You've identified the difference between sympathy and empathy. OK, fine. I have plenty of sympathy, but no empathy in this situation. I deeply understand that this must suck for people who don't have a choice.
All I'm saying is that it's absolutely ridiculous to cry over the fact that somebody else's superior forced them to work late/hard one night. The original author should not feel any culpability for that. If there's any emotion I'd share here, it would be anger at those superiors, not a sense of guilt.
"It comes off as extremely douchey to tell people [...] that they can always say no."
The person I replied to was talking about a different person and suggested that person went the extra mile, hoping for some repeat business. That is absolutely optional. I have no idea if the delivery people in the original story had a choice, but I wasn't speaking about them.
You know, I'm trying really hard not to flame you, I really am. It comes off as extremely douchey to tell people whose problems are much harder than yours -- and if you have time to comment on HN, this is true -- that they can always say no.
It's extremely presumptuous, to say the least, to enumerate someone else's life options and then write off their current difficulties as a matter of choice. Why don't these old people just go to college so they can get a professional job? Completely incompatible with the idea of being empathetic, which implies understanding of someone's situation on an emotional level, not just a rational level.