[ojbyrne]

Having worked as a programmer and spending time at B-school, I'm about to tell you the secret that explains all the conflicts between managers and programmers.

Many is the programmer who's said "I get more done after midnight than most people do the rest of the day."

But at B-school the saying goes "I get more done before 8 AM than most people do the rest of the day."

And therein lies the problem. ;-)

[Xichekolas]

Well if they'd let the programmer come in at midnight, then his productive time would be tapering off right about the time the MBA shows up at 6am to get all his work done. It would be perfect.

But no, programmers must pretend to be generic office cogs. 9-5 just doesn't make sense for a creative profession. Working hours should be whenever the person happens to be working, and managers should be good enough at knowing whether things are getting done that they don't have to watch all their employees (pretend to) work on a set schedule.