The elaborate group work rules devised by workers rivaled the most sophisticated personnel systems. Workers created job rotation schemes and regulated station assignments. In one restaurant, the waitresses took turns calling in sick when they felt the supervisors had overstaffed. Waitresses assisted each other, but each had her regular customers and other waitresses were expected to honor those previously developed relationships. Valentine Webster explained “the way we worked it” when a new worker arrived. “I'd show…[her] what to do and I'd take the heavy load until…[she] learned the ropes.” Whyte unearthed layers of informal work practices regulating work flow and crises; he concluded that without these work groups the business of feeding would grind to a halt.81