But staff say temp workers sometimes bring new problems.

"They don't know the job," explains a Quincy chef. "We have to teach them and sometimes they don't show up."

And staff say other attempts to get full time employees have also failed.

"They can't get a lot of help in the dish room--they come and they just don't want to stay," a staff member says. "They have to make it more appealing than lousy hours."

Many suggest that the real concern of HUDS is saving money. Some note that Quincy experimented with a trimmed-down dishwashing staff on weekends, which failed.

"They don't want to hire full-time people. They'd prefer to have temp people," says one chef, noting that a formerly full-time position was recently replaced with a part-time one.

McNitt says the HUDS director's office isn't out to pinch pennies, but does scrutinize its spending.

"It's a process. We're not frivolous with the budget. We have a responsibility to your board dollar," she says. "So when managers are doing their planning, we ask how they can work with the staff to be as efficient as possible with the job."