Yup. And I don't work at a school. It goes extremely far. The operations manager has been pushing two people for jobs since like 2014. Every time they are rejected and when the next opening comes up... they push them again. They are horrible workers and no one wants them. But, they are in the clique.

- they go out drinking;
- the talk about getting laid in the open;
- they have utter attitude...like they are gods when they are the most unqualified.
- they talk about sports .. openly like they have every right to spend hours screaming about football.
- they go to the gym for 2+ hours per day while the rest of us are working. Their "coat of arms" is buffed bodies.

I would go so far as to say that it is a requirement that you are "hazed" in someway in that group for career advancement. And the power brokers just look the other way.

I have come to conclude that it is a mechanism of control. The operations manager can control you if you join this group. Not only because you show him that you are submissive. But because honestly, they have dirt on you. So these people get the jobs. To make things easier on him. They are also usually not smart or capable of problem solving on their own, yet another way they are controllable. If you are bright or have a brain or not controllable... he doesn't want you on his "team."