We have a few people working for us with similar deals -- e.g., people have kids and switch to reduced hours (this is a pretty good reason!).... We have one dev

We have a few people working for us with similar deals -- e.g., people have kids and switch to reduced hours (this is a pretty good reason!).... We have one dev who is a theatre director for a few months every year; he lets us know well in advance when he's going to disappear for a while, and is available via email to offer advice on urgent issues. I'd have imagined this would be more common with small & flexible companies; kudos to you for sorting out an alternative setup in a big one! I imagine HR in large companies normally pushes back against any situation that will go outside their normal flow.