You are completely correct. There are so many levels of management that I never really fully grasped it and most managers are focused on their own personal grow

You are completely correct. There are so many levels of management that I never really fully grasped it and most managers are focused on their own personal growth, in stead of the performance of their units. I have another example of their oversight: In my team there was a single developer who was not a contractor. He was competent and an autodidact. It took them over 6 months to find a way to increase his pay, which would still be less than €4k if I remember correctly. The rest of the team were contractors getting paid well over €100 an hour, which (all costs considered) is about 2-3x more expensive. He left before they were able to give him a raise and replaced him with another contractor. This happens there all the time, because of stupid rules that make getting raises really hard, people leave and sometimes even get rehired as contractors for twice the cost. Everyone knows it happens, but nobody does anything to change it.