Seniority and Job Security

I recently wrote an article about seniority. At the County Board elections Monday evening, I was elected by my peers by a vote of 10-8 over the incumbent for the position of Vice-Chairman of the Peoria County Board. I am only serving my second term on the board so if the board elected by seniority, I would have had to wait until it was my time. Promoting by seniority is a bad way to run any kind of an organization. The downfall of many entities is employees seeing less competent people promoted ahead of them because of the length of time of their employment.

Some years back, there was a lot of talk about the Peter Principle, or the theory that when people reach certain stages in life they tend to no longer improve themselves. (They have reached the level where they feel “comfortable”). Yet they want to rely on their seniority to not only hold their jobs but be paid more or be promoted. Some may have already reached the level of responsibility they wish to assume, which should be no problem to any employer as long as the employee continues to do as good or better work at a competitive pay scale.

When businesses of government or even social groups promote on seniority you can expect the level of efficiency to drop and experience a further spread of the “socialist” disease. Most successful organizations try to hire and promote according to one major criterion: Is this the best person available for the position?

When an employee and employer fail to come to an agreement on which goal each hopes to achieve, there is usually a disappointed employee and employer and everybody has wasted time. Applicants should not be disappointed if the employer explains why they are not being hired including why they do not meet the job description which the employer should clearly state. Every interview should be a learning experience for the applicant and not a loss of self esteem if they aren’t offered a position.

When I was a Sales Manager or business owner, I asked early in the interview a simple question. If you had your “druthers” what you really like to do? When their ambitions were far from the position description I knew they wouldn’t be long in my employ. Unless I saw some basic traits that were highly sought after by all employers or if I could arouse their interest to stay in the field of work we were offering, the interview usually ended with a handshake and good luck and some advise as to how to approach their future endeavors. When a wrong decision is made in hiring, it should be corrected as soon as possible, because hurt feelings are not as bad as lost time for both parties.

Years ago, a manager told me that one day the United States would be like Japan, back in the 60”s, most of Japan had a policy of once hired you could expect a job for life. My manager was wrong; it didn’t work in Japan and it doesn’t work in most of the free world unless they have a socialist form of government. Unfortunately, many employees are learning that seniority only works in family businesses, businesses that fail and some unions. (Think Caterpillar).

I leave you with this thought: Opportunity does not need to be exactly spread, it need only to exist.