Sometimes promotions were given based on criteria outside of work, such as who your golfing buddies are, or what kind of parties you have at your home and who you invite. If you are female (married or unmarried) and in management, sometimes it is expected (as in part of your job description) that you be particularly friendly with certain male colleagues or superiors at work and even at certain company sponsored events away from work. People who refuse to play along are kept at a certain level or often moved to different areas of the company where there is continued pressure to cooperate, they are fired, or they choose to leave by mutual decision. But those who play the game well are rewarded with things such as raises, job security, or even a cover up for their mistakes. I know a female colleague who is a serious alcoholic and has come to work numerous times with breath smelling of alcohol (even keeping a flask in her briefcase) but because of the colleagues and members of management she partied with and knew on a personal level, she was never disciplined at work. Over the years, numerous complaints have been made. She eventually retired with a full benefits package, a nice pension, and a boatload of company stock. I know a male colleague who constantly makes mistakes in his work and quite a few bad decisions about how the department is handled, but because his golfing buddies are higher ups in the company and he has friends at the corporate level, he has never been held accountable for any of it. His retirement is now safely within reach. A female colleague has had numerous affairs with male members of management at various levels over a 15 year period which eventually ruined her marriage, but it enabled her to reach a 6 figure income and a nice nest egg for retirement. In recent years, there has been a high turnover in the particular department where I worked. Procedures were simplified to take away most of the decision making skills that used to be required. Training has been severely limited for new hires and the seasoned employees are now retiring or are reaching the age where they will consider retirement within the next few years. This has led to the hiring of less than desirable employees with substandard skills and a questionable work ethic. There used to be a balance of about 60-40, 60% full time positions and 40% part time, both considered regular employees with benefits, but in the last few years the balance has shifted to more part time positions without benefits and seasonal part-time help. Instead of teamwork and being concerned for how each job fits together to form a department and how it reflects positively or negatively on the department as a whole, the division, the entire company, etc., each individual person seems to only be concerned with a bare minimum, doing only as much as it takes to get by. It is about the same effort one would expect of 16 year old on his first job working behind the fast food counter for minimum wage. It is in the company's best interest to expect more from their workers and hire someone capable of the established standards. If the pool of prospective employees is at such a low level, perhaps the company should offer a more comprehensive training session to get them up to speed and weed out the ones who can't attain it. But I'm not sure management gets that concept.
