Very passive aggressive as a response, but 100% fair, I'd aim for this regardless as far as the whole concept of "free work" goes.

This is not going to be good for your career

Being micromanaged rarely does

@NeilG Why? If the employer is complaining about being six minutes late, why would the reverse (never working more than exactly 8 hours) be bad?

@Andy What do you think your manager and coworkers and everyone else who interacts with you is going to say about you when you when you apply to be promoted or ask for a reference? This is terrible advice. You should either do the best job you can or start looking for another job. No one wants to work with someone who passive-aggressively drops their pen at 5pm no matter what needs to be done.

@NeilG Such nonsense. No one wants to work for anyone that dings them for not being there at exactly 8AM either. Its not being passive-aggressive to end at exactly 5PM if you're being told you need to be there exactly at 8AM. It's standing up for yourself and making sure you're not being taken advantage of. Why should the employer get free extra time from the employee if the employee doesn't get the same flexibility on being later?

Excellent response, except: don't arrive at 8am sharp. Arrive at about 7.45 am, and remain standing by your desk, still wearing your outdoor clothes. Set your cellphone's alarm for 8.00. When the alarm goes off, spring into action! This works even better if your manager can SEE you doing it, of course.

@NeilG " What do you think your manager and coworkers and everyone else who interacts with you is going to say..." this depends on the corporate culture. I've worked in a (big, happy, efficient) company where an entire department left on the dot of time, every day, as a matter of course. They got their work done on schedule, and nobody had any complaints - but everyone knew that if you phoned the department 15 seconds after the official finishing time, nobody would be there to answer.

If you take this advice and start this kind of "work to the clock", make sure your resume is up to date first. Because if the current peeve, not officially in writing, is starting to bother you, you'll have to be prepared for a drastically worse performance review.

@JoeStrazzere Agreed. If the employer is so shady that they have intentionally hidden job requirements, the OP should certainly update their resume and start looking for a respectable company.

@Clay07g - hidden job requirements? You mean they should have posted that "arrive on time" was a job requirement? I'm just saying that if the OP is already bothered, then taking this passive aggressive approach certainly isn't going to make that better. In that case I agree that the OP might as well leave instead.

“If you come in 7.45am - 4.45pm is your time to leave” - no can’t do that. If your contracted hours are until 5pm then 5pm is your time to leave, regardless of when you arrived. Leaving early is only going to cause a lot more grief.

@Joe If arriving and leaving at exactly the times stipulated in the contract is enough to give you a drastically worse performance review, then yes, there would be some sort of hidden job requirement there. If you’re hired to work 8–5 and the only way to get a positive performance review is to work outside your actual working hours, that’s a hidden job requirement.

@JoeStrazzere Getting a negative performance review for arriving exactly on time an leaving exactly on time means that the job requires you to stay late and arrive early, even though it's not in the contract. AKA, hidden requirements.

@Clay07g - no manager is going to write "I'm taking off points for arriving and leaving exactly on time". Instead, they will take off points with a comment like "Never goes beyond the absolute minimum requirements of the job." If the OP is planning to go that route, it would be simpler to find a new job now and quit this one. It's fun to talk about in an "Office Space" sort of way, but let's not be oblivious to what a "work to the clock ploy" will actually accomplish. If you don't think arriving on time per orders from the boss is a requirement for a job, then you aren't being serious.

@JoeStrazzere Weird way of saying "Never does more work than what we pay her for"

@Clay07g - you say potayto, your boss says potahto. In a performance review, whose opinion matters more?

@JoeStrazzere Then you ask some explanation by what the manager meant with "absolute minimum". If your manager really does that, it's definitely time to start looking for a new job. Letting people take advantage of you does not do good for your career. I'm not even sure where you got the idea that it's normal to do work for free, but please don't try to make it look like a normal thing to do.

@FINDarkside - a passive aggressive "I'll show you" attitude (defiant? professionally?) isn't going to end well for the employee. It's silly to pretend otherwise. Rather than going in that direction, just find a new job.

Some call it passive-aggressive, some call it work-to-rule. If you're being forced to follow arbitrary rules, follow all of 'em.