I must admit that I have encountered a few meanigful instances of "The Peter Principle" througout my career. The concept seems amusing; in the author's words: “You will see that in every hierarchy the cream rises until it sours.” In short it goes like this: an employee performs well, is rewarded with a promotion, excels in that role, and is promoted again. This cycle continues until the point where the individual is no longer performing at a level deserving of a promotion, leaving them at a level where they are overmatched by the demands of the job—essentially, "incompetent." Two simple observations: This is not a law - it does not invariably and inevitably reflect how organizations work, or society at large for that matter. It is intentional, a result of a certain way of doing stuff commonly referred as Culture. To illustrate (from my experience): the best salespeople generally become the worst sales managers. Removing a high-performing sales associate from the...