Laurence J. Peter Quotes

tis the curse of service,
Preferment goes by letter and affection,
And not by old gradation, where each second Stood heir to the first.

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

Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it.

You can always tell a real friend; when you've made a fool of yourself, he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job.

La supercompetencia conduce a menudo al despido, porque transtorna la jerarquía y viola con ello el primer mandamiento de la vida jerárquica, según el cual la jerarquía debe ser preservada.

Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status

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.

IT SHOULD BE clear by now that when an employee reaches his level of incompetence, he can no longer do any useful work. Incompetent, Yes! Idle, No! This in no way suggests that the ultimate promotion suddenly changes the former worker into an idler. Not at all! In most cases he still wants to work; he still makes a great show of activity; he sometimes thinks he is working. Yet actually little that is useful is accomplished

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 obsessive feeling that a person who pushes harder than average deserves to advance farther and faster than average. This feeling, of course, has no scientific basis: it is simply a moralistic delusion

When you see yourself quoted in print and you're sorry you said it, it suddenly becomes a misquotation.

It is wise to remember that you are one of those who can be fooled some of the time.

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

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.

Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.