It's odd: when you put it so baldly, I kind of cower back and say, "No! It's not that bad..." but then I realize that I do that with everything in the work world (and probably many other areas of life as well): make excuses for it and fail to see it in its stark outlines.

When I try to imagine proposing "work fewer hours and be more flexible" to my boss as a means of increasing efficiency, I just...imagination fails. Fewer hours and greater flexibility means admitting how grossly understaffed we are, and to do that, we'd have to confront our acceptance of the "lazy public servant" meme wherein there is always spare capacity.

Hm. Maybe I should propose it...