Because SSN has no relevance to seniority. Age does. Age, almost by definition, IS seniority. If you are older, you are “more senior.”

That why in the military age breaks the tie on who outranks whom when all other factors are equal.

Seniority should be the number of hours you've blocked for the company. More block = better seniority.

But only within a class…that seems strange. If age is so important, we should use it to determine seniority even outside of those confines. But we don’t. Because age is not seniority.

Nope. We should use height.

Taller tap!

Absolutely not. Don't even joke about that. All it shows is a lack of wisdom when senior people are supposed to be more wise.

I was a huge beneficiary of in class seniority determined by your SSN. It’s bizarre we don’t go by age. We don’t determine age outside those confines because the date of hire isn’t equal. You’re making an apples to oranges comparison.

age is as arbitrary as any other metric. I see no reason to change from a completely random system like we have now

Funny thing, in my class I would have been exactly the same if age or SSN. Just found that amusing, that’s all.

Age isn't arbitrary, the oldest person has the least time left, so they get to go first in the class. It's a minor difference, but once in awhile, one number makes all the difference.

It probably wouldn't have changed my position much in my class.

but they have less time left than the most junior person in the class ahead of them. It’s just as arbitrary to make class dates a week apart inviolable but honor age above everything else.