Sorry, as always, I could have explained myself better. I used to be responsible for creating 24 hour cover staff rotas in a former life, and in the early stages of local government cutbacks, we had to occasionally double up staff, without increasing payroll...specifically overtime.
We managed it by splitting the usual full time staff into two groups, those who preferred earlies, and the lates group.
The same staff hours in total, just juggled.
The earlies came on..understaffed but tough...cuts.
At break time, the part timer came in to cover, and double up, to cover lunch, then the part timer would go off duty as the later full timers come on.
There was then a couple of golden hours when we were fully staffed with full time permanant staff.
As the early full timers reach eight hours work...and overtime rates about to start, they went and, if needed, another part timer came in to assist.
Longer hours covered, with less overall costs because of a reduction in unplanned overtime.
I know it isn't the same in theme parks, as they are more reliant on casual and zero hour contracts, but you don't need an extra set of full time staff to open for an extra two or three hours.
