Workplace Tattoos And Body Piercings

I enjoy reading Jim Olsztynski’s columns very much. However, the “Golden Nuggets” column (May 2010) hit a nerve. I have been in the HVAC business since 1974. I work for a full-service mechanical contractor, which includes a sheet metal department and a service department.

The comment about tattoos and nose rings - of which I have none nor do I particularly like them - reminded me of the first time I met a new employee. He had tattoos and piercings over most of his body. I thought to myself, “We really have reached the bottom of the barrel with this new hire.”

As it turned out, he was one of the brightest and most polite young men I have ever met. He ended up managing a crucial part of our sheet metal department. When he decided to move West after 10 years with our company, we all hated to see him leave.

I know that it would not be prudent to show up for an interview sporting piercings and tattoos. But if you immediately discount someone because of the way he appears, you are diminishing your potential labor pool. I know; I once felt the same way.

Keep putting out great columns.

Steven C. Willis
Dayton, Ohio

More Problems With HETs

I agree with Leigh Marimor and her comments on so-called high-efficiency toilets ( “Letters to the Editor,” May 2010). I, too, have noticed changes in the construction of toilet bowls that are anathema to an efficient flush action.

When I was just a new plumber, toilet bowls were constructed with a smooth exit tube, unlike today, where they are built with a 90-degree offset at the exit. The water/mass leaves the bowl at the same angle as it used to be; however, at the top of the flush tube, the tube drops straight down (most of the time) into a hard 90-degree turn to horizontal and another 90-degree turn to vertical and out.

How is that more efficient than a smooth exit tube? What “bright light” of toilet design took a really nice design, screwed it up and convinced every major manufacturer of plumbing fixtures that this “new bowl” design is the way to go?

I have had more callbacks and unnecessarily plugged toilets from this new design in one month than I have had in my entire plumbing career, up to the point where we had to start installing the “new design.”

Alan R. McGillvray
“Rudy the Plumber”
Ketchikan, Alaska

In Praise Of Al

I love Al Levi’s articles. I attended one of his Operating Power! classes in Poughkeepsie years ago and now read everything he produces. Keep on writing relevant and informative articles.

Mike Ciarapica
Mike’s Plumbing &
Heating Service
Baltimore, Md.

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