In the family way: Little bosses ruling the roost

After three unsuccessful career attempts, including an Internet portal with an overconfident owner and a small PR consultancy that created equally small profits, I finally landed a job in the company of my dreams -- one that lets me explore my creativity.

It's part of a family business that has grown into an ever expanding group of companies, with the owners grabbing whatever lucrative opportunities lie in their path.

Their ambitions are none of my business: I believe these astute businesspeople know how to make a profit and how not to lose it, right?

In fact, the founders run the business with heart and an undisputed idealism that has allowed thousands of employees, from office boys to vice president, to make ends meet for the past 40 years.

What I didn't realize was that the founders are now aging and tired of the harshness of the current global business competition. For years, they have been trying to nurture their sons and daughters as their heirs in the business.

Too bad that mom and dad were so busy closing deals and partying at Jakarta's hippest nightclubs of the 1970s that they delegated the task of raising their heirs to the nannies. The results are only clear now.

These "bocil" (bos kecil, or young bosses), are a bunch of arrogant young men and women, with postgraduate degrees from an American business school but who have almost zero work experience, except perhaps a few months' apprenticeship at one of daddy's other companies.

But climbing the corporate ladder is no sweat for them.

The founder's sharp-tongued eldest daughter arrived at the company in a business manager position that she strategically uses to determine everything based on the bottom line.

That means no more employee gatherings, cuts to several welfare-related expenses and investigations into "suspicious" expenses that were actually made for office-related activities.

"Bear in mind that we're no charity," said her sagging auntie, our company's CFO, in a meeting, as if in support of her niece's decision to scrutinize transportation claims.

Another spoiled brat of the clan is a 20-something womanizer who was appointed by his CFO mom -- with the approval of his founding uncle -- as a general manager to lead a division with employees who are 15-year veterans in the company.

Now, this guy has really turned our building into a playground of his own. Instead of proving that he does possess the professional merits to head his department, he goes on daily floor-to-floor tours, munching on cakes and talking loudly on his cellular phone, resting on chairs here and there, while putting his feet up on a desk right in front of us awe-struck employees.

If you think social jealousy and envy are the issue here, you have it all wrong. Who could be happier to have someone with brains and fresh ideas in the director's chair at a prestigious company?

But seeing the mother ship sink slowly with an inexperienced and immature captain at the helm is a nightmare.

Business heirs out there should learn that brains without a professional attitude is fashion without style, like creating nonsensical clothes that would only be the target of jokes on the catwalk.

Am I overreacting, or is this just another example of how rotten, unchecked nepotism has defined our nation?

-- Adhi Abhiyasa