I wish it was a no-brainer. Work ethic is in no way predictable.
In this hypothetical scenario, when you are on the road you are working. We pay pilots (Part timer or Per diem) for every day we have them sitting on the road, not just when they fly. Very rarely do we do road trips, and we rarely leave a plane on the road waiting to fill the dead leg home. I was speaking to a Lear pilot recently who said they get paid per flight hour, I found that tough to understand. I could see getting paid for duty hours, not flight hours. We always say that we get paid to wait in this business, not fly. We do 12 hour days, TEB-ALB sometimes, how would that work?
I am trying to figure out how to make the office and the pilots be on the same team. I know I hate answering phone calls all day, and it doesn't help when the salaried pilots bob and weave (not real names) as much as possible to not come to work. I would like the pilots to be happy when the office calls. I am trying to find that happy medium of pay, and pay for performance.