It's generally accepted that a professional civil service is superior to a spoils system. That it's better to have a civil service that promotes people based on merit and retains experience from administration to administration, than a system where most key people are political appointees serving the current administration.
A professional civil service sometimes comes into conflict with the political component of the executive branch. Because of that, civil servants need stronger employment protections than ordinary employees. For example, the administration should not be able to fire a career civil servant for politically motivated reasons and replace them with a loyalist.
But hiring obviously goes wrong from time to time. A probationary period with a lower bar for firing is a compromise that makes hiring mistakes less costly if they are detected early.
It's generally accepted that a professional civil service is superior to a spoils system. That it's better to have a civil service that promotes people based on merit and retains experience from administration to administration, than a system where most key people are political appointees serving the current administration.
A professional civil service sometimes comes into conflict with the political component of the executive branch. Because of that, civil servants need stronger employment protections than ordinary employees. For example, the administration should not be able to fire a career civil servant for politically motivated reasons and replace them with a loyalist.
But hiring obviously goes wrong from time to time. A probationary period with a lower bar for firing is a compromise that makes hiring mistakes less costly if they are detected early.