The PETER principle

In a hierarchy, each employee tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence.

When Laurence J. Peter first enunciated his famous "principle" in 1969, he declared without modesty that he wanted to found nothing less than a new science: "hierarchology" or "the science of incompetence at work". What followed proved that his project was far from presumptuous, given the extent to which incompetence is gaining ground in political apparatuses, administrations, armies, trade unions, churches and corporate headquarters. Peter's empirical findings were as follows: in any organization, if someone does his job well, he is given a more complex task. If they do it well, they get promoted again. And so on, until the day comes when he lands a job beyond his capabilities. Where he'll stay indefinitely. Application: The "Peter Principle" has two important corollaries. Firstly, in an organization, work is done by those who have not yet reached their level of incompetence. Secondly, a skilled and efficient employee rarely agrees to stay at his level of competence for long. They'll do everything they can to get up to the level where they're good for nothing!