Ranty rant....
I have a colleague. Lets call him Roger. Roger is in his early 20's. Roger left school at 16 with few GCSE's (I know this because he often makes jokes about it) but works with us in a senior professional environment. The environment he works in consists either of graduates or people with 20+ years of experience and have 'risen through the ranks'. Roger's dad however is the MD. Roger lives at home still in what I can make out to be a 'wing' of the house (has his own bedroom, bathroom, snug area). He pays keep for this, admittedly I dont know how much, but sees this as employing his mother to be his servant. For example, his mother makes him a packed lunch every morning. If for any reason she can't do this he will buy a subway and present the receipt to her for a 'rebate'. That is Rogers circumstances.
Now Roger has some questionable views. A couple of months ago we got into a discussion on how homelessness has gone up recently and has become much more visible. Roger was of the opinion the every homeless person is in that situation because they deserve to be. That 'no-one doesn't have family they can stay with', and 'anyone can get a job'. I tried gently to argue this but was banging my head against a quite hostile brick wall so gave up.
Since then I've kept my silence. Quite literally. I've sat through 'people are too offended these days', 'Me too movement is just attention seeking' and various other delights.
Today we (like most offices in the country) are talking of the election. Now Roger doesn't like labour. Fair enough. Roger expands on this about people being entitled and wanting everything for nothing, that why should the rich pay for poor peoples 'lifestyle choices'. He goes further as he thinks tax should decrease with salary to 'incentivise people to get off their arses'. He then comes out with the gem that minimum wage increases will encourage people not to do well in their education and settle for dead end jobs. Just as a reminder this man left school with few qualifications and in any other company would have, well never been employed.
He does this with a straight face. I'm sitting there seething. I can't say anything, he's the bosses beloved only son.
Arrogant, privileged, little prick. Gah…. I've wanted to say that all day.