This hits close to home.

Down the years, I've had many supervisors like Laine, but there were never lives at stake so directly.

The line "you spend years being miserable at an office desk, and then, if you're lucky, you have enough saving to go out and actually live" is also very poignant. Except, in reality, the state always comes up with a way to steal or devalue what money you have managed to save up.