I am lacking one vital piece of information in Eric's story. Does he apply himself to his work? It is already stated that he is OK at what he does, and implied to be useless at everything else. That's OK; I.T is such a specialised field that many people are consigned to the one job anyway. The salary he's on is Managements fault. Always start low with the promise of performance based promotion. The problem as I see it is the effect on the other staff member's morale. The situation has all the classic ingredients of a problematic employee...a flounce who has a financial safety net from Mummy and Daddy, who gets paid a fortune for performing a trivial role(Managements fault), and on top of it big notes himself all over town. Would I fire him? If he doesn't apply himself to his work, go through the motions guilt free to get rid of him. If he does apply himslef, put him through a program of personal development. In the meantime, just hope he doesn't cause good people to leave the company.