why does it matter?

Now that my kidlets are done with school my duties are mostly clerical and, as is the habit in my school, ill-defined. (Hence the sitting around blogging during the school-day...) Anyway, the first day of our relative freedom a bunch of us showed up late, and my boss was not happy. However, when I asked if I could come in early and leave early (thus fulfilling my contractual 6 hour 40 minute day) he said OK, and seemed to indicate that I could leave early even without coming in early.

So, why is it OK to come in on time and leave early, but not OK to come in late and leave on time?

I think it has something to do with being on time indicating a certain zrizus or seriousness to get whatever boxes have to be packed packed, whereas he will look the other way if I leave early because he, like the rest of us, knows that the ammount of work to be done would take 3-4 hard-working days, and is only expanding to fill the time we have to be here anyway. So I do my part as an employee by pretending it matters, and he does his as an employer by acknowledging that it doesn't.