A Reddit post has sparked a heated discussion about workplace privilege and leadership quality after a professional shared how years of working closely with top corporate executives left him completely disillusioned. The user said in the post that he has worked directly with several CEOs and senior executives across mid-sized companies — and found a recurring pattern among them.
According to him, most were “dumb, sheltered nepo babies” who crumbled under basic pressure and used their family connections to stay in power.
“I’ve personally worked closely with multiple CEOs of mid-sized companies and they’re all honestly really, really stupid people. And extremely selfish,” he wrote. “They’re almost borderline mentally challenged for such a high-paying and important position.”
He claimed that in his experience, these executives had little real skill or perspective but enjoyed a safety net of inherited networks and privilege. “It’s always, ‘Jason was my dad’s roommate at this Ivy,’ and Jason ends up quoting 250% higher — and somehow still gets the deal,” he said. “It’s just a giant circle of gatekeeping and elitism.”
The Redditor also criticized how insulated and fragile these leaders were. “They’re supposed to be resilient leaders, but they get red in the face over stupid stuff like it raining on a golf day with a client. Bunch of good-for-nothing people,” he wrote.
The post quickly went viral and gained traction on Reddit, with users chiming in to share their own observations from across different sectors — from tech and finance to manufacturing and media. “In high tech, and now probably many business sectors, there has been much written on successful executives having sociopathic tendencies and behaviors,” a user wrote.
A second user said, “Once you realize you’re viewed as an available resource, the picture is a little clearer. If you’re not considered valuable, they’ll just unplug the useless piece and replace it with another.”
“A lot of them went straight from university into a management role,” another Redditor shared. A fourth user weighed in, “Only one of the 50 or so I’ve met actually built something from scratch — a company that grew from nothing to 120 employees.”
Some users took the discussion beyond personality and skill, focusing on what real wealth and privilege mean in a corporate setting.
“This is what most of us don’t realize about wealth,” one commenter wrote. Another user said: “It’s not just about owning things — it’s about living in a completely different reality. A reality where no mistake ruins you, no consequence ever hits, and no catastrophe you can’t buy your way out of. That sense of psychological safety is what the rest of us lost in 2020 and have never seen again.”