But it just looks unprofessional to me in the captain’s chair.

That’s what I love, though. A boss today might feel the need to cultivate a “professional” work environment to maintain discipline among their underlings, or to appear trustworthy to their clients.

Ake doesn’t doesn’t need to worry about discipline among her officers. They aren’t working for a paycheck, they’re there because they feel a calling and a duty to be there. She trusts them implicitly, and is confident enough in having their respect that she can enjoy her time on her bridge. And her “clients” are university age kids, who generally don’t respond to the pomposity of performative professionalism.