I read through a short book not too long ago entitled “The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong” by Laurence J. Peter. The basis of the book is the principle that in a hierarchy (e.g. your company) an employee will rise to his level of incompetence. Given enough time people tend to float to the top like…. you know what.
When they do make it up there and are no longer worthy of promotion they will perform their latest job with incompetence. They stop improving in any remarkable way and settle into a mediocre position. I’ve seen this happen in various retail jobs I’ve held over the years, but now that I’m working in IT it’s worse than I could’ve imagined. It seems as if incompetence itself is the defining factor in an individual’s ability to earn a promotion.
Now before you think I’m exaggerating please listen to this very short story. I worked with a consultant, let’s just call him Irwin for the heck of it. Well, Irwin was not what you’d call a model employee. He was rude, and often left computer systems set up incomplete or misconfigured. I’ve spent many hours correcting things that were supposed to be set up properly the first time by Irwin. A lot of times he would have to return to the client to “fix” the mess that he made! Fast forward a year or so to a company party where an award valued at about $1,000 would be given to the consultant that earned the most billable hours.
Guess who won?! Well, considering I haven’t given you any other options to choose from I’ll congratulate you for figuring it out. I couldn’t really believe it, and I wondered if anyone else saw the irony. That’s not important. What is important is this: working in a hierarchy that rewards incompetence is a sure fire way to become very dissatisfied with your position, or it may lead you to incompetence in your job role. Now tell me, is that what you really want for yourself?
If you have any work horror stories please share them in the comments!
