We tend to think of Information Overload in a knowledge work context – business offices, hi-tech, and the like. But my friend Rich Poliak was in the restaurant business for a while, and he gave me a fascinating glimpse of the situation between the kitchen and the dining hall.

It turns out that everyone in his restaurant – the Chef, the line cooks, the servers and he himself – were often checking messages, texting and posting on Facebook, Twitter, etc. He attempted to place a policy of no cellphone use during work hours except for breaks, but it was difficult to enforce; in particular, the younger staff has grown up in a constantly connected and constantly interrupted world, and were having difficulty giving this up.

I asked Rich for more detail on how this was impacting the business. In his words:

Part of the challenge of running a restaurant is that the staff in the FOH (Front Of House) – servers, managers, etc. – must be constantly scanning the room to be able to greet newly arriving customers, thank customers who are leaving, respond to customers that have questions, and removing plates, pouring water, wine, etc. They must also be looking back to the kitchen for food that needs to be delivered, answer any questions about special orders, needs, etc. In other words, in fine dining restaurants the employees have to be constantly aware of what is going on all around them to be able to deliver a great customer experience. So if their heads are down reading their cellphones, they can’t do their basic job well.

The same is true for the BOH (Back Of House): although to a different set of areas that they need to pay attention. Line cooks often have up to a dozen or more dishes in process so their attention must be complete otherwise they can under/over cook a dish which is either thrown away… or worse, delivered to a customer…

Many restaurants basically forbid the use of cellphones during the employee’s shift. While this can be effective it also makes the workplace more challenging as people’s expectations of what they are used to continue to evolve. I have to imagine that there are many service jobs where this can be a challenge.

So now we know: it isn’t just knowledge workers. Until someone invents new brains that can text and look for a customer with a fly in their soup (heaven forbid!) at the same time, the problem of interruptions and distractions will continue to affect a much wider scope of workplaces.

If you have more examples to share, speak up!