Do we all suffer in various ways in our lives by the predicament described in the "Peter Principle?"

Question

Quoting from Wikipedia, "On a personal level, the practical application of the Peter Principle is that it allows assessment of the potential of any given employee for a promotion to a higher rank on the basis of job performance in his or her current position. It states that members of a hierarchical organization are eventually promoted to their highest level of competence, after which further promotion raises them to a level at which they may become incompetent. Such a level is called the employee's "level of incompetence", at which the employee has a dismal or no chance at all of being promoted any farther, thus achieving the ceiling of his career growth within a given organization."
Could this be the state that we are all in both our professional and personal lives?

Note, that it is true that anyone can learn new things and improve skills. However, there are time in which we have to make big changes in ourselves, our hopes, dreams and beliefs, our habits and our views of the world. Also, we each have strengths and weaknesses, and many of our weaknesses are not economically worth changing.

Whereas the Peter Principle deal with advancement within the corporation, can it also apply to our personal advancement in our lives in achieving "happiness" and "satisfaction?"

Answer 1

The short answer is yes.

We suffer because the effect of the Peter principle is inefficiency, ie higher costs of end-products and services than they could be.

The people directly involved suffer from discontent, job dissatisfaction, frustration, confusion and boredom.

Beyond that, I say we all suffer because of the existence of large heirarchical organizations. People (mostly male) having power over other people; people at the top remote from most workers; workers not caring about the success of the business or governemnt dept that they work for -- all are major emotional and economic problems. Note such evidence as the significantly higher levels of sick leave in large firms and in the public sector compared to smaller firms and the voluntary [not-for-profit] sector. And senior people in large heirarchical organizations spend most of their time in meetings rather than getting work done. (I offer you a new "law": the work time wasted in business meetings is proportional to the cube of the number of people in the business.)

Answer 2

i do not agree with the peter prinicpal unless the person is unwilling to grow and learn new skills, not every person had the skills that make them excell at a position, but they can be successful with hard work and a willingness to grow and learn new skills

Answer 3

Totally disagree
I strongly believe in "Where there is a will there is a way" ... and, so is competence...........