Everywhere I've worked has had a policy of no remote work. Yet, if you got your work done, and your manager was OK with it (probably the case if you get work done), no one cared. I guess they could look at badge data (if your company has them) but I've never seen a company do that.

I don't think I've ever had a manager that could be convinced to care about this even if some level of management did in fact care. Who the hell wants to spend time taking attendance like a schoolteacher?