I like complainers... So... Someone who works 9-6 (and is often late by half hour and leaves at 6 sharp also takes extended lunch break) complained to my manager that I'm late for work , which I am , no denying , but , I take no lunch break and I work until 7:30-8 . Why on planet earth would you even care to make a complaint about someone whose manager you don't even know ? What the fuck kind of a person even does that ?! No one in my office has any kind of direct interaction with me , no idea of the work I do yet someone found it fitting to complain . Anyway , manager didn't even listen to the guy so I'm good...just pissed at haters .

You could start a pissing match. But rather you could let it go.

Work hours are completely irrelevant. It's important to be a reliable dependable coworker, attend the right meetings on time, reach productivity targets and deadlines... But you could have the most amazing ideas at 4am, and write the best code at 10pm, arrive at work three hours late, and be the best damn employee in the company.

@bittersweet the problem is that people in charge usually dont realize this

@SIMMORSAL not necessarily true. In a small company it may be possible to accommodate this sort of philosophy. However in big companies with many many staff, rules are required as if not then people will take advantage.

The boss may know that one particular guy does his best work between 4pm and 10pm, but she or he can't let one person do what they want when hundreds of others need to follow the rules.

Especially if the boss has a boss (who has a boss who has a boss)

@GigaMick A lot of modern big companies divide their employees into smaller self-steering teams (a thing from the "agile" philosophy), who take responsibility for specific results rather than following strict rules.

If you make an employee responsible for their own success, they'll feel much more connected to the mission of the company as a whole.

This is not just true for development. The company I work for has self-steering sales, operations and support teams... our ceo really does not care whether a support employee answers tickets from the office, form their bed at home or from a beach resort in Spain -- as long as the team as a whole reaches their satisfaction & response time ratings.

@bittersweet yes a lot of them do. And a lot don't.