You're not alone in seeing the madness but it looks like it's a losing battle. I think fundamentally people can't disconnect themselves from the clock on the wall. The day starts around 09:00 and ends around 17:00. You can only start work at 08:00 if the clock is set to 09:00 and you can only leave at 16:00 if the clock says 17:00. Apparently everyone believes that everyone else is too dumb to just get up an hour earlier, so they feel more comfortable into tricking everyone into doing it by setting their clocks for them. It's the only explanation I have. It really says a lot about how much faith everyone has in the rest of society.