Fixing cars is an 8 to 5 occupation. If you're not in the shop you can't be producing anything. Software development is as much an issue of understanding as it is execution - until you understand the problem you can't design a fix, and once you understand how to fix a problem it is, in some cases, a few minutes at the keyboard and you're done. Of course, sometimes it's also a recognition you used the wrong language and architecture, and have to start over.
What it sounds like is you're working for an organization that doesn't know how to manage creative talent in general, or software developers in particular. If the HR emails are resulting in pay getting docked or negative reviews, the fairly immediate consequence is that people leave. Any time I find myself in that situation I usually bail - employers confuse punctuality with effectiveness.
Slideshow titled 'What's wrong with the Indian IT Industry'
The above link refers to a particular presentation related to a particular country, however this applies to operations 'everywhere' - many software operations are 'job shops' and aren't particularly innovative. They only make 'normal profits', which means that they earn enough to stay in business. Certain other businesses that do innovate make 'economic profits', which means they can reward investors. Specific businesses are mentioned in the presentation. These point out extremes, others can be judged in that framework.
When managers are focused on clock hours, and employees on 'credentials' such as degrees and certifications, neither are focused on the needs of users. Invalid metrics are in use: measuring the wrong thing means incentives are rewarding unhelpful behavior. The market judgment is final: many businesses are just barely alive at the end of the day.
A lot of managers and employees think in terms of 'units' - so many widgets made per hour or tables served or lines of code written. Creative work is a 'whole body', one 2 hour film has a bad and forgettable comedy, another has a highly popular SCI-FI space war, both use about the same amount of material and run for the same duration, one flopped and the other is still watched 30 years later, with multiple sequels. Most apps are 'zombies', few if any downloads, others, requiring the same amount of work to create, are downloaded every second.
Focusing on users needs means figuring out what the problems are, not necessarily what one is being asked to do. I've run into government contracts repeatedly tell me what to do, however I see the solution that would be 'best' is something radically different. Thus I have tended to avoid such contracts, and focused on businesses where I can design the appropriate solution. The customer doesn't care how many hours I work, what hours of the day I work, what my degree is, or what I'm wearing when I'm writing code, the only thing they know is their problem gets solved. One has to become obsessive about finding better ways of getting the customer what they want, including ways the customer can't even imagine.