It's not so much the ladders that suck. It's the fact that you have to step on people to get past a certain level that's the toxic dynamic. And, as far as boo

It's not so much the ladders that suck. It's the fact that you have to step on people to get past a certain level that's the toxic dynamic. And, as far as boot licking goes, that's easy to explain. People are under the delusion that if they suck up to the boss enough, eventually they can be the boss. That's wrong on so many levels, but the easiest one to see is that for every N employees at any level of the corporate hierarchy, it only makes sense for there to be at most, say, N/4, or N/10, or, generally, N/k (k > 1) people at the next level. So, your chances of rising further up the ladder decrease the further you go up, provided you stay at the same organization. That's actually the way it works in general, except that there are a lot of organizations out there; the hierarchy cuts off at a level before it becomes literally impossible to advance; and, even if that fails, one can start one's own organization, place themselves at the top, and then take on the challenge of building that organization to meaningful levels. But, really, it all amounts to the delusion the bottom 90% of the ladder has that they can eventually join the top 1%, if only they work hard enough! You know, as if it were literally even possible to work enough hours at any reasonable wage to become a billionaire or something. That's the real reason.