I got out right told the reason I wasn’t getting promoted was because I was too valuable where I was which was getting a critical project back on track.

I resigned the next day and since the company had a mandatory gardening leave period by boss couldn’t override, that project went back off the tracks.

Making that decision was stupid but I can understand why they’d arrive at it, telling me was the true fuck up, they could have just said we decided to go with someone else and I’d have brushed it off, I didn’t mind what I was doing in the role I was in.

Whatever people skills really are that guy did not have them.

I’ve been that person. I was told to my face that I was being passed over for promotion because I was “a doer” and “got things done”.

I understand the thinking but if you tell someone that, you have to offer something in lieu of upward mobility. Money, perks, status, something.

You definitely don’t tell them (as happened here) how critical they are to your business and at the same time tell them you want to cut their bonuses.

Literally heard that someone wasn’t promoted to a VP role because they were too good at their job as a Director and promoting them would lose their competency.

So; instead of having a competent VP leading a team of absolute incompetents and changing the direction and capabilities of that entire org, we lost a capable leader to another company.

Leadership politics and maneuvering is fucking stupid.

Yep, I’ve seen that, too. I’ve also seen people give up a promotion after they decided that managing a team wasn’t what they were good at. A wise person understands themself and knows not to chase the brass ring if that’s not actually what makes them tick.

As a former manager once told me, "if you aren't replaceable, you aren't promotable either." It makes sense for the company even if it sucks personally, but it's something you can also address yourself.

Yeah, I think this is the most defensible steelman of the concept: Incompetent people aren't deliberately sought out for promotions, but there is a disincentive to promote some of the most competent people. Sometimes. For some very context-dependent notions of "(in)competent."