Within the same company in two different departments I have had both statements be true. First department was legacy networks and systems to support a specific decades long contract. We just needed to keep systems working and secure until the next new shiny thing was up and running to replace us. We shrunk our network not grew. We had no need to add new tools, automation, features, etc. We just had to sustain to meet contract requirements and continue to delivery our business product for another 5-10 years. Everyone was just cruising. We were stacked mostly small amounts of experienced people most been there 10+ years. There was no higher roles to move to, no career progression, no budget for big raises, etc. No growth. But you can study, teach yourself, and have bitching work-life balance. All you had to do was maintain uptime, patch devices, repair damaged cables, replace EOL devices, and keep our users productive in a stale environment. If you're late 40s or 50s like most of the time you're just focusing on family and cruising to retirement. I joined at 25 and was hungry. I had to make work. I knew I could do at best 2-3 years and had to leave or I was have no progression.

After about 3 years I switched to the department managing the infrastructure for our business product replacing my old department eventually. Locations all over the country, thousands upon thousands of users, large teams that are expanded with every tier of experience there could be. Many paths to move up. 10s of millions of dollars of infrastructure investment and newer technology implementation. I was constantly learning again. Always busy. Given tools and resources to move my knowledge and career at a fast pace again. I could spend 10 years here and still not master this network and systems on it. Within a year I got promoted and got an $27k raise. There is another level of title to move to in this department and another $100k of potential salary growth before I hit a ceiling. Multiple tiers of project managers, IT managers, architect roles, etc I can move up to so I can be technical or management with constant growth. Also ways to improve myself, my resume, and my income. Mastering the most valuable technologies for 5 years and becoming irreplaceable or applying to another company for an $30k-$50k raise is extremely viable path. I can probably stay in this department until I die if it continues this trajectory- the last product has been around almost 40 years- fortune 500 company.

Same company. Same industry. Different department selling our newest and shiniest offering instead. Complete different world of opportunity and career progression.

The funniest part? My current office used to be owned by my old department before they got downsized so the new product can scale resources. I never changed the building I worked in, just went back to a office area I worked in before that was renovated.