[mclightning]

> then I saw everyone was playing corporate chess in the background and complaining about me to my managers for reasons I'm yet to comprehend.

Exactly! and with safety net they have, they're able to afford to play political games without the risk of losing their job. I put years of effort into building products only to be discredited because I didn't pay attention on politics & just focused on building stuff.

Then there is also favoritism. They tend to stick with each other. They sometimes openly hire their past-colleagues/friends.

reference; I worked at a couple corporations here, some of the biggest ones.