I worked my way up but no one gets "promoted", you have to apply for the position and be considered with all other applicants. When the manager position that I had been working years toward finally opened up I was told I didn't have sufficient formal education for the position, even though there were many other non college graduates in management, and I had been the interim manager for 8 months. Then my division was assimilated with an existing division and the manager had no experience with IT, but had a college degree in a completely different field. He was arrogant and untrustworthy. He took all the accolades for himself and any problems were our fault. He didn't communicate well, and was overall a very poor manager.
The county upper management was just a "good ole boys club" for years but some good changes have been made in that regard.
Pay was unfair. I had been there for over 10 years and finally gotten a new title and pay increase to fit what I had already been doing for years. But the pay increase started me at the beginning level instead of the higher level which would have reflected my years of service. A brand new employee was hired at the exact same rate of pay.
A hiring freeze made it difficult to accomplish day to day tasks. When someone left, we were expected to do that person's work also. That practice is still going on.