Hacker News Reader

Comment by mgh2 | Hacker News Reader

I was under the impression that American corporations reward performance over seniority, not sure about now...politics?

It's not a reward for past performance. They're putting who they think will do best in the role in the role and past performance is one very large, but not the only axis on which that is judged.

And, that being said, in larger and richer organizations (infinite monopoly bucks fueled FAANG workplaces perhaps being the penultimate example) the incentives to simply promote the most fit can get more easily polluted by irrelevant criteria than in smaller, leaner organizations that have less runway to continue existing and less opportunity for individuals to dip out without consequence if decisions are not made in a rigorous manner and the results are bad.

> penultimate

Unless I'm misunderstanding your statement, I think this word means nearly the exact opposite of what you think it means.

"Penultimate" does not mean "supremely ultimate". It actually means second from last.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/penultimate-vs-ulti...

Next to last or almost last as in latest in time, not as in ranked on some other axis. Implying that the series is unfinished because there will ultimately be another booming industry the torch is passed to.

not "first from last"?

It’s always been politics, albeit to varying degrees. Some orgs lean toward facts and performance, others not so much, but yeah it’s always a factor even if not acknowledged.

And don't downplay how much of a role politics can play at making those facts/performance metrics harder/easier to achieve - and some companies are excellent deluding themselves into thinking it's not the case.

> American corporations reward performance over seniority

more like loyalty to upper management which correlates with seniority (spent many years in the same company/group).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com