Oh, please don't get me started on so-called "teambuilding" activities. Yes, the duplicitous egomaniacs aren't fooling anyone. Damn right.

To address your other points, yes, it depends on the nature of the work/contract, but if your contracted office hours are 9 till 5, it is absurd corporate macho posturing to play idiotic games of one-upmanship turning up early and leaving late, when there is no emergency situation or workload issue. Especially (as I witnessed over and over again in my middle management last job) when this was done at the expense of spouses, children, etc, many of whom were denied the presence of their parents at occasions like birthday parties, or had family holidays cancelled at the last minute due to "urgent management meetings" and so forth. But I drew a line in the sand. When I had children, I determined not to miss one birthday party, family holiday (booked well in advance), etc. This meant quite a few bloody showdowns with upper management when they were not as well organised as I was ("Lack of planning on your part does not necessarily constitute an emergency on my part" is a good adage to live by), but I was determined. I didn't work for the emergency services, I had staff in place who seconded for me in my absence (because I wasn't insecure and paranoid enough to make myself a power-crazed bottleneck), so nope - if I had booked a holiday with the family, I was going on holiday with the family. No one ever lay on their death bed wishing they'd spent more time at work.

Ironically, after taking such stands for years, my bosses in upper management one day said they really respected my stand, and said they wished they'd done the same, but their children had now grown up, and it was too late. The lesson of Mary Poppins, right there.

The utter bullshit of workoholism for the sake of appearance, to suck up to corporate management that couldn't given an airborne fornication about you, is a lie that we must smash with hammers.

Rant over. :)