How does one 'play the game'?
I've been in finance for 10 years, most of which I have had access to org-wide remuneration and restructure. My observations (with a dose of fascination and repulse) are that certain people, not necessarily the harder working or brightest, somehow manage to navigate their way upwards and get all the favours from those who call the shots.
Question is: what is this skill? I've figured it's got to do with getting the right handful of people to like you and believe you are competent, but what if you clearly aren't? Are they great liars? Does race play a part? Looks?
Is there a moment to do these things? For e.g, the moment my previous boss resigned, someone from the team got a pay rise and 'some of the work' in their remit. Another time, a side manager used the opportunity to convince upwards to merge their roles into a new one, catching all the 'work' and staff, plus another $20K.