I’ve been in corporate America for 6 years. There’s nothing quite like being your department’s top performer for years only to see some lazy, borderline incompetent coworker of yours get promoted over you. The person always happens to be friends with the boss outside of work, their kids are best friends, something like that.
I’ve seen this twice now with different bosses.
I’ll be at or even below the level of another person, and he/she appears to have less responsibilities than me. When there is “level loading” this person gets off easy and their responsibilities are never equal to mine, even if I’m paid less. The person still underperforms and makes things more difficult for the rest of the team, yet the person gets a 15-20k promotion because the boss loves them personally.
Just one of many demotivating factors in today’s work world, but it’s not discussed nearly as often as it should be. The vast majority of promotions I’ve observed have been due to being friends with the boss, not for doing any actual work. That’s why I just lateral move in and out of departments. I can’t do corporate politics and pretend to suck up to people I dislike.