The Peter Principle

Day 141 / 365

Have you ever worked for a boss who was so bad at their job that it made you wonder how the hell did they even get to that position? Well, there’s a principle called ‘The Peter Principle’ that might give you an explanation.

Michael Scott of the show ‘The Office’ (or David Brent if you watched the British version), is the perfect example of an incompetent boss. How did he get to become a boss? Well, he was a great salesman. That’s what got him the promotion, but unfortunately being a great employee at a position doesn’t necessarily mean that you will perform well higher up as well. And that’s the peter principle.

The Peter Principle is an observation that the tendency in most organizational hierarchies, such as that of a corporation, is for every employee to rise in the hierarchy through promotion until they reach a level of respective incompetence.

So a person might be great at their job, but after a certain time, they will find themselves promoted to a position that they are incompetent in. And no one would turn down a promotion, thus eventually we have higher positions being filled by incompetent people.

This term was coined by Dr. Laurence J. Peter, in his 1968 book titled “The Peter Principle.”

And the conclusion he came to is pretty grim

Every position in a given hierarchy will eventually be filled by employees who are incompetent to fulfill the job duties of their respective positions.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — A life without regrets