, as per Cheryl Seckmann, but the night supervisors persisted. I refused on two occassions and finally I was called to a meeting with Cheryl and Mark Davis. They demanded that I sign three citations for violations of company rules.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT WAS HILARIOUS, MAYBE "INNAPROPRIATE", BUT DEFINATELY FUNNY.

Mark Davis, Cheryl Seckmann and three security guards were in the room with me, and Mark Davis handed me the three violations and said, "you have to sign these." I said, "No I don't, I was doing my job as per Cheryl." Mark stated you were doing things in violation of the company rules.
I stated the reason I was,is because the person who was to do the tasks I did, WAS NOT, and if you wanted your problem fixed, somone had to do them.
On his second attempt to force me to sign the forms, and Cheryl backing him up, which I could not believe.
I looked Cheryl Seckmann directly in the eye and pushed the forms over in front of her and stated, "Cheryl, what I want you to do with these violation forms, is to take them home with you and place them on the back of your toilet tank. And the next time you take a shit...WIPE YOUR FUCKING ASS WITH THEM."

Mark Davis was in shock with a smirk on his face.
Cheryl Seckman had a slight shock, but surpisingly, remained posed and professional, she is an amazing individual...and contrary to popular opinion, she still has my respect.
One of the guards broke out into uncontrollable laughter and was fired on the spot.
Cheryl Seckmann told the Head of Security, Kevin Fitzgerald, a good friend of mine, to escort me off the property, which he did.
Me and Kevin talked and he knew it was wrong, but he had a career at the HILTON, I didn't.
He told me I could use him as a reference anytime.

About two months later I was walking across the courtyard and the new GM, whom I knew, seen me and invited me into the hotel and bought me coffee at the Coffee Bar. Obviously he had heard I left, but not the circumstances behind my departure. Mark Davis seen me and the GM talking when he entered the lobby and turned and left to go back to the kitchen.

Tom Ryback had was transferred to another HILTON HOTEL, because of his relationship with his employees and the hotels need for a change of management, and to show the other supervisors what might happen to their jobs if...........?
Tom Ryback called me and told me that if I ever needed a reference to call the HILTON HOTEL's '800' number and ask what hotel he was at and to call him.

YOU HAVE TO RESPECT SOMEONE THAT IS FAIR AND TRUTHFUL.






Friday, December 2, 2011

REGAL BOATS, ORLANDO, FLORIDA

DAMON TRAILERS

This is a rather large manufacturer of travel trailiers in Elkhart Indiana.

This company had a plant super-intendent named John Christianson, that worked with Duke Wedge and the two were good friends and obviously had a working knowledge of me and my abilities.

When I first started working at Damon Trailiers I worked building end walls for the units. I told the supervisor I was a millwright and preferred to work in the wood shop. He said there was not any openings int he woodshop but would notifiy human resources of my desire to change to that department.


Sue Brown was the cabinet shop supervisor, and she also headed up the mill room.

After two days Sue Brown came over to my department with my foreman and asked if I was still interested in transferring to the millroom. The current table saw operator was working 80+ per week and was still falling behind. I said yes I would transfer. My foreman said I'll fill this position and me and Sue Brown walked over to the millroom and I immediately knew why they could not get any production out of this department, which I might add, is where production starts, in the millroom, where you cut the wood to manufacture the trailers.

I told Sue the first thing I would need to do is clean the mess up, there was paneling and wood 12 inches deep on most of the floor. Very dangerous to attempt to work in this kind of environment.

Sue told me to meet her in the break area and I knew she was going to fire the current saw operator.
When she came to meet me in the break room she had the plant super-intendent, John Christianson with her.

John stated if I had ever work in the area and I told him that I had and whom I had worked for and Duke Wedges name came up and he said that is why your name "rang-a-bell", he said Duke had talked about me numerous times. I wonder about what, my bad attitude.

John told Sue Brown to let me get started int he millroom and informed me that production was the main goal, but I could do as I needed to get the job done, obviously he was aware of my abilities.
I told John I would have the millroom up to a functional level of performance in a couple days and production would not suffer.

NO  LYING HERE JASON...WHITE OR ANY OTHER FUCKING COLOR,
WE ARE TRYING TO GET SOMETHING DONE
AND WE DO NOT HAVE TIME TO DO IT TWICE,
A COMPANY AND THE LIVELIHOOD OF ITS EMPLOYEES DEPEND ON IT,
OR WE COULD SHIP ANOTHER ONE OF OUR COMPANIES TO CHINA...?

This company had some huge problems that were quite easy for me to fix:

THIS IS A "PRODUCTION" SHOP, WITH THE CAPACILTY FOR HIGH VOLUME IF THERE WAS SOME ORDER AND SOME COMMUNICATION...PAY ATTENTION HERE.

When I took over the millroom the first order of business was cleaning, which took about 4 hours.
While cleaning I noticed the employees from the cabinet shop coming back and getting their parts that were stacked on carts, all mixed up and falling off onto the floor as they navigated the carts through the chaos onroute to their assembly tables. The panels were getting scratched up and damaged from the disorder in the production areas.

After I cleaned the millroom up I notified Sue Brown that I was going to build a new saw table around the table saw. The table that they currently had was uneven and had nothing under the massive space under it but saw dust and scraps of wood and paneling. After I built the new saw table ALL of the parts to build All of the cabinets, for any/all the trailers, were under the saw table in neat bins that were all labeled with the size.

Made it real easy for the cabinet builder to pull all their own material, when they needed it, not when I cut it, and thus eliminated the carts full of parts sitting all over the millroom. Plus nothing was getting damaged.

The company was at a current production of 26 trailiers a day, which meant I had to keep at least a two day suppy of parts in each bin to cover ANY production order. Also thinking about what you were cutting out of a 4' x 8' sheet of paneling was much less wasteful. This kept the scrap down, the millroom was spotless and production was flowing smoothly, at least from the millroom.

The next day, after I had the entire millroom cleaned and straightened up and the inventory racks sorted and filled with the desired lumber products I found that their was alot of installers of cabinets from the production line coming back and getting the cabinets reordered because the ones that we had built DID NOT FIT in the trailers. After about the 8th cabinet I told Sue brown to get me a set of blueprints for the trailers that they were running that day. She stated she didn't have time and demanded I recut the parts. I called John Christianson back to my department and demanded he get the prints or i would walk out. A problem existed and we time to fix all 26 of them, remember the daily production, but we don't have time to find the "cause" and prevent it from "ever" happening...THAT IS FUCKING STUPID.

John Christianson got the prints, brought them back to me and said, "What are you going to do with them."
I said, "Fix this problem."
I went to were the problem started, in the welding shop, where they made the frames.
I told everyone to stop working and someone get me a tape measure. Some of the guys looked at me as if to say...Who in the fuck is that?
Some didn't stop working and John Christianson told them to stop working and to get me a tape measure.

LET ME SAY THIS....THERE WAS AND STILL IS RAMPANT "SPEED", METH, USE IN ELKHART, BUT THEY USE IT TO GET THROUGH A 14 TO 16 WORK DAY.
AND THE REASON THEY DON'T GET FIRED IS BECAUSE THEY DON'T "OVER-AMP" AND THEY DON'T FUCK UP THEIR JOBS...BECAUSE THEY MAKE "PIECE-RATE", ABOUT $300.00 PER DAY, IF THEY MAKE THE PRODUCTION RATE...REGARDLESS HOW MANY HOURS IT TAKES THEM.

I checked the overall length of the frame and checked the blueprint and the frame that was being built was 2 1/2" too long. We found out why nothing was fitting, and it was becasue of some drug use and a LACK OF COMMUNICATION.

The individuals cutting the steel tubing for the frames were cutting them a little on the long side 1/4" here, 1/4" there, 1/8" here, 1/8" there...it all adds up to a frame that is WRONG.!!!!!!!!!!!

The "tweekers", because of production demands and their lack of communication with each other,
were beating the over-sized parts into the gigs and they had become loose and the frames were too big.

The reason they weren't talking is because of disorder and a lack of communication and maybe there bad attitudes came from all the above and some sleep deprevation.

I BUILT A NEW GIG TO BUILD THE FRAMES ON WITH EXTRA HOLDS FOR THE METAL AND THEN MADE SURE EVERYONE HAD THE CORRECT DIMENSIONS, NOT THE ONE THAT THEY HAD BEEN USING, THE ONES DIRECTLY OFF THE BLUEPRINT....NOW "MY" CABINET PART S "WILL" FIT.

I told the lead man that the dimensions on the gigs were "critical" and the gigs that were used in a day must be checked for ddamage and repaired "before" the run of production.

I made that one of his main jobs, and "promised" him a raise. When he did his job, I demanded the company give him a raise, and they did....TEAMWORK or EXTORTION, who fucking cares.

That is all we needed to do to make this plant extremely productive, production was rolling with no flaws, thus no mistakes.

When these two problems got solved and I had implemented my production of the millroom, production had never been better and the plant super, John, had came back to tell me so.

In the millroom was a huge vertical "HOLZHER" Panel Saw. It was not being used and I asked why, it looked fairly new.

John Christianson said it would not cut square and he had representatives from the HOLZHER company coming in to look at it, since it was still under warranty.

I looked at the saw and noticed that the base of it was mounted to the concrete floor and the vertical back was mounted to the wall of the building.

When the technicians came in to look at the saw the adjusted it and ran it for about 6 hours and still could not get it to cut square.

When John came back I asked if they had fixed ot and he said no they might bring in a new saw, since they can't get that one fixed.

I walked over to the technicians and stated that the concrete slab the base was mounted to is solid, but the back of the saw is mounted to an outside wall and along the foundation is a crack, and I believed the wall had shifted and cocked the saw out of square. The one tech said you may be right.
We unbolted the saw had moved it out away from the wall by 3 feet and made bracing for the back that would bolt to the floor, instead of the wall.

GUESS WHAT IT TOOK US ONE DAY TO MOVE IT AND RE-MOUNT IT AND IT WORKED LIKE NEW....THAT SAW COULD INCREASE OUR PRODUCTION OF PARTS BY, NOT 10%, BUT 10 fold.

I made $22.00 for every trailer that went out the door, so at a production rate of 26 trailers a day and $22.00 for each one, I made a whopping $572.00 per day.

You may ask, "what fucking moron would give up a job like that?"
A fucking moron that doesn't let people lie, steal or disreapect him.

THIS IS HOW IT ALL ENDED:

After I got the areas of production that directly effected me up and running "right", the way they should run. I found someone in that are to take responsibility for their job. Promised them a raise "IF" they did their job. I was done.

All I had to do was my job and "I Know What I'm Working With", it was easy, lol.

We made "piece rate", so when your job was done you could leave and get a full days pay.

I had made my job so easy that I went to work at 6 a.m. Check the production schedule for the day.

Checked my inventory of parts and cut what I needed to meet the production schedule, remember my inventory was for 2 days.

I was done and ready to leave at 8:45 a.m.

The employees on the line got mad because I was the new employee (I had only worked there for 1 month), and I got paid over $500.00 per day and my work was done by 8 a.m. so I waited till break at 8:45, had coffee in the break room and left when everyone else was going back to work....I was headed to the bar.

Sue Brown told me that it didn't look good and asked me to stay till at least 12 noon, which I agreed.
The only reason I agreed was because the earliest a bar opened on the area was 11 a.m. and I didn't want to go home.

No one to go home to...oh, yea, the girlfriend thing.

I asked Sue what she wanted me to do till noon and she said you can help the cabinet builders. I asked her if I got their pay for the cabinets I built and she said "no". I got pissed off and said if I help that builder, the first hting I am going to help him with is some advice, and tell him to...
QUIT FUCKING OFF, AND DO YOUR FUCKING JOB.

When I was done working and after first break I would lay down on the picnic tables in the break room and take a nap. When Sue Brown heard about this and told John Christianson, he said I couldn't do that either.
I told John what I can do is QUIT, and I left the company.

PAY  ME  FOR  MY  EFFORTS  DICKHEADS,
NO  MORE  "WHITE LIE"  PROMISES.



JIM DUVAL AND SOUTH BEND CLUTCH

Jim Duval, my neighbor and friend continued working at South Bend Clutch, and after some time the owner, Jim Pyfer past. There was significant power shift in the structure of the company. Each of the three sons and Jim Duval all had an equal share of the business and it was significant. Jim Duval tool his money and left to start Michiana Builders with Jim Blakeman, Jim Ringler.
When me and Jim Duval worked together we literally ran the shop. I was the foreman, he was my #1 man, me a Jim Duval had the dope connections, lol, and we drank HELLA beer with Jim Pyfer, the kids father....none of the kids drank with their father bucause he was verbally abusive and had sent some of them to college and spent hella money and they basically failed...or rather didn't succeed.
Jim Pyfer, Jim Duval, and the foreman, me....AND THE BEER, don't forget the beer is pinnacle in developing a relationship here.
Against the sons....and NO BEER.
Easy here, we won, and had a pleasant atmosphere in the shop.
The company made money and we got paid excellent wages....It is a job, what more can you expect.
Great benefits to, insurance dental and medical and a $50.00 per day cash bonus, just for coming to work, even if you drank beer with the boss.

WHEN YOU COMBINE A GOOD JOB, GREAT MONEY AND FREE FUCKING BEER.
THIS IS A FRIKKIN' NO BRAINER DAWG.
5 YEARS OF THIS, YUP, DRINKING ISSUES.
I SAID, "FUCK IT I'LL HIRE AN ATTORNEY,
GIVE ME ANOTHER BEER."

IT'S ALL ABOUT MONEY, RIGHT MICHEAL FELL.!!!!

JASON, OR THE FUCKING UNDERGROUND WHAT DO YOU THINK?

REALLY THESE KIDS SUCCEEDED,
 BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY LEARNED FROM
AN ALCOHOLIC AND A FAG, RIGHT, AT LEAST,
 THAT IS THE WAY "YOU" SEE IT.
YOU TOLD ME JASON,
 TO CHANGE "MY" PERCEPTION.


I SEE IT AS...
THEY LEARNED IT FROM JACK
PLAIN AND SIMPLY

YOUR "PERCEPTION", IS YOUR OPINION OF WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT.!!!!!

NOW WE ALL HAVE OUR OPINIONS AND WE ARE ENTITLED TO THEM, YOU CAN FORM AN OPINION OF SOMEONE BY WHAT THEY SAY...PER THE "AUDIO IMPLANTS", NOT WHAT YOU "SEE", YOU FORM AN OPINION BEFORE YOU EVEN MEET THE PEROSN.

YOU ARE GETTING MORE NARROW-MINDED BY YOUR ACTIONS....GETTING SMARTER JASON? 
I WOULD SAY NO...YOU ARE GETTING SIGNIFICANTLY, MORE STUDIP.

STUPIDITY IS...LACKING THE ABILITY TO LEARN.

TALKING TO PEOPLE IS HOW YOU HEAR, COMPREHEND AND LEARN.

LEER TRUCK CAPS

This company is one of the nations largest manufacturers of truck caps.

While employed here I ran saws in a metal shop.
They also paid piece rate here and the pay was $1.70 to $2.30 per cap and the daily production was around 110 to 130 caps on an average day, in peak sales months it would go as high as 175.
At $2.30 per cap and an daily production of 130 caps, came out to just under $300.00 per day.
I worked at this company 4 times, and each time I left their employ it was over job responsibilites or money. Wanting me to do someone elses job for no additional pay, just because I was....what?
GAY or GOOD

YOU TELL ME, BECAUSE I COULD CARE LESS,
YOUR PAYING MY WAGE NOW AND I DON'T EVEN WORK, LOL. 
PLAYA, PLAYIN' DA GAME, NIGGAZ




COACHMAN TRAILERS

This is one of the first, and one of the biggest, trailer factories in Elkhart Indiana I worked at....COACHMAN.
It is also the company where I would meet DUKE WEDGE, the plant super-intedent.
you will hear more about Duke in other posts as/if you read more, he worked at numerous companies in Elkhart and the surrounnding areas.
My employment at this company was short and I returned, to work there, once, after I quit the first time.