My observation is that some managers don't feel like managers unless they have their staff assembled around them.
Others measure their 'level of importance' by thenumber of staff they can show other managaers they 'own'.
(And many do think in terms of 'ownership'.)
Yet others don't believe you're working unless they can see you're working, with some reason, because some employees, allowed to work from home, simply can't manage their time, or feel it's a licence to 'skive off'. And I've seen of few of those who can't even keep their minds on the job when they're actually sitting at the desk at work.
Now if everybody could be trusted to put in the time, matters might change.
I do remember a very successful homeworking group called, as far as I remember, F International (or something like that), made up entirely of women programmers who had taken maternity leave. (we're going back to the early to mid '70s.) They were an incredibly effective software creation force within the now non-existent International Computers Ltd. (ICL) for whom I wasted 20 years of my life in a so-called 'career'.
Bitter? Me? You bet your bloomin' life I am!
For more than a year I used to commute from Peacehaven in East Sussex (where I was 'redeployed' to to work on a project which ran into trouble) into the ICL building on Euston Road near the old Capital Towers. Left home around 6:30 to arrive, if all went well, around 9:00.
I'll leave you to guess whether things often went well.
Journey home? Well, Saul's already talked about Southern Region.
Like Chris, doing support meant actually 'being there' and often going from the Euston office to London based customers to fix problems.
Commuting into London? Nah! Mug's game.
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