You need to be part of the clique and in management’s favour (above your own line manager) to be successful here. Less to do with your talent, ability, work rate or what you do if you do not ingratiate yourself with those that are pay grades above you. Fail to do this and regardless of what you do and achieve, you will find yourself underpaid, be given less opportunities and overlooked for promotions.
To succeed, you need to be seen to be doing and resolving issues. The important word here is ‘seen’ as that is what you will get credit for. Whether you did the work or not is not relevant, if you are seen to be the person doing it then it’s all your credit. You will get far more credit for fixing a bad job than doing a good job. If you do a good job, no one really cares but if you fix something that has gone wrong whether your own doing (if no one else knows it was your fault) or someone else’s fault, you’ll be praised. Be seen firefighting rather than ensuring a job is done properly to progress.
The company loves playing lip service to topical issues like BLM and will talk up plans on how they want to redress but as the winds move away so does their attention and focus! The same old persists and you’ll generally see this further perpetuated through promotion cycles so the demographic remains the same.
People leave frequently at all levels and in many instances it is some of their best people as they get frustrated and realise better opportunities exist outside of the company. People with ambition do not stay here leaving the majority of people here naieve new starts and comfortable old hands.