<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>crossroadsguy</author><text>Just finished 13 months at my new startup employer from USA. Personal time imbalance has been a polite and cold confrontation often and I simply never budged. So much that I’ve got “that reputation” here. It’s just around 400 people across the world.&lt;p&gt;Delivered my work really well. Was rated 4 out of 5 - 5 being best. No one even mentioned that part of my decision. I am fiercely professional and diligent about my work and product I own in my work hours just like I am fiercely protective of my personal time.&lt;p&gt;And yes, maybe they need me, maybe they will aks me to leave, maybe they’ll PIP me (that’d ne ridiculous though), something else.&lt;p&gt;But I’ll not budge. That simple.&lt;p&gt;With that short incomplete sentence what you’re trying to say is - and I won’t point directly at you, I’ll just try to expand&amp;#x2F;translate - one is afraid of losing the job and actually more afraid of getting another one, one is afraid of not getting that high a salary, loans&amp;#x2F;EMIs, etc. You may be right. Or that it’s just like that everywhere (this is not true at all).&lt;p&gt;So like everything else in life nothing comes free and without risk.</text><parent_chain><item><author>roflulz</author><text>thats how you get PIPed</text></item><item><author>driverdan</author><text>Put your work hours in your calendar and auto decline everything outside those hours. Refuse that nonsense.</text></item><item><author>tombert</author><text>COVID made my situation worse at Apple. I worked in a satellite office (NYC), and while in the office, most folks in California were reluctant to schedule meetings later than ~2pm california time because they didn&amp;#x27;t want to keep people in the office late. When we went fully remote, suddenly it seems like any compunctions about that vanished; I would have meetings until 9pm 3 nights a week, I guess because the managers figured that we were already home.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Having left, I forgot what it was like to be able to focus on something other than Apple&lt;p&gt;Definitely sympathize there; we weren&amp;#x27;t even allowed to leave &lt;i&gt;Github issues&lt;/i&gt; without Legal&amp;#x27;s approval, and when I wanted to open source something (basically an HLS server I wrote to handle my home security system), I was told that a) it was too competitive with Apple because my project had to do with video, and b) there&amp;#x27;s no such thing as &amp;quot;my own time&amp;quot; with Apple, since I was salaried and well-compensated.</text></item><item><author>dnathi493</author><text>I left Apple after years of lack of any flexibility on the remote work process. They wouldn&amp;#x27;t allow transferring to any alternative office for most teams. From what I understood, VPs could protect a small minority of some of their employees if a senior leader made a case to them.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, this just seemed to lead to the most politically connected folks going remote and directors friends and favorite hires getting the perk.&lt;p&gt;At three trillion market cap, I guess they just realized it doesn&amp;#x27;t really matter if attrition shoots up and they&amp;#x27;ll always have enough people to fill the trenches. Lots and lots of people left around the same time.&lt;p&gt;Having left, I forgot what it was like to be able to focus on something other than Apple. Incredibly toxic atmosphere on the inside. I work at a fast-paced startup and still work on average 10&amp;#x2F;hours a week less than at Apple.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th</title><url>https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/4/22961592/apple-april-11-return-office-corporate-pandemic-tim-cook</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>amerkhalid</author><text>I freely decline meetings too. Usually, add a note saying it is family time or unreasonable time for a meeting.&lt;p&gt;Never been a problem.</text><parent_chain><item><author>roflulz</author><text>thats how you get PIPed</text></item><item><author>driverdan</author><text>Put your work hours in your calendar and auto decline everything outside those hours. Refuse that nonsense.</text></item><item><author>tombert</author><text>COVID made my situation worse at Apple. I worked in a satellite office (NYC), and while in the office, most folks in California were reluctant to schedule meetings later than ~2pm california time because they didn&amp;#x27;t want to keep people in the office late. When we went fully remote, suddenly it seems like any compunctions about that vanished; I would have meetings until 9pm 3 nights a week, I guess because the managers figured that we were already home.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Having left, I forgot what it was like to be able to focus on something other than Apple&lt;p&gt;Definitely sympathize there; we weren&amp;#x27;t even allowed to leave &lt;i&gt;Github issues&lt;/i&gt; without Legal&amp;#x27;s approval, and when I wanted to open source something (basically an HLS server I wrote to handle my home security system), I was told that a) it was too competitive with Apple because my project had to do with video, and b) there&amp;#x27;s no such thing as &amp;quot;my own time&amp;quot; with Apple, since I was salaried and well-compensated.</text></item><item><author>dnathi493</author><text>I left Apple after years of lack of any flexibility on the remote work process. They wouldn&amp;#x27;t allow transferring to any alternative office for most teams. From what I understood, VPs could protect a small minority of some of their employees if a senior leader made a case to them.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, this just seemed to lead to the most politically connected folks going remote and directors friends and favorite hires getting the perk.&lt;p&gt;At three trillion market cap, I guess they just realized it doesn&amp;#x27;t really matter if attrition shoots up and they&amp;#x27;ll always have enough people to fill the trenches. Lots and lots of people left around the same time.&lt;p&gt;Having left, I forgot what it was like to be able to focus on something other than Apple. Incredibly toxic atmosphere on the inside. I work at a fast-paced startup and still work on average 10&amp;#x2F;hours a week less than at Apple.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Tim Cook tells employees the return to offices will begin on April 11th</title><url>https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/4/22961592/apple-april-11-return-office-corporate-pandemic-tim-cook</url></story>