Quotes from Laurence J. Peter

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

My problem is I say what I'm thinking before I think what I'm saying.

The efficiency of a hierarchy is inversely proportional to its Maturity Quotient, M.Q. MQ = No. of employees at level of incompetence × 100 Total no. of employees in hierarchy Obviously, when MQ reaches 100, no useful work will be accomplished at all.

In any economic or political crisis, one thing is certain. Many learned experts will prescribe many different remedies

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.

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.

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

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 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.

Incompetence," he argued, "knows no barrier of time or place.

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.

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

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.

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.

Seorang yang kompeten dalam level tertentu belum tentu kompeten pada level berikutnya

A political party now exists primarily as an apparatus for selecting candidates and getting them elected to office.

an employee's relationship—by blood, marriage or acquaintance—with a person above him in the hierarchy.

Incompetence knows no barriers of time or place.

the main function of a pseudo-promotion is to deceive people outside the hierarchy. When this is achieved, the maneuver is counted a success.

Wellington, examining the roster of officers assigned to him for the 1810 campaign in Portugal, said, "I only hope that when the enemy reads the list of their names, he trembles as I do.

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.

true progress is achieved through moving forward to a better way of life, rather than upward to total life incompetence.

Man must realize that improvement of the quality of experience is more important than the acquisition of useless artifacts and material possessions.

La competencia de un empleado no es determinada por los extraños, sino por su superior en la jerarquía.