“Viyas Sundaram, Snag’s chief revenue officer, envisions a new kind of labor force for the restaurant industry where a large, flexible pool of hourly workers fill on-demand positions like Tetris pieces. He sees an increasing number of professionals, from media freelancers to students and parents, who view a series of part-time jobs as a full-time occupation in the gig economy. “
IOW: Cheapskate restaurant owners?
Also, it might be a way for somebody to find a permanent job. If you do good work, the restaurant owner might say "You're hired" and then call the guy who called out sick three of the past four Friday nights and say "You're fired."
This sounds like the usual “it looks good on paper” idea dreamed up by someone not doing the grunt work involved.
From my memory of restaurant work it won’t be easy to make this work. Restaurants all have a culture. They do things differently. Simply knowing where to find items is an adventure.
I was literally talking to a restauranteur friend of mine about this very concept. Was going to call it “Faststaff” or the like. I’m sorry that I won’t be getting rich on the idea, but glad some bright person thought of it, albeit first.
As someone who currently works in the restaurant industry, and at a place that can get REALLY busy (Chick-fil-A), there have been days where people have called out and I would have BEGGED our kitchen director to use a service like this.
If you’re good at what you do, and you want to get your name out there, this could be a great way to do it. The trick is....you have to be GOOD. Sadly, anyone can BS their way through an interview, but the true nature will ALWAYS show through when you’re backed up and ‘in the weeds’. It always sucks when you realize the person you just hired is just not suited for the job.
That’s the biggest danger that I can see with this business model.