I work with this guy. I'll call him Mark. Mark's a nice guy, but very unproductive. So unproductive in fact that our boss told him two months ago that he needed to find another job. My boss gave him three months to do it. Well, he has a month left, but my boss & I had a talk, and I was of the opinion that there was still other work to get done (we're doing a software conversion) so there wasn't much harm letting him hang around a couple more months since we haven't found a replacement anyway, and my boss reluctantly agreed.

Mark has a 9 year old daughter, and today we were discussing stock options and he starts talking about his previous company and how he made quite a bit of money with options there but he spent most of it on frivilous items (new cars, motorcycles, vacations, etc.). I said "Hey, what are you going to do, keep it all until you're 80?" at which point he proceeds to tell me he should have kept some of it and that he's counting on his inheritence to pay for his daughter's college. I didn't realize he had some inheritence trust fund, so I say "Your inheritance?" and he says "Yeah, from my mother." Now I know the guy's mother is still alive, so I'm kind of mortified, and then he proceeds to tell me that she's older and how much longer is she gonna live anyway? and stuff like that.

I can't even look at him now and I really want him out. What should I do?

What's the problem? Seems that he accepts the fact that his mom will eventually die. Nothing wrong with that. I can see being upset if he was all "Man, I can't wait for that old bat to kick so I can get me some money!", but just stating that he's getting mony whenever she dies doesn't sound bad to me.

Kill his mom. He'll piss away the inheritance money on a long vacation and you can replace him while he's gone. If he comes back, pretend you've never seen him before.

J/k. Ignore him. Some people are assholes. Congrats on working close enough with one to poke it with a stick. You can't change what a dick he is, don't let it drag you down. Amp up the search for his replacement, and let him go when you find one. Sounds like he could use the karma

Yeah...I don't understand where the debate lies here.

Talk to your boss and try to get him fired.

DONE

Look, I'm as much of an asshole as the next guy or gal, but this is just way beyond the boundries of human decency.

Agreed.

My parents will die too. I'll get some money unless I am already dead.

??????

So.....someday, when his mom dies, he's going to use the money from his inheritence to pay for his kids college. Yeah, sounds pretty indecent to me. I bet his mom would be a lot happier if she knew he was going to spend it on hookers.

I think you've got this guy wrong....it doesn't sound like he's hoping that his mom kicks the can....he's just saying that when she does (which is inevitable by the way) he's going to be able to use the money, and use it for a good cause to boot.

Take a shit on his keyboard.

It was the way he kept explaining to me that it was fine because she would be dead soon anyway. It was weird.

I don't think that ethics enters the picture at all, unless you are leaving out the part where he told you that he was slowly poisoning his mother so that he could get his hands on the inheritence.

Some people just aren't as tactful as others. of course, I wasn't there and so am not able to judge the level of callousness that these things were said with, but I think there are a lot of people who secretly--or not so secretly-- think about their future inheritence. A lot of those people are probably in some financial distress and so they end up puttting too much emphasis on their future windfall instead of just growing up and not spending their current cash on brand new cars and speeding tickets

My screwed-up aunt & uncle are waiting for my aunt's parents to die so they can get monies. They are anticipating it so much that they have made it a point to tell everyone in the family just how much money they will get from the inheritance, and are quite happy that the father had some huge policy. Needless to say, they've been extra nice to them lately. Very screwed up, if you ask me.

I think it's disturbing as well. He might not say to his daughter that she can't go to college until grandma dies, but it seems like he's thinking about it. It's kind of sad that when someone screws up their finances to the point where they have to rely on inheritances.

I think he sounds pretty skeevy, but like I said last night in chat. His personal lack of tact or morals or whatever is inconsequential. It's his ability to do his job. You were pretty clear that he can't, so there's no shame in talking to your boss and saying, "seriously, we can't keep him around. I'd do better on my own until we find a replacement, hell I have to redo his work in the end anyhow."

agreed..you can´t fire a guy because his an insesitive asshole..but you can fire him because his incapable of doing his job...

Actually, you can, but if you're a responsible employer you need to demonstrate that it effects his job or the job of others, that you've warned him, offered help, and that the problem persists despite your efforts. Who the hell wants to go through all that?

You should ask everyone else in the office what their financial plan for the future is, just so you can know who to talk to.