If you are in demand, you have flexibility to negotiate with your employer. If you are not in demand, then you follow what your employer asks of you or you quit.
The last 30+ years of my IT career I was in demand. When I was in the office, I would leave a couple times a week at 2-3 to play golf, or I’d get in around 9 because of waterskiing. The last 10+ years, I worked at home which was over 1000 miles from my boss and my coworkers were all over the world. I waterskied every day during my 2.5 hour lunch. I also played some tennis/pickleball in the mornings until 9.
Not a big deal during all those years. All my bosses knew work time would balance out in the long run. I would have midnight calls with clients/coworkers in Europe, china, and India. Or I’d have to get prepared to give a talk at a conference overseas which might have required long hours for a few weeks. What mattered most was my job output, not the amount of hours at a desk.
Some people can’t be productive working at home. I eventually had to let an employee go when they abused the privilege of working home 1 day a week 20 years ago. (Taking away the work at home privilege started a long trail of bad habits).
Also, some companies just want to micro manage their employees and the only way they can do that is to have them at their desk in the office.
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