Moyer, 48, a former quality-control manager in the furniture industry, has no baseball background.

The American-trained quality-control manager, for example, tells friends that she works for a soft drink company.

She is a biochemist and the quality-control manager for diagnostic products at Mallinckrodt Inc., a chemicals manufacturer in North Attleboro, Mass.

"At home they are crazy," said Rene Gielians, 26, a quality-control manager for an electronics company in Vroomshoop, the Netherlands.

Each stage of construction is monitored by a quality-control manager.

Deborah Kreiling, a quality-control manager for Simplicity Pattern in New York, learned to juggle 25 years ago and says she never performs without an audience, whether children, friends or co-workers.

With little prompting, though, quality-control managers here volunteer that there are frequent quality problems with the shipments.

Mr. Brozski, 43, is the quality-control manager at Consolidated Edison's Indian Point nuclear plant at Buchanan, N.Y.

Allan Evans, a retired quality-control manager on an art tour from Cincinnati, said: "I went into it totally cold.

Mrs. Winston said her recruiting firm has not increased its searches for quality-control managers because companies are not going outside to hire.