For me the rotation works well. 8 weeks flying followed by 4 weeks quality time at home.
As for
Fly them to the bone and then send them home
personally I've never had such an easy roster ever. In fact the problem really is the means to avoid boredom with the days off and days on standby. (I'm on the 737, perhaps other fleets are different?) Fly them to the bone!! - try BA shorthaul , Easyjet, Ryanair, or Colgan etc in the USA
The only 'difficult days' are the few that are rostered for 6 sectors (I've done two in the last 6 weeks), otherwise it's a piece of cake with the majority of days being 4 sectors with a nightstop here and there.
For me it is a very good part time job - once you learn to accept Lagos and realise that the people here are generally decent then it becomes quite acceptable. I'd go further and say that I would not go back to my previous 757/737 UK employer - they always kept you on duty regardless of flying just because they could.
People may knock Arik (and it is true that they have much to learn in some ways) but they are certainly not all bad as some may say.
Expanding at a considerable rate at the moment with the possibility of bases overseas in the near future.
Regards
Exeng