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

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

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.

Incompetence is rewarded more often than not.

One of the chief features of incompetence was an inability to see it in oneself.

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

Incompetence knows no barriers of time or place.

Given enough time — and assuming the existence of enough ranks in the hierarchy — each employee rises to, and remains at, his level of incompetence.

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.

Dr. Peter observed that 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. The skills required to run a great political campaign have little to do with the skills required to govern.

In time I saw that all such cases had a common feature. The employee had been promoted from a position of competence to a position of incompetence. I saw that, sooner or later, this could happen to every employee in every hierarchy.

Government succeeds by failing: the more incompetence, the greater the potential reward in the arena of the public sector.

People who are “unconsciously incompetent” don’t know they’re incompetent — they know so little about the subject that they can’t fully appreciate how little they know. That’s why every barber and taxi driver you meet is an expert on the economy and international politics.

One moment of incompetence can be fatal.