Hi Lea, just to chip in on the compressed hours vs shorter hours piece, this can be a critical issue for colleagues with caring responsibilities. For example colleagues with school age children may find it challenging to get wrap around care, let alone the fatigue of having a long working day and then dealing with bedtimes! Also those using public transport may find the timetables don't work well outside peak times.

We actually have an 8 hour limit on the number of working hours in a day for wellbeing/fatigue reasons, so we do the reduced hours route for those wanting to. We do this as individual flexible working requests, rather than mandating it to everyone. Our default is that we will accommodate requests and only a small number are declined.

I think anyone would like the idea of working "less" time or commuting less too (especially with fuel prices and train fares increasing) but the reality is that it doesn't work for all, and so the more flexibility you offer the more people will find a working pattern that works for them and the business. So I would ask whether you do need the week to be structured for all with core days/hours or could you just encourage a flexible mindset amongst colleagues and managers and achieve the same result?