The Continental standby system automatically orders people in the appropriate order, based on elite status, regular revenue customers, employees, etc., and it also clears them in the appropriate order, automatically, if the correct computer entry is used. To clear someone out of order, you would have to go around that entry, and specifically select certain names from the list, and assign an open seat. I've seen agents do this before, to get friends, coworkers, or others on the standby list on the flight. Most passengers are none the wiser, unfortunately.
If you were #1 on the list, and were not cleared, but an employee was, and people with less status were cleared, that is grounds for disciplinary action on the part of the gate agent. It can EASILY be traced as to who was cleared first, and who did it, and whether the appropriate computer entries were used. EVERY key stroke an agent types is recorded, and is in the flight history, which is supposed to be printed, and filed with all other flight paperwork.
If you feel you were not cleared for a seat you should have gotten - in other words, you know for a fact you were #1 on the list at the time of the list being cleared - then I would continue to follow up with this complaint. This sounds like a problem with THAT gate agent, rather than a policy of how Continental treats their elite flyers.
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