experience vs. seniority

lion paw

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In a work environment,what's more important,having more work experience in a certain department or having more years being employed within the company?Your thoughts.
 
In a work environment,what's more important,having more work experience in a certain department or having more years being employed within the company?Your thoughts.

i would have to go with work experience.

i know plenty of, "old-timers" here at my work who become incredibly lazy and refuse to learn new things. it's usually younger people who are hungrier to learn and improve.
 
A person with more seniority already knows the ins and outs of a company. They know exactly what needs to be done and how to do it.

Someone with more experience may be more knowledgeable overall in the field, but they probably won't know as much about what the company does as the person with seniority.

In the end it comes down to the individual. You can have 20 years of experience and not be as good as a guy with 5 years of experience.
 
A person with seniority may also have demonstrated a level of loyalty that the person with experience (who's resume shows numerous 1 year gigs) may not be up for.
 
Seniority is a great thing. If it's a union job I'll take the senior member every time.
 
A person with more seniority already knows the ins and outs of a company. They know exactly what needs to be done and how to do it.

Someone with more experience may be more knowledgeable overall in the field, but they probably won't know as much about what the company does as the person with seniority.

In the end it comes down to the individual. You can have 20 years of experience and not be as good as a guy with 5 years of experience.

Well thats kind of the situation I'm in.I have one co-worker(we'll call a.h.) from one department who moved to my department.A.h. had 4.5 years in they're previous department and don't know much about our department.The funny thing is that I told them(in a nice way) what to do.A.h thought I was being bossy.After work,we go outside and I try to explain to them that I have more experience in that area Next,a.h. decides to pull the seniority card(I've been here longer blah blah).A.h assumed i'd been there for a minute when in fact I've been in that area for 2.5 yrs(4.5 in the company all together.)Furthermore,I've worked in damn near all of our neighboring departments.
 
Depends on the job, really.

My ex-wives father had his doctorate in Business and used to say something that stuck with me.

Who is better? The person with 2 years of experience, or the person with 1 year of experience multiple times?.

Some people get stuck in the norms and don't learn more than the minimum needed to do an adequate job, others look beyond their own position and learn the how's and why's, usually in the long run they are the ones who move up.
 
Oh - so this is really a discussion about bickering co-workers?

Are you both on your monthlies?
 
In a work environment,what's more important,having more work experience in a certain department or having more years being employed within the company?Your thoughts.

Experience is more important to the company, especially if they can pay you less due to a lack of seniority. Seniority can be more important to the individual, if its a determining factor in pay grade and/or authority
 
Depends how capable the person is and what kinda work it is. If it's work that is the practically the same in the entire field, or at least where the employee has worked, then that would be more important than a shorter time within one company. But if it's very different for every company, then the more years within the company would be more important.
 
when i was in the military id choose experience of seniority any day of the week..

you have no idea how many times i got into an argument with a staff sergeant or a gunny fresh out of the school house who wants to re-invent the wheel when it isnt even broken.
 
Experience and seniority can both be completely worthless if a person doesn't know what the hell he or she is doing and everyone around him or her can see it clearly and consistently. For this reason, both experience and seniority can be overrated.
 

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