The ability to work 8 honest, focussed hours a day is a special skill that needs to be acquired and cultivated. Many people never learned this and are doing ok in their careers. This includes many in that middle management layer that would have to enforce, or at least recognize and reward those productive 8 hours from employees in the first place.

It used to be different, and I started my worklife in a large, old-school company and experienced many departments working in a very structured way, people sitting at their desks working steadily througout the day, with a clearly defined scope and not under a huge amout of pressure but ultimately under a boss' supervision.

Work has changed, incentives have changed, and what do you do with that 8-hour-work superpower? Finish all the tickets from the board, revealing how slow everyone else is? End up with the truly unsolvable and unrewarding work? Try to take initiative and fix things the analyst hasn't specified, liaison with other teams until your boss tells you to stop? Learn job specific tech on the job but feel awkward watching a video series or setting up sample projects on the work machine?