The Peter Principle: Are you at your level of incompetence? (1974) [video]

The Peter Principle states "In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence".

The principle was coined by Canadian educator Laurence J. Peter (1919 - 1990). Below are some quotes from Peter from the video:

"I saw that very often...the competent individual was promoted to something he couldn't do."

"I saw competent engineers getting promoted to supervisory positions - they were great at dealing with things, and incompetent at dealing with people. And over and over again I saw this this phenomenon and I called it the Peter Principle."

"The Peter Principle states very simply that in any hierarchy an employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence."

"I'm not saying people shouldn't accept promotions - some people should. Some people enjoy power, a joy [in] authority, enjoy responsibility. And others find it a burden - it drags them down. It makes them feel that they're responsible for more than they should be."

"Should we go throughout life being conditioned to keep on accepting that next reward? To keep on running like a squirrel in a cage to keep on striving for that carrot on the stick? Or should we use our ability to be rational and think about where am I going? What is the purpose of my life? Is reward through promotion the reward for me? Or are there other rewards through other aspects of living? This is the question."

"This is where the Peter Principle written as humour as satire to help people laugh at the problem can actually help people make some of these very important decisions in their own lives."