Seniority Quotes

• The common objection to seniority pay is, "It's rewarding dead wood!" My response is, "Why do you hire dead wood? Or why do you hire live wood and kill it?"

  Peter R. Scholtes

  Risk, Pay, Woods

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• I used to think that seniority was a terrible thing when I didn't have any.

  Bob Dole

  Thinking, Used, Terrible

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• Government employees move up the ladder through educational credentials rather than merit. People are given jobs and promotions based on seniority, race and gender rather than ability or talent. Such a system often overlooks the deserving and rewards the incompetent. There is no payoff for achievement.

  James Cook

  Jobs, Educational, Moving

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• The toughest thing about raising kids is convincing them that you have seniority.

  Gene Brown

  Kids, Raising Kids, Convincing

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• In 2008, Barack Obama did get Democrats hyperventilating, whipped up to a creamy froth, while John McCain creaked ahead like a cranky granddad whom Republicans let move to the front of the buffet line, deferring to seniority, as they had in 1996, when Bob Dole turtled to the top of the ticket.

  James Wolcott

  Moving, Bob, Buffets

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• Teaching, the most noble profession, should be rewarded based on merit alone, not seniority.

  Mark Kostabi

  Teaching, Noble, Merit

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• I'm older. There's some sort of seniority. As a matter of fact, the seniority ebbs as you get older.

  Meryl Streep

  Matter, Facts, Matter Of Fact

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• Some day, the public might actually revolt against the undemocratic system of seniority that allows Congress to keep the old ways of Washington ingrained into the culture of Congress.

  Chuck Todd

  Culture, Might, Way

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• With respect to teachers' salaries .... Poor teachers are grossly overpaid and good teachers grossly underpaid. Salary schedules tend to be uniform and determined far more by seniority.

  Milton Friedman

  Teacher, Salary, Schedules

  Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.95, University of Chicago Press

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• Term limits would cure both senility and seniority- both terrible legislative diseases.

  Harry S. Truman

  Political, Term Limits, Disease

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• No more verbally incomprehensible no more devoid of the vision thing and no more the cautious pragmatist proudly displaying the virtues of tradition and the advantages of biological seniority.

  Bob Dole

  Vision, Tradition, Virtue

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• I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.

  E. B. White

  Time, Nature, Fall

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• In 1975 I decided that there was no future in flying (airline jobs were impossible to get, and who wants a job where you are judged only by seniority?) and headed off to grad school.

  W. Richard Stevens

  Jobs, School, Flying

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• Look, you're not going to get me to say that Democrats don't make mistakes. We do. I mentioned two areas - pension reform and seniority and tenure. I've done both - I've advocated for both. I've advocated for - seek for reform as well.

  Antonio Villaraigosa

  Mistake, Two, Reform

  "David Axelrod and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa defend President Obama's economic record". "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace, www.foxnews.com. September 02, 2012.

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• I recognize that Hollywood is not about seniority. Often it's not even a meritocracy. It's about what you did yesterday. You have a couple of misses, and suddenly it's impossible to find a hit. So the swings are gigantic. But I've always understood it as such, and navigated it as such.

  Ben Affleck

  Couple, Swings, Yesterday

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• We started tearing down the seniority system on Capitol Hill. All of that begins in the '70s. It accelerates and continues in the '90s, and it's going on to this day.

  Jonathan Rauch

  Hills, Capitol Hill, Accelerate

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Surgeon General's warning ought to read: Smoking has been determined t0 cause cancer, heart disease & rednecks with seniority.

  Bill Hicks

  Cancer, Heart, Redneck

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• I specially want to have young women not to wait as I did until my children were grown, but young women to come in to gain their seniority so they could be respected leaders at a much earlier age. It's important for all women to see young women who share their experience whether it's as a working mom with young children, who understands the struggle and the aspirations of young women in a similar situation. And if they don't have family and they're pursuing their career women should see that as well.

  Nancy Pelosi

  Mom, Children, Struggle

  Source: blog.sfgate.com

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• But I will say, I think there are some Democrats that don't want to address pension reform. I have taken on the issue of seniority and tenure. I think we have to address entitlements and the president has done that in his budget. I think we have to extend Medicare and the president has done that. But also reinvest in that program.

  Antonio Villaraigosa

  Taken, Thinking, Issues

  "David Axelrod and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa defend President Obama's economic record". "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace, www.foxnews.com. September 2, 2012.

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• If a legislator is safe from competition, or if he represents groups with the same economic and political beliefs, he does not have to change his ideas or respond to the needs of the broader population. He can rest content with a mediocre, absentee performance knowing he will be returned to office. And as he is returned year after year the seniority system gives him immense control over people from other parts of the country whose views he need not heed at all.

  Edward Kennedy

  Country, Views, Years

  Edward Moore Kennedy (1968). “Decisions for a Decade: Policies and Programs for the 1970s”, New American Library of Canada

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• Now things have changed for the better. Our reforms end seniority and tenure so we can hire and fire based on merit and pay based on performance. That means we can put the best and the brightest in our classrooms - and we can keep them there.

  Scott Walker

  Mean, Fire, Reform

  4 Copy quote

• Well, you have to remember that until 1948, when Hubert Humphrey and others forced the Democratic Party to adopt a new policy on civil rights, the Democratic Party was the party of the old solid South. All of the racists, all of the Cottonhead Smith types and so on were Democrats, allies of Franklin Roosevelt - because of their seniority - of all the major committees of the Congress.

  William A. Rusher

  Party, Rights, Allies

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• We're sad about some of the losses of members of great seniority and distinction in the Congress, and some very new members, who will no longer be serving with us.

  Nancy Pelosi

  Loss, Congress, Distinction

  "Speaker Nancy Pelosi Speaks to ABC's Diane Sawyer". Interview with Diane Sawyer, abcnews.go.com. November 3, 2010.

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• Everyone believed the Senate could not really be led. It used to take so long to rise up through seniority. In two years Lyndon Johnson is assistant leader of his party. In four years he is the leader of his party.

  Robert Caro

  Party, Two, Years

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