Eh I'm not feeling this post. I got worked up but it's not a huge deal. The guy is friendly and isn't a burden or anything.

My job sucks enough and I guess I got upset at the thought that I'm also entertainment for some bored retired rich guy. Personally find the guy odd but whatever. My day is basically the same regardless.

There is something incredibly sad to me about this kind of guy. He really made it to retirement with the ability to do so comfortably and he gets an entry-level job to get out of the house? He has nothing he'd rather do? No friends or family he wants to spend time with? No hobbies he'd like to indulge in? No interests he wants to pursue? Nothing? God what a sad empty life

It is also frustrating that he's taking an entry-level coded job from someone that actually is trying to get their life started/pay off student debt/start a career. It's already hard enough for young people to get started now a days without bored retiree landlords looking to fill the time till they die. Like you said, if it's just about connecting with people/staving off loneliness he could be volunteering somewhere more stimulating/rewarding. This guy can't imagine a way to fill his time that isn't work. I'm split between pitying this poor bastard for having such an empty life and being pissed at him for squandering an opportunity that most people my age will never have (that is actually being able to retire and be in a position to enjoy it)

I have a coworker who's like 20 and a totally brainrotted channer edgelord. Dude jokes about being a Nazi, and he's Jewish.

One day I asked him if he's seen the movie Come and See and he said "yeah". And I was like "remember that kid who was hanging around with the SS with a skull painted on a helmet and was cheering them on while they burned the village down. I feel like that's gonna be you when society collapses."

He took that as a compliment.

I hate my job.

Its disgusting that we are so lacking in community that our elderly must sell their labor to find something even adjacent to it.

I once worked with a guy that had a yacht and wanted to play around at our job. He thought it was easy. He was a fool and fucked everything up and he was constantly lying about the shit he did. He eventually left when he got bored. He was a friend of some bigshot. I was forced to explain basic shit to him every day, which wasted so much time. Very frustrating.

Sounds like a worker to me. Is there something I'm missing?

Like just because he has a pension doesn't mean he can't be a worker and it doesn't mean it covers all his needs. Also even if he's doing it just to get out of the house he's still selling his labor for far less than it's worth. Even if it is just pushing a button and writing down the results.

But again I could be missing something.

Yeah, that's a difficult one, because on the one hand you're right that he's ultimately cosplaying as a prole, but I think the deeper issue is that humans fundamentally want to at least feel like they're helping. In an ideal world there would be plenty of room for old people to fill basic button pushing jobs that they just want for something to do, but he's only able to do that in this world because of the wealth he's amassed.

It's probably best to just be friendly but avoid politics. It's not like you can do anything to get rid of him without personal risk, so if he's just being nice why bother?

I guess it's a trend that people that don't need to work look for weird jobs, I heard of one that worked in the mailroom at an office building.

He probably just enjoys you & your coworkers company lol

This is kind of like the "continuing education" and many older PhD students. It's a form of entertainment. Taken in isolation it's not a bad thing at all. If you want to do something vocational or educational, glad you can do that. But when put into social context, this tends to mean a zero-sum displacement of some kind due to how academics is funded. A grant only has so much money. Should the person who doesn't need a job get paid for a position that an undergrad needs and could develop from? If they become a volunteer, doesn't that end up devaluing the labor price in aggregate (YES IT DOES)? Similarly, tuition is prohibitively expensive and financialized in the US, yet seniors get substantial subsidies so that they barely need to pay anything to take 1 or 2 courses at a time. While this does not need to be zero sum at the national level (tuition could be abolished with the stroke of a pen), it is often state or locally funded, which means hard trade-offs. Every state dollar spent on "continuing education" is one stolen from a school free lunch program and state-level austerity is constantly implemented while retaining these programs. It is a dramatic juxtaposition of priorities, particularly given how many people struggle.

I also have yet to meet anyone in this kind of situation that isn't fundamentally a scab.

just dealt with something similar for the last 6 weeks. former higher up comes out of retirement, is basically allowed to do sub-par work out of charity from the bosses (one of their own).

unfortunately that's where the similarity ended. it ended up being sad as fuck. he has a sick wife, needed more income to pay for her treatments. discovers he has early onset dementia while working, and resigns.

i drill into everyone i talk to about it that this shouldn't have to be a thing that happens in our society. everyone agrees

I think we can all agree he's in a very enviable life position by most people's standards, but he hasn't actually done or said anything wrong it seems. I'd say play nice til' he gives you a reason not to.

I've worked with a few people like this. old retired people who got bored and got a job because they don't know what to do with themselves. it's both maddening and also pitiable. if I was retired I would never step foot into a job site again. it is a sad miserable existence to be given absolute freedom and then choose to spend your last few years laboring for a wage you don't even need. start reading books, pick up a stick and learn to whittle, volunteer somewhere, go do literally anything else with the fleeting time you have left!!!!!

Quit hating on the dude

Maybe his pension isn't enough to cover medical, food, and other bills?

This guy has a pension and Medicare and shows up with his thermos and steel toes like "hello fellow proletariat"

does he actually or have you just projected this onto him. like is he really trying to relate to you and your other coworkers as if you're all in the same boat? or is he just showing up bc he needs a way to pass the time (which is weird and sus but distinct from what i think you're talking about in this post)?

Dude is cosplaying as a worker

he is selling his labor power for his income
unless he is also a landlord, business owner, artisan etc. he is a worker

now he's doing grunt laboratory labor for fun or something?

Are you sure about that? Did he tell you this?

owns multiple houses

That's a fucking "professional landlord". What a piece of shit.

Isn't this is our goal, where people work, because they want to, not because they will be financially destroyed otherwise?

Yeah I get the frustration, like if I had half of what he had I wouldn't be wasting my time bothering you