there is an advantage to the traditional approach of fixed times - you are not giving everything they can get to your employer. and i think that is, simply because it is how things have always happened, considered fair.

instead, what you seem to be doing is giving as much as possible to your employer. now it's difficult to separate american / startup culture from everything else, but it seems to me that is not fair.

you are entitled to a life outside work. and it doesn't have to be a second rate life. your time isn't yours only when you are exhausted. your time isn't yours only when you are useless to your employer. it's just, and fair, and right that sometimes, in your time, you feel smart, and useful. that you have time to learn, to explore new ideas. and, flip side, it's fair if some of the time you're paid isn't top time. people are not always at their peak and there never was any "agreement" that they should be.

so i think, quite seriously, that you're wrong here.

[i work from home, and i start at 9am, take an hour off at lunch and finish at 5 or 5.30, weekdays.]

[edit: ah, ok, sorry i misunderstood.]