A really long time ago, I had once visited a police station in Tamil Nadu (India). One of the lower level officials there had the rank "SSI". I was perplexed as I had never heard of this rank before. So I asked the Inspector about it. He said it stood for "Special Sub Inspector". He then smiled and added, "There was some court case involving some government official or union who complained about not being promoted even after serving for many years in the same post. The court ultimately ruled that was unfair, and said even if an official doesn't get promoted by virtue of merits, their experience also matters. Thus, any official who serves a certain number of years (I think it was 5-10 years or so), and doesn't get a promotion on merit during those years, should automatically be promoted by virtue of their experience. Ofcourse, some government bureaucrat in the Tamil Nadu civil service and police service weren't happy with this ruling as police officials who don't get promoted don't because they are either corrupt and / or incompetent. Thus, the government created a new rank (in between the ranks of Head Constable and Assistant Sub Inspector) to "comply" with the court ruling but cheekily called it "Special Sub Inspector" to convey their own disagreement with the ruling."

It was funny but it did make me think - Perhaps in the mid-levels, experience can compensate for the lack of special skills or motivations as an employee will know enough to do his immediate superior's job "well enough" (average or slightly below average) too.