Seniority Equals Quality
Written by Milicent Justus (she/her)
Should companies recognize employees based on their level of seniority or the quality of their work performance? Seniority means that those who have spent the most time at a company and have, therefore, gained the most experience, are given priority over newer employees, who may attempt to outshine others in order to leap ahead of the line for promotions. Recognizing employees based on their seniority is the best way to encourage employee dedication and is the most realistic way to reward long-time workers for their efforts.
Companies appreciate dedication from employees who remain with them, and it is only in a business’s best interests to keep long-term workers who provide stability and security. Obviously, employees with seniority have more experience and perform better than newer employees; otherwise, they would not have been employed by a company for such long period of time. Experienced employees are an asset to any company because they produce the best quality of work and make better decisions that will make the company more successful. Therefore, a company must do all that it can to please its veteran employees to ensure that they remain with the company.
In addition, seniority helps to determine which employees are most deserving of benefits that come with the job. Many organizations use seniority to prioritize work schedules and grant the most senior employees preferential treatment when it comes to granting perks like holidays and vacations. As mentioned previously, companies should strive to retain their senior employees, and treating them beter than less senior employees is an effective retention strategy. This practice is reasonable not only because older employees have more family obligations than younger employees, but also because senior employees, by virtue of their long-time service to the company, are more deserving than employees with less seniority.
Finally, some people might argue that employees who have just graduated from college or university are just as valuable as employees with seniority because employees who are fresh from school will have the most current knowledge and will have been trained by so-called “industry professionals.” That argument is nonsense: at college, students only learn the latest trendy ideas and are only taught by people who were unable to survive in the real world. Employees with seniority know what it is really like to do their jobs because they have years–sometimes decades–of “real-world experience.” Since “real-world experience” is the best education, the best employees will always be the ones who have the most experience with a company.
It’s simply a fact that businesses benefit from long-time employees, so it only makes sense that employees with seniority be treated better than newer or younger employees. Employees without seniority may feel that this policy is unfair; however, they can take comfort in the fact that after providing more than 10 years of service to a company, they too will be able to enjoy the benefits of having seniority.
Your Task: compose a critical response essayincluding, ideally, an introduction, at least three body paragraphs, and a conclusionto the included reading.
Goals: essay should include the following: A brief summary of the author’s argument that should either: mostly agree with the author and provide persuasive assertions that extend support for the author’s position, or mostly disagree with the author and provide persuasive assertions that defend your counter-position refutation of at least one objection a reader might have to argument (or any point therein).
