your last paragraph really describes a meritocratic system. we're past that besides highly technical jobs / contract work. these days the system is plagued with gibmedats that will call out for false insurance claims, lie and cheat and steal and backstab coworkers, therefore systems in the in-group auto-generate strategies to defend against general degeneracy. this is why it seems overly "selective"
Interesting, so you get Johnny Shlomo who goes on to the fire line, works for 3 days and then fakes a slip/fall, sprains an ankle then says he wasn't trained properly, then tries to get workman's comp for the entire summer. There was a guy in my old job who was like that. he would go out on lunch, eat drugs and come back in completely high. one time he crashed a forklift and said he hurt his back severely. That asshole didn't come to work for 6 months, he was on workman's comp. Pissed everyone off in the group tremendously. When he did come back in though the boss found the slightest thing he fucked up on and wrote him up three times, finally got him fired. I can see how they want to keep it closed circuit, they don't want to deal with the hassle. But not everyone can be a bagger at a grocery store. Sometimes employers just have to take chances and maybe by the work they can build someone's character.
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