Laurence J. Peter Quotes

“In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”

“Employees in a hierarchy do not really object to incompetence (Peter’s Paradox): they merely gossip about incompetence to mask their envy of employees who have Pull.”

“As individuals we tend to climb to our levels of incompetence. We behave as though up is better and more is better, and yet all around us we see the tragic victims of this mindless escalation.”

“In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties.”

“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.”

“A staff increase may produce a temporary improvement, but the promotion process eventually produces its effect on the newcomers and they, too, rise to their levels of incompetence.”

“The computer may be incompetent in itself--that is, unable to do the work for which it was designed. This kind of incompetence can never be eliminated, because the Peter Principle applies in the plants where computers are designed and manufactured.”

“Good followers do not become good leaders.”

“I have noticed that, with few exceptions, men bungle their affairs. Everywhere I see incompetence rampant, incompetence triumphant...I have accepted the universality of incompetence.”

“Any government, whether it is a democracy, a dictatorship, a communistic or free enterprise bureaucracy, will fall when its hierarchy reaches an intolerable state of maturity.”

“Nobody understands how the incessant pressure from above and the incurable incompetence below make it utterly impossible for me to do an adequate job and keep a clean desk.”

“He must examine his objectives and see that true progress is achieved through moving forward to a better way of life, rather than upward to total life incompetence.”

“Incompetence knows no barriers of time or place.”

“Slump, and the world slumps with you. Push and you push alone.”

“The skills required to run a great political campaign have little to do with the skills required to govern.”

“In most hierarchies, super-competence is more objectionable than incompetence.”

“Many a man, under the old and the new systems, has made the upward step from candidate to legislator, only to achieve his level of incompetence.”

“The more conceited members of the race think in terms of an endless ascent—or promotion ad infinitum. I would point out that, sooner or later, man must reach his level of life-incompetence.”

“All, from police forces to armed forces, are rigid hierarchies of salaried employees, and all are necessarily cumbered with incompetents who cannot do their existing work, cannot be promoted, yet cannot be removed.”

“One reason so many employees are incompetent is that the skills required to get a job often have nothing to do with what is required to do the job itself. ”