We believe that the young should have a say in how things are run, because they have everything at stake in our future. This column creates that space for our panel of bright young sparks to debate a whole range of issues that they feel strongly about.

Take, for example, a friend of mine. He had hired a young woman, "Glee", as an accounts assistant. She was not particularly good at her job and did not take too well to feedback from the accounts manager. Moreover, Glee had the habit of telling her superiors that they were wrong and she was right. Not done with upsetting the boat, Glee continued her office assault by advising other staff on the liquidity of the company, as well as details of the payroll.

The first thing that occurred to me was what a labour lawyer once told me, "Easy to hire, hard to fire." And from this, my mind was brought to the many stories from him about how employers get entangled with employees with unrealistic expectations.

I have had my fair share of having to deal with these kinds of unrealistic expectations as well. For example, a friend of my cousin, "Saloma", decided she wanted to be a writer, something she had no qualifications and little experience in. It ostensibly was natural for her to be introduced to me. Self-indulgent emails and long CV aside, I determined that Saloma wanted to be hired, forthwith, as a columnist in something "cool", like a lifestyle or travel magazine.

Out of duty, I mentioned her to an editor friend at a lifestyle magazine, laying out some details of her background. Again, I dutifully mentioned Saloma’s desire for a column.

"I think I’ll pass," said my editor friend, "These are the types who want so much, and then you find they don’t deliver." Over lunch, my editor friend and I agreed that there seemed to be many young graduates who just want and want and want, yet they fail to achieve the basics. Much like Saloma, who believed that, even when breaking from one industry to the next, something as big as a column would land on her lap without even spending a year or two paying her dues.

Or Glee, and how she believed she was always right, that she knew best, and that everyone had to listen to her. It was as if any experience or qualifications her colleagues possessed were substandard to hers.

These examples give me the impression that there appears to be little understanding of real working life with new hires, or how most of us have to work very hard at our jobs to achieve just an ounce of recognition, let’s not even talk about money!

Sadly, it could be that these "bad eggs" spoil it all for the other harder working graduates seeking a job. In response to a column I wrote on the quality of local graduates, a reader wrote to say that I had done him and other local graduates a disservice. He believed that many employers were less in favour of hiring local graduates, which explained why he had been looking long and hard for a job.

However, if employers have been "burnt", whatever the reason, it is likely that they would be cautious in recruitment. I know many in HR who are guarded in increasing the head count, even if manpower is desperately needed. The adage, "easy to hire, hard to fire", comes to mind. I doubt very much if my writing has anything to do with it.

Once saddled with an employee like Glee, what is an employer to do? Give them warning after warning? Hold their hands and try to explain the way they, the paymasters, require things to be done? Perhaps, in this sense, it is good that organisations like the Malaysian Employers Federation exist, because it is hard to be an employer sometimes.

Daniel freelances in writing and publishing, and has a deep passion for sleeping, eating and labour law. He can be reached at pottedplot.com.