Restaurant Prisoner's Dilemma

I work at a restaurant, and recently, we’ve been having an issue with an unequal distribution of cleaning tasks, especially during the night shifts. The night shifts start at either 4pm or 5pm, and if you start first, you get to leave first. This resulted in an issue where people would arrive at least 20 minutes early for their shift in a race to be the first one "cut" from work. Not only is this inefficient, but hosts get paid hourly, so by arriving early, clocking in, and just sitting around, you’re wasting the restaurant’s money. Further, the nightly cleaning tasks are disproportionately left with the few employees who are cut last. The sheer amount of cleaning work cannot be done by one or two employees, so the restaurant usually is left with tasks unfinished, resulting in more cleaning for the people who work the next day. 

This results in a prisoner’s dilemma where it’s in an employees own personal interest to be cut early and not have to clean up at all. The pareto inefficient dominant strategy results in a dirty restaurant and employees racing to clock in before their co-workers. To get to the pareto efficient outcome, our managers decided to implement a structured protocol regarding cuts and cleaning duties. This informal "contract" between the managers and employees is laminated and is visible to all employees. Now, prior to your shift, you will know whether you're first, second, or third cut so there is no need to race to clock in early to prove that you were there first. Each cut has certain duties assigned such as cleaning the food and server stations, sweeping, taking out the trash, or vacuuming the booths. In order to be cut, you have to demonstrate that you have completed all the tasks required of your “cut order.” For example, if I was second cut, I would have to go to third cut and show them that I have completed all my tasks, so that they are not stuck with the tasks I didn’t complete at the end of the night. Once they approve that I’ve completed all my tasks, I’m allowed to leave. This pareto efficient outcome results in a socially efficient allocation of duties, since we no longer have to worry about arriving to our shifts early and our restaurant is super clean after every night shift. Our managers were aware that we were all just maximizing our own dominant strategy, resulting in a pareto inefficient outcome. Since they implemented this "contract," we have moved to a pareto efficient equilibrium and a more efficient restaurant. The Prisoner's Dilemma below represents a situation with two employees.