Don’t see this a lot but wanting to give some perspective on why some people in a single organization have a bad experience and others have a great one.
If it’s a decently sized organization it’s very very possible your direct supervisor is the problem. Breakdown:
In my organization of about 5K I’m the 3rd level of management up. My total direct and indirect employee headcount is about 300 I also have 2 levels above me that are involved directly with field employees and 2 more above them which would be the director of operations and the President (both in another country).
That being said I go above and beyond for my direct team that I deal with on a daily basis. Fought for raises, addressed issues, made sure they’re left alone on time away and pick up the extra myself as to not burden our other team members. Now here’s where this can break down. I have 7 direct employees all are managers over about 40-50 employees each and below them are anywhere from 7-10 managers with a handful of employees each (4-6 generally but some more some less). My entire area all 300 are aware that I personally have an open door policy all the way to our non management employees and some people take advantage of that and some don’t totally get it that’s fine. Problem is there are 2 managers between myself and the non management employees who can/have be the problem. If your direct manager is trying to cover stuff up, not advocate for you, etc etc this often can go unnoticed for a while until there’s a reason for it to be noticed like complaints or resignations from their employees then we can handle it but how many people have already had a terrible experience. Then there’s another level and this is the level where people start looking to make careers this is also unfortunately the level where ego comes in big time. People want to be the best, start bending rules, cover up their issues like crazy, incorrectly fire or hire people list goes on. (Not everyone for sure there are some great leaders but a lot of not great as well). I handle these people directly and they get found out pretty quickly as you get quick at noticing the issues but still could have caused a lot of damage in a short time to a much larger group. Then there’s my level which is much more focused on the macro like looking at staff levels for an overall area rather than let’s hire Tom or Susie for this particular position my job is we need 10 people in this state it’s not possible for 1 person to be personally involved with 300 people daily. Then another level up is about 1/3 of the country, another level up is the entire U.S. the last two levels are overall company health and multiple depts and programs can’t be personally involved with really anyone. Conversely you may have a great manager in a terrible company. I can advocate for things all day long but it’s not up to me, my team can ask me for things I may have to go higher up to ask for and may likely be shot down and it’s on me to deliver that.
There are terrible managers in great companies and great managers at terrible companies I would just like the lesson here to be not to always conflate the 2. We’re just regular peeps with kids and rent to pay too. We wish we got paid more too, we wish you got paid more because you’d like working with us more. Cheers to raises and inflation going down all around!