Laurence J. Peter - The Peter Principle (1969)

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Never stand when you can sit; never walk when you can ride; never Push when you can Pull.

Laurence J. Peter
Occupational incompetence is everywhere. Have you noticed it? Probably we all have noticed it.

Laurence J. Peter
Work is done by those [employees] who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

Laurence J. Peter
Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

Laurence J. Peter
Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.

Laurence J. Peter
Most hierarchies are nowadays so cumbered with rules and traditions, and so bound in by public laws, that even high employees do not have to lead anyone anywhere, in the sense of pointing out the direction and setting the pace. They simply follow precedents, obey regulations, and move at the head of the crowd. Such employees lead only in the sense that the curved wooden figurehead leads the ship.

Laurence J. Peter
Some Blockett-type employees actually believe that they have received a genuine promotion; others recognize the truth. But the main function of a pseudo-promotion is to deceive people outside the hierarchy. When this is achieved, the maneuver is counted a success.

Laurence J. Peter
In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties. Do not be fooled by apparent exceptions.

Laurence J. Peter
Lateral Arabesque—a pseudo-promotion consisting of a new title and a new work place.

Laurence J. Peter
Incompetence plus incompetence equals incompetence

Laurence J. Peter
In every organization there is a considerable accumulation of dead wood in the executive level.

Laurence J. Peter
Slump, and the world slumps with you. Push, and you push alone.

Laurence J. Peter
My analysis…led me to formulate The Peter Principle: In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence.

Laurence J. Peter
The machinery of government is a vast series of interlocking hierarchies riddled through and through with incompetence.

Laurence J. Peter