But who you know hiring has to fucking stop. It is intentionally making worse decisions because you don’t like someone as much as someone else.

As someone who has spent years and years in a position of authority, I can safely say that 90% of ALL disruptive work issues have originated from people rubbing someone else wrong, or someone being massively entitled and unable to listen to others or respect those over them. A massive part of your responsibility as a manager is to make decisions based only on vibes, about who you think is going to mesh with others.

I know it sounds really unfair, your merit should stand on its own, but if my paycheck and my team's paychecks and thus all of our survival depends on the team getting along to do the damn job, then you HAVE to understand the challenge and set your ego aside to make a good impression and maintain that persona. It's shitty but so are a lot of challenges in life.