BON APPETITE
Last week we took some friends to a popular restaurant and noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket. It didn't seem at all strange until I noticed that the busboy who poured our water also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Looking around at the rest of the staff, I saw that every one of them had a spoon in their pocket.
When the waiter returned with our salad, I asked, "Why the spoon in your pocket?"
"Well," he explained, "the restaurant owners hired a consulting firm to streamline our processes. After a few months of analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil. It represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour. If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift."
As luck would have it, I eventually dropped my spoon and the waiter was able to replace it with his spare. "I'll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now," he stated. I was impressed.
I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter's fly.
Looking around, I saw that all the waiters had a string hanging from their fly. Naturally curious again, I sort of pointed and asked our waiter, "Can you tell me why you have that string right there?"
"Certainly, sir." Then he lowered his voice. "Not everyone is so observant. That consulting firm I mentioned also found out that we can save time in the restroom. By tying this string onto you know what, we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.3 percent."
Speaking softly, I asked, "I can see the advantage, but after you get it out, how do you put it back?"
"Well," he whispered, "I don't know about the others, but I use the spoon." |
