I know this one chick who works with a grocery chain. She started as a cashier and she now works in corporate. She is not even 30 yet. Most people we mutually know all say she is an average at best worker (not straight up lazy, but certainly not a “hard” worker) and is extremely annoying. One of my buddies, on the other hand, has been working at the same store since 2006 and he's pretty much capped working full-time in the seafood department. The big difference? She is super charismatic towards customers and higher ups and has, ahem, valuable “assets”. If you have those two qualities, work is pretty much your oyster, no matter how mediocre you are at your job.
Companies do not value hard workers. If they did construction workers would be billionaires. No, they value narcissistic bullshit artists.