Further thoughts. The bottom line is, unless you are self employed, when you work you are paid by your employer to do things for them. While a good employer will consider your personal situations and needs, the bottom line is, you are being paid to provide services (skills, produce things, whatever) for them - not to enhance our own personal satisfaction. Of course, many of us also get a lot of enjoyment and personal satisfaction out of our work - hey, why else would we continue to do this? - but ultimately, the employer has reasonable rights to expect us to delliver what is asked of us, to work according to certain standards, included the hours we are in the office, how we dress, the tools we use, and a whole range of things.

Now, the days of bonded labour are gone, and if you or I don't like the face we have to wear a suit, or be in the office between 9 am and 4:30 pm, use Windows 98 on our PC, use emacs insead of vi, or whatever, then it is our choice. If we don't like the arrangements under which we work, then we have the choice to leave that job, and work elsewhere. Generally, the working arrangements are detailed before we take the job.

As a manager, I am pretty flexible with my staff - some don't start until 10 am, but still put in a full days work. I get annoyed when some people stretch the friendship on working hours - and have gently reminded them on occassions when the situation warranted it. But, ultimately all staff- myself included - need to remember why we are at work each day, and who is paying our wages.

Remember Archimedes golden rule "Them that's got the gold makes the rules."

Ken