Nepo Baby #4: The Kindest Form of Privilege

Photo by Haydon on Unsplash

Most discussions about nepo babies start from outrage. This one doesn’t. It actually came from a good place. It just so happens that privilege is unfair.

For the past few years, my company has organized job shadowing opportunities for people with disabilities as part of our DEI initiatives. The programme received positive feedback, but like many well-intentioned initiatives, it didn’t result in anything material. Neither our firm nor our clients ended up hiring any of the participants, despite the advanced DEI policies they all have in place.

This year, the proposal changed. Instead of focusing on people with disabilities, the programme would target young people between the ages of 13 and 17.

The idea was simple: expose the next generation to the real estate industry. Let them see how buildings are valued, how offices are leased, and how properties are managed. Everything sounded perfectly reasonable.

Then the senior management discussion began.

Interestingly enough, some were nodding along, some were indifferent, and others were much more eager to provide comments. Those most engaged tended to be parents of teenagers, including the CEO.

He has always been supportive of corporate social responsibility initiatives and, to be fair, I genuinely believe his intentions were good this time around too. However, his eldest child had just turned 13.

Suspiciously coincidental, isn’t it?

He argued that young people rarely get exposure to industries like real estate. This kind of experience could broaden horizons and, increasingly, is exactly the sort of thing universities like to see on applications. We should provide this programme first to our employees, he suggested, so that their children, leveraging their parents’ connections, can get a leg up.

Interesting point of view.

Instead of sounding like a CEO, he just sounded like an anxious (and undoubtedly loving) father who wanted to create a brighter future within the maximum reach of his influence.

This is where nepo babies get their bad name from. Not from corruption, but from loving parents trying to create advantages for their children long before the first job interview.

Such acts of generosity are privilege in its kindest form. They create opportunities, but at the same time, they create an unequal playing field, tilted toward the people we see ourselves in.

The programme is presented as helping “the next generation.” In reality, it helps a very specific generation: the children of people who are already connected and already closer to opportunity than most.