Laurence J. Peter Work Quotations

Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.

Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise.

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

Men now monopolize the upper levels... depriving women of their rightful share of opportunities for incompetence.

Everyone rises to their level of incompetence.

Computers can solve all kinds of problems except the unemployment problem they create.

If you can't keep up, drag them down to your level.

In most hierarchies, supercompetence is more objectionable than incompetence.

If at first you don't succeed, you may be at your level of incompetence already.

If the outcome is good, what's the difference between motives that sound good and good, sound motives?

Peter's Principle: In an organization, each person rises to the level of his own incompetence.