Last week, we took some friends out to a new restaurant and noticed the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket. It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then I looked around and saw all the staff had spoons in their pockets. When the waiter came back to serve our soup, I asked, 'Why the spoon?' He explained, 'Well, the restaurant owners hired Andersen Consulting to revamp all our processe more...
Last week, we took some friends out to a new restaurant and noticed the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket. It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then I looked around and saw all the staff had spoons in their pockets. When the waiter came back to serve our soup, I asked, 'Why the spoon?' He explained, 'Well, the restaurant owners hired Andersen Consulting to revamp all our processes. After several months of analysis, they concluded the spoon is the most frequently dropped utensil. It represents a drop frequency of approx. 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 dropped my spoon and he 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.' I was impressed. I also noticed there was a string hanging out of the waiter's fly. Looking around, I noticed all the waiters had the same string hanging from their flies. So, before he walked off, I asked the waiter, 'Excuse me, but can u tell me why u have that string right there?' 'Oh, certainly!' Then he lowered his voice. 'Not everyone is so observant. The consulting firm I mentioned also found we can save time in the toilet. By tying this string to the tip of u know what, we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hands, and shorten the time spent in the toilet by 76%.'
I asked, 'After u get it out, how do u put it back?' He whispered, 'Well, I don't know about the others, but I use the spoon.' less...
