Of course there are. I am sure just about every dept has them. The bad hires are not dealt with, so they are re-org'd off the critical path or otherwise placed off to the side. The strongly competent and collaborative people keep Merck running, but can't make the Upper 20. The patronage system keeps the a__ kissers in upper 20 and/or promoted. We just had a reorg and the patronage and favoritism was on full display and we had some laggards pushed to the side to continue their incompetence with full reward, until someday another reorg may give them a nice severance package.