If I may tiptoe into the topic as someone who spent most of his 30 years acquiring a shiny seat to his trousers ...
A bit of workspace flexibility is, IMO, a good idea
in certain areas. Now, we could debate endlessly where/when/who/how but the fact exists [or existed] that there are many people in many posts who could, I'm sure, work a 4-day week without any significant impact on 'The System" ... provided they go full-throttle the rest of the time. Three days might be pushing it: that would surely have the Establishment people getting out their magnifying glasses! However ...
- I have a friend in the USA, a quite senior Govt employee [wg cdr/gp capt equivalent] who works from home on her laptop much of the time in Arizona, and occasionally flies over to DC for 'face time'.
- At NATS, I worked a 4.5 day week, leaving Kingsway Friday lunchtime to head home to Locking. Because ... I didn't take an hour or so for lunch, and always got in early. My Head of Section was a former lt cdr RN pilot - and a good leader of his Team.
- At MoD, in the AFD as Head of Section, I was not one of the late-night workers [who were usually on the Lodging List, and thus had nothing to go home for]. Again I was in early by most standards, and I left [to shocked looks] every afternoon at 1630. Again, I didn't take lunch breaks, I just got on with clearing the contents of my In-tray.
It doesn't take a huge leap of imagination to be able to extrapolate that sort of flexibility across large parts of the Mil community.