>Basically creates a strong incentive for HQ to run things hyper lean and rely on this as a backstop routinely That is absolutely what happens. In my youth I

>Basically creates a strong incentive for HQ to run things hyper lean and rely on this as a backstop routinely That is absolutely what happens. In my youth I worked at a corporate franchise with such a structure. The manager was paid a salary, which was barely higher than the salary of the front line workers, but was responsible for covering all shifts that were not otherwise covered. To make matters much worse, corporate brass decreed that he was not allowed to pay overtime or schedule workers to work enough hours to be considered "full-time". This left the manager scrambling with no choice but to seek a drove of low-wage, part-time workers that were difficult to find, hard to retain, and prone to calling in sick and/or quitting suddenly. The end result was the manager routinely working 60+ hours a week (which sometimes actually drove his average hourly wage below that of the part-time workers), never knowing when he would have to race into work for an unknown period of time. At several points they asked me to become a manager and I flatly refused.