I work for a rather large company (not HP large, but our ranks number in tens of thousands now) in IT. Networking is my specialization, but I'm a well-rounded technologist.
My co-workers are almost exclusively holdovers from the digital PBX days--some have taken to IPT pretty well and actually make an effort to contribute, but most of them refuse to learn or do any work and can't afford to leave because they're very well-paid and don't want to go get another PBX job just to see it convert to VoIP as well.
On our team of 10-12, 4 of us do at least 75% of the work.
Our manager doesn't have the balls (literally or figuratively, actually) to let anyone go. I'm not sure if she doesn't know that at least 1/3 of the department (size: 30-40) is inept or if it's just easier to pretend like everything's going well.
Everyone resists change and bitches endlessly about our vendor (the complaints are largely baseless) because now they're not the expert on the system. When someone suggests they crack a book or go to a boot camp THAT THE COMPANY PAYS FOR, they get all snarky.
The supervisors are so risk-averse (even though NO ONE gets fired here) that they will close their ears if you even suggest anything along the lines of "I was thinking that there might be a better way to do X." They just want to get their inflated paycheck, pension, and walk out. They want to get their big bonuses, but don't want to give you any ammunition with which to earn yours.
You must scratch their backs, and in return, they'll scratch their balls.
I'm 24 and I make way better money than most 24-yr-olds (~80k per annum), but it's not enough to keep me here doing my work AND the work of the old guy (was actually super awesome) they just let go because he refused to step in line with the most ridiculous managerial decision that would ruin his work-life balance and effectively detract from the performance of his real, actual job responsibilities.
My first-line has no idea what my actual job is and leads the rest of the team in a completely different role than mine.
They withhold certain departmental benefits from me because they insist that I'm the equivalent to X person in X place (states away) that doesn't get those benefits, even though my qualifications, work experience, and day-to-day tasks are different and are much more in line with Y people in THE SAME OFFICE AS ME, IN THE SAME STATE.
The benefits are too good (0 deductible health insurance, 4 weeks combined paid/sick leave, 401k match AND zero-contribution-by-employee pension) to leave and I need more experience to be marketable enough to go elsewhere, but they've pigeon-holed me into menial tasks because I'm one of the only ones with strong enough work ethic to actually complete a task.
The company is stronger than ever before, yet they're trying to save money like they're going out of business and have told us they're replacing a large portion of operational IT professionals with contractors.
So that's cool.