(Photo by Valeria Boltneva from Pexels)

Every task counts — a new survey has revealed “absolute chaos” ensues for three in four front-line service industry workers if they forget something during their shift. The poll of 1,000 American employees in service industries — food and beverage, hospitality, etc. — found the average worker has 11 tasks to complete by the end of each shift. Early shifts appear to be the busiest: respondents who work mornings say they have an average of 23 daily tasks, almost twice as many as the overall average. Three out of four (76%) claim that if they forget even one of those numerous tasks, everything at work is thrown into chaos. Commissioned by Wisetail and conducted by OnePoll, the survey asked respondents to look beyond these specific tasks, exploring the skills, behaviors, and training they need to do their jobs successfully. Seventy-four percent use a number of critical life skills for their job, including time management (42%), multitasking (41%), and critical thinking (40%). Following that, respondents cite the ability to keep things presentable and organized (40%) and the ability to prioritize tasks (39%).