As a native speaker I find the phrase "small staff" to be quite awkward and I would avoid writing it. I'll also note that it's totally standard for the theregi

As a native speaker I find the phrase "small staff" to be quite awkward and I would avoid writing it. I'll also note that it's totally standard for the theregister.com to have headlines that incorporate puns or colloquial language. In this case the original headlines has "slim staff" which is also awkward but has a different mental image :-)