One sock, having worked at a company which did not have a senioity system and having been in corporate for the last thirteen years rather than get into some discussion of the merits of such a system I will simply recount a little story in which I had the staring part. Twas a dark and dirty night, moderate to severe ice forcast and reported from sea level to ten thousand feet, my trusty DC4 night frieghter had the boots removed in the name of efficiency and the two right prop de icers were U/S, the late night DC6 had elected not to go even though all his systems were working and he could climb on top, the captain by the way held a DFC and a DFM, so his courage and judgment were not in question. In view of all this I elected to sit it out untill the crap moved further South, having made this decision I recieved a call from the Chief Pilot, known to all as Captain Moron, during the conversation he let it be known that if I didnt go "my suitibility to command was to be reviewd" , when I pointed out that the DC6 had scrubbed I was told,"thats different, he has pasengers" , next action was to hand the phone to the DCA inspector who was in the building, problem solved. One Sock, this is just a single example of what happens in many outfits without a seniority system which prevents idiots like this from putting presure on pilots, I wont even go into what Ive seen in corporate! And by the way,I did move on to a company with a seniority system, and yes I went to the right seat, and was glad to do so given my previous experience.