It's like I'm reading a post from myself. My parents instilled the same ideals in me - the harder you worked, the more the reward. But I am finding that there is a major gap between their generation's view of work and mine.
No matter what I tell them, they don't believe me. You can't just walk into a corporation, shake the managers hand, and expect to get a call. You can't expect to rise up the ranks through hard work, not with technology making most jobs easier for the majority of workers. In their generation, it was about hard work - organization, showing up on time, in-face meetings, and getting everything done during the day because they didn't have a laptop to take home and work at night. But now, everything is email, automated reports, and essentially buttons and levers (at least in my field, digital marketing). A monkey could do my job, and most jobs today. This has made office politics more rampant because good work alone doesn't cut it. It's about finding face time in a work week that does everything it can to keep you from talking to one another in person. And it's never good things being said.
My parents are quick to fault me for not being loyal to my company, but I don't see a reason to be loyal anymore. I have to wait a year to get any sort of benefits (401k match? A normal amount of vacation days?) Health benefits are the bare bones to keep costs razor thin, making it hard to get treated for the anxiety and depression I've developed. My company pounds me into the ground in that year with understaffing and overpromising clients, taking everything it can from me, before I reap the benefits. I don't have the vision of a pension in my future to work towards for loyalty. I don't get annual bonuses or awards/recognition.
So you are right to ask this question. It seems like the shittier workers get the better end of the stick because they are more equipped to play the game. People like me and you get held back by the morality of it all.
TLDR: It doesn't pay off any more to be the hardest worker. It pays off to play the game, talk the talk, and hope no one calls you out on your bullshit.