I think it means "we don't care how you do your job unless you do something stupid" or sometimes "you're the manager but you also have to fill in for three non existent team members"

Agile, if it refers to Agile working, is apparently just starting/finishing whenever you want. I have to be available between 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm, but outside of that I can just do whatever I want, ostensibly, as long as my timesheet gets filled.

Speaking of timesheets, does anyone find that they absolutely crush any drive to optimize ones workload? Or am I looking at it wrong, and they're really an opportunity to save time by optimizing your work without telling anyone and getting all your work done in 20% of the time?

To me it means you have a continuous circular development cycle as opposed to waterfall in how you manage projects. This began in the IT sector because customers are fucking idiots but now everyone does it - you get the skeleton done and then build/hone with feedback. You'll be engaging with clients/stakeholders throughout so relationship management is emphasised as opposed to waterfall process where you get the bloody thing done first and then go out to people.

Having to do everything with fuck-all staff and few resources is just normal management.