Takes one to know one?

Is it a specifically american thing? Cos I got no idea what you talkin bout.

I wish they'd reprint your tee, though.

me too, I could use the dough. Would be fun to see it on new colors, too.

bump

Like, in politics? School? What?

on threadless?

no score draw

no soap radio

yeah this is an argument that needs a context otherwise its a bit too broad

where i work now, i have higher ranking than my colleague. however, he's been there for 5 yrs now. it was weird but cool because he's like 50 yrs old. however, he and i got along since day one and he had no problem taking order from me. additionally, he doesn't want to deal w/ the administrative part and i wanted to. so it was pretty unanimous. also, i look up to him and respect him. i'm very fortunate.

though, merit plays an important role in jobs. however, seniority is very important because you don't want to isolate yourself. you need to respect those whose been there longer, but those people also need to realize that you have more qualifications and expertise than you do.

i was thinking you could relate your own contexts, like phampants did.

Well it's a tough call spires...

For me working as an accessory designer (and almost always being the youngest in the office) I run into the seniority vs merit alot.

First off I've only ever designed belts and small wallets. So all my work experience is in that.

Now my last company I was at I earned alot of merit by bringing the belts up from 40% to 65% of the companys profit. But was that enough no.... I was there for 3yrs and they eliminated my position and kept two other designers (one of whom actually couldn't design) but they were older than me and the boss thought that ment they were a better investment I guess.

My current company is great. The Merit & Seniority seem to not fight against each other here, for which I am very grateful. Again I'm the same age as alot of the girls who are working as clerks etc but we get along fine. I don't boss anyone around or ask anyone to do anything that either isn't their job or that I couldn't do easily myself. The bosses are nice and they give me credit(merit) for my working experience.

I hope that was sort of what you were asking about Spires. :)

There's good to be said about both ends. But I guess seniority kinda wins out. You can have that raw talent that wins you merit, but I think years of experience is worth more.

Doubt any of that made sense, but yea.

lol.. yeah usually but in the end I had the "seniority" over the older designers as they all were highered over a year after me. Also even though they had design experience it wasn't experience designing the products we sold :P

pyr4lis, that sounds more like merit than seniority. they say you have "seniority" only because of your merits.

What if you are stuck in a situation where you don't have the seniority, but more merit than the people who do? As a result of this disparity, you are denied things that you more rightfully deserve, because you are a better producer. Is that unjust?

the universe is infinitely just. when circumstances present a situation to which we disagree with the outcome, perhaps it's not the situation at all but the percpetion of the individual who has been 'wronged' that needs to be examined.
how do we measure the growth in nature and which flower is more deserving of sunlight? our world versus the natural world is one filled with deception, illusion and mistrust and therefore, merit and seniority are the same; temporary mile markers on the path onward.

Seniority is part of merit, so its always merit. One might argue that seniority does not in and of itself necesarily mean anything positive, but it does. It, at the very least, means someone has the ability to stick with something longer than someone else (yes, even life...health and environment is important too). Its just one small part of deciding one's merit.

spires on Sep 06 '07 at 4:32pm
What if you are stuck in a situation where you don't have the seniority, but more merit than the people who do? As a result of this disparity, you are denied things that you more rightfully deserve, because you are a better producer. Is that unjust?

Personally I think so. I made my last company 20% more profitable off of my designs.. yet the newly highered people were getting all the perks like travelling to hong kong, tokyo, & italy. I had felt that with my increasing of the companies profits and having been there a year longer I should have had those perks. The people who got to go had not even been with the company long enough to earn seniority or merit.

I read a funny saying once (paraphrased): "Repeating the same grade three times may earn someone seniority in the class, but hardly any merits."