> The notion that they own your attention from 9-5 is ludicrous, right?
It's not necessarily about attention, but about availability. Companies shouldn't care if employees take short breaks away from the computer while working remote. However, unless the business truly has perfectly isolated, asynchronous units of work to give everyone, you do need some level of availability to co-work with people and discuss things together.
Most remote companies end up with some core working hours where everyone is expected to be online and available for collaboration. Without this, it becomes a scheduling nightmare to try to get people online to answer questions or collaborate.
It's not necessarily about attention, but about availability. Companies shouldn't care if employees take short breaks away from the computer while working remote. However, unless the business truly has perfectly isolated, asynchronous units of work to give everyone, you do need some level of availability to co-work with people and discuss things together.
Most remote companies end up with some core working hours where everyone is expected to be online and available for collaboration. Without this, it becomes a scheduling nightmare to try to get people online to answer questions or collaborate.