Yep, I can understand that, but I thought that this was an elite, a subset of high rank developers that surely (or at least I would hope so) could have a bit mo

Yep, I can understand that, but I thought that this was an elite, a subset of high rank developers that surely (or at least I would hope so) could have a bit more of leeway by the management and/or be capable of work around this kind of nonsense. Of course in the US a lot of practices revolving around "controlling employees" are allowed and even considered "normal" whilst in Europe they are seriously frown upon.