What exactly is Parkinson's Law? First, institutional bloat, low efficiency, and resource waste are the phenomenological results of Parkinson's Law, meaning the visible outcomes. There are many reasons leading to these results, but the results are consistent. Therefore, if one wants to highly distill the content of Parkinson's Law, one can only emphasize its results. Suppose there is an incompetent official in a certain position. Faced with a task, unable and unwilling to do it themselves, they choose to find two mediocre subordinates. Following this logic further, the two mediocre subordinates hired are also incompetent. After sharing their work, they follow suit and each find two even more mediocre assistants. This creates a management system characterized by bloat and inefficiency. Based on this, the definition of Parkinson's Law emerges.
Parkinson's Law also has a formula to prove it. Regardless of whether the workload changes, the result derived from this formula always falls between 5.17% and 6.56%. This means the total number of employees in an organization will expand at a rate of 5.17% per year. It somewhat aligns with entropy increase; the more people are used, the more there are. Actually, it has nothing to do with the work itself. As long as it is within the company's budget, the expenditure required for organizational operations will continue to increase until all resources are exhausted.
In fact, this is not just how companies operate; many people live this way too, even spending as much as they can borrow. Those leaders always want as many subordinates as possible—managing more people makes them look like a big shot. They are also well versed in office politics and calculating in their dealings. They avoid firing, lecturing, or being hard on mediocre subordinates who are difficult to cross. After all, everyone works for the company; offending these people is not worth it. Why make enemies for yourself? Managers also spread work around and create work for one another. For example, peer departments pass the buck to departments they collaborate with, and upstream departments set traps for downstream ones. And when departments, or members within a department, face their superiors together, they share a certain tacit understanding: looking busy is better than actually being busy, and keeping busy with inconsequential tasks is better than working on critical projects. This inevitably brings to mind the profound significance of Occam’s razor: do not multiply entities beyond necessity. Once an unnecessary entity appears, it will do everything it can to prove that its existence is necessary.
There are also some corresponding solutions to this example. Internally, foster a culture and establish mechanisms that encourage learning and continuous improvement, developing people’s abilities and reducing instances of poor job fit. Externally, broaden recruitment channels and make the hiring process open, professional, and transparent, attracting more candidates with sufficient ability and relevant expertise to assess whether they are a good fit. Regularly review the inputs and outputs of members of the organization, and compare internal processes and efficiency over time. Adopt market-oriented management, making each department accountable for what it delivers downstream and for end-user satisfaction, allowing market demand to drive the business.
Of course, Parkinson’s Law also has another value: it reminds individuals in an organization of certain management problems and organizational dysfunction. These issues not only harm the company but also have a certain impact on the individuals themselves. For example, it reminds people that in such an organization, you may gradually lose your drive and ability to make progress, deteriorate into meaningless work, and become exhausted from constantly rushing around. This makes us realize that we should proactively avoid the following outcomes: being slowly boiled like a frog in the workplace, slowing the pace of our own improvement, gradually becoming disconnected from the outside world, and ultimately becoming passive in our career development.