I've heard similar stories from people who work on oil platforms.
Forgot the exact numbers, but it's something like six months you live there and work most of your waking hours, then six months vacation, and the pay is stupid high (and living on the platform while you work there means you have almost no personal expenses during that time).
that's not all that different from the deal folks get from the U.S. military; agree to work 12-on/12-off at someone else's will, for some reasonable number of months at a time ('reasonable' is determined by people who have done the same gig, once upon a time, and climbed the organisational hierarchy); in return get decent pay and extremely decent post-tenure benefits.
And, again, personal expenses go down to almost zilch while living on-base.
My mom's boyfriend is in the National Guard. Every few years, he gets activated and deployed somewhere for a year or two. Every time he comes back, he takes the money he saved by not having to pay for anything for a year and buys himself an expensive new car. Last time, he bought a Dodge Challenger SRT8.
Forgot the exact numbers, but it's something like six months you live there and work most of your waking hours, then six months vacation, and the pay is stupid high (and living on the platform while you work there means you have almost no personal expenses during that time).