The Civilization of Entitlements

Here are three typical stories. Adrian was a good employee, one with a future, doing a good job. Young, dynamic, mid-twenties, with good mental and physical health, apart from a nasty smoking habit and a bit of a paunch. There was nothing unusual when he walked into my office. His request, though, was as unusual as it was simple: ‘Boss, can you please fire me?’ Nonplussed, I asked whether there was any problem at work or with his colleagues. Not at all, he said. Finally, he spilled the beans: he had researched the way the system worked, checked with friends and found that if the company fired him, the government would pay him virtually 70 per cent of his current salary for a couple of years. Whether his figures were exact or not, he felt the unemployment stipend would enable him to enjoy a comfortable two-year holiday, at the end of which he would start looking for a job. Another employee had a similar request a couple of months later. These were surely not isolated cases: The Economist decried France’s rigid labour laws, saying ‘bosses believe some workers try to get fired in order to win generous tax-free redundancy’.1 In this system, long-serving employees have an incentive to get themselves fired.