Yes but people with kids and family would like that time for themselves. Although you mean good, when enough number of people in the office stay late for food and in the process work a little, it puts pressure on the family people. This results in them giving up their family life for the fear of being perceived as a slacker.

The world is not obliged to bend to your choice to have children, just as I don't expect employers to oblige my decision to occasionally go out drinking on a Thursday night.

If leaving at 5pm is important to you, work at an employer who ends work then. There are plenty out there. They also tend to require arriving by 9am (which I would hate), but I don't derail other HN threads to complain about that.

>The world is not obliged to bend to your choice to have children

But they are when someone stays at office because they don't want to cook (which is the reason the comment I replied to gave)? Nobody is asking for extra privileges for having kids, the problem is being penalized for having a life outside work.

> But they are when someone stays at office because they don't want to cook (which is the reason the comment I replied to gave)?

Offices certainly aren't obligated to provide food and in fact the majority don't.

Different companies offer different perks which appeal to different workers. If you don't like the perks of a particular company, it's not a "penalty"—just work elsewhere.

You don't seem to grasp what I'm saying. Giving or not giving food is not the penalty. If some people stay beyond work hours for food and work while they are there, but some people don't stay, it should not be held against them.

>Different companies offer different perks which appeal to different workers. If you don't like the perks of a particular company, it's not a "penalty"—just work elsewhere

First, this is a general trend, not an exception. Most new companies advertise free food as a perk. Second, just work elsewhere is not always possible for everybody. If you can't relate to other people's situation and problems, keep quiet. Don't say it is not a problem because you don't think it is.

will you say the same thing about working conditions in sweatshops? Should the kids assembling iPhones also 'find' another job?

> will you say the same thing about working conditions in sweatshops? Should the kids assembling iPhones also 'find' another job?

Comparing highly paid software engineers to kids working in sweatshops is ridiculous at best, insulting at worst.

Some companies have strict working hours of 9–5. There are plenty of job openings at such companies. Again, should I complain about the penalty I would inevitable receive from such companies for not showing up at 9am?

>Comparing highly paid software engineers to kids working in sweatshops is ridiculous at best, insulting at worst.

Yes because money is what determines the ethics and attitude that companies and managers have towards employees.

>Again, should I complain about the penalty I would inevitable receive from such companies for not showing up at 9am?

No because that is a written rule that conforms to labor laws that you have agreed to, before you joined. Not staying back after work because I have life outside of work is neither.