It absolutely is.

I allowed those who worked in my department to come in late, leave early, take long lunch breaks, and even have impromtpu games of poker or bridge if they wanted, as long as the work was done and done brilliantly. It always was, and their loyalty and excellence was close to fanaticism. What's more, because much of it was creative in nature, my charges would often work outside of office hours, when they were at their most creative (for example, some of my writers worked much better in the evenings, so did their work then, even though technically they were meant to work 9 - 5ish hours). It greatly pissed off HR, who lacked the vision to see this was for the best, and provoked jealousy in other departments. But for many happy years, I had a great boss who understood the value of this approach, and she always overruled the bureaucrats.

Then, after a series of tumultuous circumstances I won't detail, new bosses from America bought the company, and did to the company what Americans typically do to UK companies (look at Cadbury as an example, that should paint a vivid picture). I'll let you extrapolate the rest.