The Hidden Cost of Seasonal Staff: Why "Ghost Licenses" Are Killing Your Budget

By SmtpMan Team | 5 min read

It’s a familiar scene for any Operations Manager in retail, hospitality, or logistics.

The holiday rush is over. The summer peak has passed. Your temporary staff—the seasonal heroes who helped you survive the surge—have moved on. The warehouse is quieter, the store schedule is lighter.

But if you look at your software invoices, specifically for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, something doesn't add up.

You are still paying the peak-season price.

You are paying for what we call "Ghost Licenses": active subscriptions for employees who are no longer working for you. In high-turnover industries, this hidden waste can account for 20% to 40% of your total IT spend.

Why does this happen, and more importantly, how do we stop it?

The "Binary Choice" Trap

Traditionally, businesses managing frontline teams have been forced into a binary choice, and neither option is good.

Option A: The "Enterprise" Route (M365 F1 / Google Frontline)

You treat every seasonal worker like a corporate employee. You buy them a license.

  • The Problem: These licenses are rigid. They often come with annual commitments or complex cancellation processes.
  • The Friction: When a temp worker leaves, archiving their data usually requires an IT ticket. To save money, you have to delete the user, which means losing their data history. To keep the data, you have to keep paying. Most managers, fearing data loss, just keep paying.

Option B: The "Shadow IT" Route (WhatsApp / Personal Email)

You give up on corporate IT and let staff use personal tools.

  • The Problem: You lose control.
  • The Risk: Operational data (schedules, customer lists, internal contacts) lives on personal phones. When an employee quits, that data walks out the door with them. There is no audit trail, and it looks unprofessional.

Enter the Third Way: Elastic Seat Licensing

The software industry has long ignored the reality of the frontline workforce. Deskless workers don't need a 50GB mailbox or desktop office apps. They need a simple, secure way to receive a shift schedule, a safety alert, or a payslip.

And they need a licensing model that matches their employment reality: Elasticity.

At SmtpMan, we pioneered the Elastic Seat Licensing model to solve this exact problem. Here is the core philosophy:

You should only pay for a seat when a human is actually sitting in it.

How It Works in Practice

Imagine you run a retail chain.

  1. October (The Ramp Up): You hire 50 holiday staff. You upload a CSV to SmtpMan, and instantly, 50 new accounts are active. You pay $0.99/user for them.
  2. January (The Ramp Down): The season ends. You select those 50 users and click "Archive".
  3. The Result:
    • Their access is revoked immediately (Security secured).
    • Their email history is preserved forever (Compliance secured).
    • Your billing for those 50 seats drops to $0.00 instantly.

No IT tickets. No data loss anxiety. Just pure operational alignment.

Security: The "Walled Garden" Approach

Another major concern we hear from Operations Managers is cybersecurity. “If I give a temporary warehouse packer an email address, will they get phished? Will they leak data?”

Standard email platforms are "Open by Default." They connect to the entire internet. For a seasonal worker with zero cybersecurity training, this is a liability.

We believe in a "Secure by Default" architecture, or what we call a Walled Garden.

With SmtpMan:

  • Internal-Only Outbound: Staff can email their manager, HR, or other team members, but they cannot email external addresses. This physically prevents data leaks.
  • Whitelisted Inbound: Staff can only receive emails from domains you explicitly trust (like your payroll provider: ADP or Paychex). All other external spam and phishing attempts are blocked at the gate.

This eliminates the need for expensive security training. The system protects the user, not the other way around.

The Bottom Line

In 2025, paying $6.00/month for a Google Workspace license for a part-time employee who only checks email once a week is no longer a cost of doing business. It’s a leak in your profit margin.

If you are managing a team with high turnover or seasonal peaks, it’s time to rethink your infrastructure.

Stop paying for ghosts. Start paying for work.


Ready to audit your waste?

  • SmtpMan: SmtpMan is the secure, internal-only email platform designed for high-turnover teams. $0.99/active user/month. Stop the waste. End the WhatsApp chaos.
  • Calculate Your Savings: Use our interactive calculator to see how much you could save annually.
  • See the Architecture: Learn how we deploy safely alongside your existing M365 setup.
  • Join the Movement: Request Early Access today and lock in your 3-Month Unlimited Free Trial.
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Pub: 22 Jan 2026 02:48 UTC

Edit: 22 Jan 2026 02:50 UTC

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