Very political, lateral moves required before promotion wasting years - Anonymous employee Vanguard Employee Review

Upper management rotations are a mystery to me, they come from an area completely different and often have no idea what they are doing. It's said to be for the benefit of the company but when you move somebody as they are getting the hang of the job or don't put somebody that's more deserving because of politics, it disrupts the company as a whole. There are no 'promotions' unless a spot opens up. This means that someone needs to get fired, retire or move out of the group for you to advance. Lateral moves within the same pay grade into a completely unrelated field is often required to be in a group where someone is about to retire so that you can have a chance at taking their spot and that obviously requires you to be competent in the new position which requires more years. This company at times feels like a complete dead end with no advancement opportunities. After 20+ years at this company I've seen enough people get screwed over and so many good people leave that it makes me sick. New people are great but not at the cost of all of the experience. It blows my mind that this company would rather have an experienced person move and become a completely inexperienced worker to have a chance at a promotion. The groups lose valuable experience and causes extreme discontent and instability within the company.