Seniority is the concept of a person or group of people being in charge or in command of another person or group. This control is often granted to the senior person(s) due to experience or length of service in a given position, but it is not uncommon for a senior person(s) to have less experience or length of service than their subordinates;the knowledge or skill that one obtains after a certain amount of experience.
As length of service
More generally, "seniority" can be a
description of an individual's experience or length of service, and can thus be used to differentiate between individuals of otherwise equivalent status without placing them in a hierarchy of direct authority. For example, in the United States Senate, the senator from each
stateA U.S. state is any one of 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government . Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile...
with the longer tenure is known as the "senior senator" and carries some additional responsibilities to their state's
constituentConstituent may refer to:* Constituent * Constituent...
s, but they are not formally dominant (or commanding) in any way over the junior senator (unless, for example, the senior senator is chair of a committee on which the junior senator serves). Seniority (in the sense of the amount of time with an employer) may be the sole determining factor of pay, as with certain teachers or airline pilots.
In politics
Additionally seniority gives politicians who have been in the House or the Senate longer more choices on which committee they would like to be in and on decisions that they think are crucial. Members with seniority are also the incumbent and have a much higher chance of being re-elected for a position.
In unionised companies
In
unionisedA trade union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas, such as working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labor contracts with employers...
companiesA company is a form of business organization.In the United States, a company is a corporation—or, less commonly, an association, partnership, or union—that carries on an industrial enterprise." Generally, a company may be a "corporation, partnership, association, joint-stock company,...
,
employeesEmployment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as: "A person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct...
may enjoy more work privileges, such as
shiftsShift work is an employment practice designed to make use of the 24 hours of the clock, rather than a standard working day. The term shift work includes both long-term night shifts and work schedules in which employees change or rotate shifts....
deemed more favourable, work deemed easier or more pleasurable, or assignment to work, when a work reduction, or a reduction in available work hours results in lay offs, whereby the preference for those who may stay and work is assigned as a function of seniority ("first hired" = last fired, or "last on, first off"). Seniority also has an influence over
bumpingIn unionised organisations, be they private or public sector, "bumping" means a re-assignment of jobs on the basis of seniority. As an example, if a job becomes vacant, more than one person may be re-assigned to different tasks or ranks on the basis of who has worked for the organisation longer...
rights, which is a re-assignment of jobs, possibly for many people at a time.
Subordinates are generally expected to follow the actions, orders, or requests of those senior to them with little or no question.
In human relationships
Seniority is present in most common relationships, be it between parents and children, siblings of different ages, or workers and their managers. It plays a large part in
militaryA military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. As an adjective the term "military" is also used to refer to any property or aspect of a military...
and
paramilitaryA paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military force, but which is not regarded as having the same status...
command structures.
See also
- Authority
In government, authority is often used interchangeably with the term "power". However, their meanings differ: while "power" is defined as "the ability to influence somebody to do something that he could not have done", "authority" refers to a claim of legitimacy, the justification and right to...
- Gerontocracy
A gerontocracy is a form of oligarchical rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are significantly older than most of the adult population. Often the political structure is such that political power within the ruling class accumulates with age, so that the oldest hold the most power...
- Hierarchy
A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another and with only one "neighbor" above and below each level. These classifications are made with regard to rank, importance, seniority, power status or authority...
- list of current United States Senators by seniority
- seniority (financial)
In finance, seniority refers to the order of repayment in the event of bankruptcy.Senior debt must be repaid before subordinated debt is repaid...