[1] For example, one employee may be senior to another either by role or rank (such as a CEO vice a manager), or by having more years served within the organization (such as one peer being accorded greater status over another due to amount of time in).
Many elected officials are viewed as retaining their position only because they have been there for many years, which can reflect voter stagnancy and the benefits of incumbency.
On the other hand, long years of incumbency can also be seen as a sign of the person's ability to continue pleasing voters or the use of seniority to deliver benefits to constituents.
Seniority does an effective job in helping people, interested in staying at one organization, in working towards having a "marathon" career.
Though the principle of seniority does an effective job of protecting long-term employees, in some scenarios, it can fail to address several critical factors.
[5] During the late 20th century in the United States, the federal government stopped emphasizing seniority as the primary basis for pay raises for its workforce.
The Reagan administration replaced a seniority-based system for pay increases for its white collar government workers.
[6] In personnel economics, some researchers take the view that seniority pay is employed by firms as a solution to the problem of shirking.
Younger engine drivers often serve as back-up personnel and must help out on a very short notice – for example when a colleague calls in sick or has a delay.