Triangle in a restaurant

In the workplace there can be a standard principal-agent relationship or a more realistic triangle relationship. In this triangle, the agent deals with two different principals. This occurs mostly in situations where the agent has multiple interests. For example as a salesman, one goal is to sell as much as possible and the other goal is to satisfy the buyer. My experience with the triangle principal-agent model comes from my job as a waiter in a restaurant.

During the last year of my high school and before my gap year, I worked in a restaurant in Utrecht. In general, the main goal of my boss was to make as much revenue as possible. During my first working days I was taught how to be a good waiter and what they expected of me. I experienced that I had multiple interest as a waiter.

The main goal was to satisfy the guests as good as possible. Nowadays review scores and social media are very important in order to attract new costumers, thus good service is important. The costumers expect good service of a waiter and in principle I tried to offer the best service I could. The incentive of working harder for tips isn’t great in The Netherlands. Tipping doesn’t have to be done by a costumer and if it’s done it is often around the 10 percent.

The other principal was my boss who expected me to provide good service to the costumers, however after a while it became clear that he more cared about making maximum revenue as possible. For me as a waiter there were several strategies that were beneficial in order to maximize revenue.

During busy days such as weekends, it was important to be fast en efficient. Instead of having 2 different costumers groups at one table during one night, we should have 3 or even 4 groups at one table during the night. So when one group of costumers finished eating, we needed to give them the bill as soon as possible to be able to get the next group of customers at the table after. Often this didn’t lead to the best service that I wanted to offer to the guests.

Another strategy was to be economically ‘smart’. An example is the case when costumers asked for water. In that case, I had to serve them bottled water instead of tap water because this raised the bill. Another example is also very common namely the recommendations of the waiters. When costumers asked me about wines or about food, I had to recommend the more expensive wines or food instead of the cheapest ones. Most of these more expensive items were better, however this wasn’t the case for every item. Thus, maximum satisfaction for the costumers were blocked by the coercion to get maximum revenue.

After all, I found that this kind of catering industry didn’t really fit me. I hated to put costumers under a kind of pressure to order the more expensive items and to get them out as quick as possible after finishing their food. I tried to fulfill the expectation of both the principals, but this was hard in some situations. Often I satisfied one master –my boss- because I had to in order to keep the job, while the other principal –the costumer- suffered because of this. I enjoyed my work as a waiter especially because I had nice colleagues, however I don’t think I will ever work in a restaurant again.