Last week I took some friends out to a restaurant, and noticed
that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his
shirtpocket. It seemed a little strange, but I
ignored it.
However, when the busboy brought out water and utensils, I
noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. I then looked
around the room and saw that all the waitpersons had a spoon in
their pocket.
When the waiter came back to check on our order I asked, "Why
the spoon?" Well," he explained, "the restaurant's owners hired Andersen
Consulting, experts in efficiency, in order to revamp all our processes.
After several months of statistical analysis, they concluded that
customers
drop their spoons 73.84% more often than any other utensil. This represents
a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour. If our
personnel is prepared to deal with that contingency, we can reduce the
number of trips back to the kitchen and save 1.5 man-hours per shift."
As we finished talking, a metallic sound was heard from behind me.
Quickly, the waiter replaced the dropped spoon with the one in his
pocket and said: "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 rather impressed. The waiter continued taking our order and while my guests ordered I continued to look around. I then noticed that there was
a very thin string hanging out of the waiter's fly.
Looking around, I noticed that all the waiters had the same string hanging
from their flys. My curiosity got the better of me and before he walked off,
I asked the waiter:
"Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right
there?"
"Oh, certainly!" he answered, lowering his voice. "Not everyone is as
observant as you. That consulting firm I mentioned, also found out that
we can save time in the restroom." "How so?", I asked. "See," he continued,
"by tying this string to the tip of ...you know... we can pull it out over the urinal without touching it and that way eliminate the need to wash the hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39%" "Okay, that makes sense, but... if the string helps you get it out, how
do you put it back in?"
"Well," he whispered, lowering his voice even further, "I don't know
about the others, but I use the spoon."
