[jiggy2011]

This depends on individual agreements between employer/employee at the end of the day and also on the nature of the job.

There are certainly situations where it is advantageous to have your employees sitting at their desks in your building. So you know where they are if some emergency situation arises or if you need to ask them some questions or even just to make the place look big/busy.

[tmh88j]

>This depends on ....and on the nature of the job.

I agree in some situations, but this was a programmer. Unless he was a manager that has to oversee others, there's no need for a mandatory appearance

>So you know where they are if some emergency situation arises

That's completely irrelevant to the situation. A company does not profit when it's down for an emergency.

[bphogan]

At least half the people I've seen on Hacker News doing startups want people to relocate to NYC or SF. Apparently lots of folks think face to face / butt in chair time is important for "team building" or something.

[jiggy2011]

There's definitely situations where you might want to have a programmer in the office (or at least "on the clock"). Perhaps your system goes down and you need it fixed ASAP, you don't want to be calling the programmer and hoping he hasn't gone to the movies and turned his phone off.

Likewise with mentoring/helping other staff, sometimes this is just far easier to do when you are physically present.

[tmh88j]

>Perhaps your system goes down and you need it fixed ASAP

So you're saying, all this person is hypothetically doing is sitting around waiting for something to break, presumably at night? You don't think the company would delegate other tasks as well?

>Likewise with mentoring/helping other staff, sometimes this is just far easier to do when you are physically present.

That's not benefiting the company in any way? How is that just "your time"

[jiggy2011]

My point is that it is often beneficial to the company to know that you will definitely be available during certain hours.

Obviously you are going to be doing other work during these hours assuming that there is something to do.