It might work out the way you say, or it might depress journeyman chef wages and give many restaurant’s uneven food quality. It will be interesting to see which way it goes.
Chefs aren’t in the mix here according to the article.
I have to agree with you about kitchen staffing, servers could possibly step in BUT even then having to learn the menu and KNOW where things are can really slow down service!! Then there is ALWAYS the fact that MANY customers return BECAUSE they KNOW the team members AND like them!!! I was in the restaurant business my entire life AND I would NEVER have used Uber type help for my businesses!!!
But employees banging in sick or not showing up is a big problem in the service industry. Having this "on demand" temp service will plug the holes and smooth out the workload so that your Saturday night is not a total train wreck because half your waitstaff called out (it happens).
I remember being in a restaurant with my wife one night and this poor girl was waiting the entire restaurant all by herself. It wasn't a huge restaurant but there was close to 20 tabletops and she was all alone. Some of the other customers were giving her grief and she was almost in tears. We wanted to get up and give her a hand. She did a great job overall given the circumstances and we left her a 50% tip.
This is a terrible idea. The restaurants that use this will suffer uneven quality in both food prep and Customer service. It also treats people as ‘Tetris blocks’...interchangeable parts. I’m this model, there are no outstanding people. There are just warm bodies performing the same job. The only are where this is beneficial is chain fast food industry. If you’ve made one Big Mac you can make them anywhere.