[ternaus]

No doubt that career ladder could be easily gamed.

But, it is the best that we have and on average it works.

Rephrasing Churchill:

"No one pretends that career ladder is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that career ladder is the worst form of building hierarchy in the company except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…"

What are other, presumably better, ways to build a hierarchy in the company that has 1000+ people?