work means showing that you're around

For two years I punched a clock at one of my jobs. It was a requirement, and it was supposedly necessary in order to prove that I was actually doing the work I was supposed to be doing, even though everyone I worked with knew full well that the sort of work that I did could be done from home or from almost any other place. What's more, it could be, and was, done from any hour of the day or night. But even so, I was required to punch the clock.

Until the space available for me and a number of others to do our work was significantly decreased. It was then that I was apologetically asked if perhaps I could work from home, as though I might see this as a demotion rather than a blessing. I was told to continue to fill out the work card ... and not to write in that I worked on Shabbatot or in the small hours of the night, even though those were often my most constructive hours for getting something accomplished.