The Peter Principle at Work

Why do I have to spend so much of my life dealing with idiots? This question crops up far too often for my liking and more often than not the answer can be found in the Peter Principle. A sociologist Dr Laurence Johnston Peter explained that organisations become incompetent because individuals often get promoted to one level above their highest competence and stick there being incompetent and micromanaging until either they retire or the company crumbles around them. Dr Peter asserts that the work of an organisation is done by the workers in the company who haven't yet reached their level of incompetence and if there are enough competent employees the organisation still functions despite the incompetent (and sometimes obstructive) managers. If a company forms a culture of mismanagement only the incompetent employees will remain because the competent ones will become exhausted and move on - it is impossible to soar with eagles when surrounded by turkeys!


So who has annoyed me so much that I feel the need to write about the Peter Principle? I have a long list, but don't worry I will only mention one or two. The postman who left a slip without bothering to ring the bell to deliver a parcel, the employee at the sorting office who didn't want to even look for the parcel because I hadn't waited 72 hours - when I insisted he grudgingly admitted that the parcel was there! Then there is London Midland, words fail me, they have turned incompetence into an art form. They have allowed an inherited problem to grow and to bring the company to it's knees and they have shown such lack of consideration for their regular customers that those who can have resorted to travelling by car! 


Some of my family members don't like me to write about them so I will not go into detail, but when I feel that they are being targeted unfairly I become a force to be reckoned with! The teacher who gave my son a detention because his drink spilled in his bag and soaked his exercise book had better watch his back! I went to all the trouble of changing my working hours so that I could pick him up afterwards only to find that the moron had rescinded the detention! I could go on, but all I will say is, I intend to fight against the oppression of small minded jobsworths, if you mess with me I will not be happy but if you mess with the people I love you'd better learn to run!!