31-year-old sister pays delinquent brother $100K annually to work at her company for 6 hour days, brother constantly complains about his job: 'He constantly tells me I don't care about the business'

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Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Mar 7, 2025 8:00 PM EST

Working with your loved ones always sounds like a good idea, especially if they've been down and out. We've all got that one brother or cousin who claims his life isn't together because nobody has ever given him a fair chance. He's been floating around from underpaid gig to underpaid gig for years and has never had anything stable and profitable. He's a nice guy, and you love him with all your heart, so it seems like an incredibly virtuous move to get him a job at your company. After all, what could go wrong? He would never betray you, right?

If you've only known someone on an interpersonal level and not a professional one, you can never know how they'll be in the workplace. While some people really do need that one opportunity that will help them rise to the occasion, many others don't fully appreciate the blessings they've received.

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  • The sister in this story has been beyond generous to her brother. She has hired him at her company, paid him a $100K salary, and he still finds reasons to complain, despite her doing three times his work and his less-than full-time work hours. Some people never learn until it's too late. 

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    Cheezburger Image 10477084160
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    I pay my brother 100k a year and this is what I get

    I spent the last 7 years building my business to support myself initially, and now, my brother. He has had a lot of mental health struggles in his 20s, but pushed through. He left a stable white collar job he hated and started a $12/hour retail gig right before the pan mic. He got
    via u/Expensive_Shake_2627
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    furloughed, I happened to get a call for a dream job I couldn't refuse, and I spent the next 3 months between training my brother and onboarding to this new company. 4 years later I get RIFed, and we are working together again.
    via u/Expensive_Shake_2627
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    You'd think he would be grateful..or maybe you wouldn't considering we are in the Entitled People subreddit. He makes $100K a year doing work that should take 6 hours a day max. I don't tell him when to work. I don't restrict his time off. He chooses what orders he wants to accept or reject. He has the ability to make $150K a year if he wanted to put in a full day's work. Sounds great right?
    via u/Expensive_Shake_2627
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    Wrong. He complains CONSTANTLY. He has to respond to client inquiries from 9 AM to 5 PM, but because he's so busy, he needs my help...despite the fact I already answer all messages outside of business hours and on weekends. If he sees that a message hasn't been responded to in 1 hour and I said I was was helping that day, he berates me for not communicating that I'm offline and accuses me of not doing
    via u/Expensive_Shake_2627
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    Cheezburger Image 10477084416
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    my job. He constantly tells me | don't care about the business, all the while I'm literally completing double his workload covering 3x more hours of client chats. He has told me I need to tell him if I'm not going to be available and when I'm going offline, even though my
    via u/Expensive_Shake_2627
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    schedule has zero impact on his responsibilities or expectations as an employee. I'm frustrated. I'm feeling like the actual roles here are reversed, and in reality, he's just a super entitled brat.
    via u/Expensive_Shake_2627
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    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    Swayze_train_exp Bro 100k for doing 6 hours of work, fire him and I'll do it lol. If your brother doesn't want to work that's fine but it's also costing money out of your pocket every time he fails to do his duties as an employee.
    via u/Swayze_train_exp
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    Expensive Shake_2627 OP It's also costing me a lot out of my pocket spending time dealing with his bulls. If I used that time to actually work, or spend time with my family, or enjoy my life, it would be time way better spent than dealing with his constant moods and complaints.
    via u/Expensive_Shake_2627
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    KelsierIV It's hard to feel too much sympathy for you when you are enabling his behavior. The solution is very simple as people keep pointing out. If he wasn't family you would have fired him. You need to fire him, or at least take disciplinary action so he knows he will be fired if he continues to act up.
    via u/KelsierIV
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    Plus_Data_1099 Simple answer if he hates it so much tell him you will gladly accept his resignation
    via u/Plus_Data_1099
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    night-otter Ditto. Best advice I ever heard: "If you employ a friend or family member, and they are not doing the job? Take the heat and fire them."
    via u/night-otter
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    Expensive Shake_2627 OP You're not wrong. I honestly would rather hire someone who is grateful and won't constantly complain about what I'm doing.
    via u/Expensive_Shake_2627
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    SilentJoe1986 Then do it. "Dude, I love you and you'll always be my brother, but you are not able to do this job to a satisfactory level. You berate me for not doing the job I hired you to do. Sorry bro, I know we're family, and thats the only reason you've lasted this long. You're fired."
    via u/SilentJoe1986
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    curiousity60 You need to set professional boundaries with him. He berates you for not doing HIS work fast enough? And you haven't corrected him?
    via u/curiousity60
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    Expensive Shake_2627 OP Of course I've corrected him. Has he changed his behavior? No. He legitimately thinks he's right.
    via u/Expensive_Shake_2627
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    OldieButNotMoldy Would you take this treatment from someone you hired that is not related to you in anyway? If any other regular employee treated you like this you'd fire them wouldn't you? Just because he's your brother doesn't mean you have to put up with this.
    via u/OldieButNotMoldy
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    curiousity60 You are the boss. He is insubordinate. Take disciplinary action. If he doesn't comply and do his job, fire him. And learn not to mix family and business. That's the lesson here.
    via u/curiousity60
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    Halt96 Agreed. Tell him this is his last warning, you are prepared to fire him if he does not meet the stated expectations. Then do so if he does not do so.
    via u/Halt96
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    RunWombat He's either hassling you to create noise so you don't notice how useless he is, or because he wants you to do most of the work Or He's delusional about how effective he is. Or he really doesn't understand what his job involves and that your not his mum
    via u/RunWombat
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    You need to sit him down and talk about his work style and responsibility, and explain how its not easy getting a job that pays $100K. And protect yourself and your business as you will probably need to fire him
    via u/RunWombat
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    Expensive Shake_2627 OP It's everything in this list. I've had this conversation many times, and he just can't understand that his behavior is unacceptable and other people work differently. Honestly, I made the mistake from the get go of treating him like a partner instead of an employee from day 1. He's always been an entitled a_h_les, but I don't think I helped the situation.
    via u/Expensive_Shake_2627
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    It's really time for him to go. If he thinks he can go build his own thing or go get another 100k job, good luck. The fact he can't even pull a 6 hour day without tells me he will stop right where he started. His work ethic has always sucked.
    via u/Expensive_Shake_2627
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    Tall Wonder_913 He's projecting and he's not mature enough for a big kid job
    via u/Tall Wonder_913
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    AMC_Unlimited From "The 48 Laws of Power" law #2: Be wary of friends-they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies.
    via u/AMC_Unlimited

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complaining salary family drama employee brother lazy siblings work family business workplace family sibling sister company business money
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