‘of course.

8 - Friday, April 5, 1985 - North Shore News

_ Things go wrong

wonders how the heck anything works, cor-

TT: older. a person becomes, the more he

porate and individual incompetence being

the rule rather than the
Hydro. .Look at BCRIC.

, We have always known
that nothing works propery,
That's why
employees spend their cof-

‘ fee-breaks bad-mouthing the —

‘bosses. But” somehow the
world keeps | turning. *

‘The man’ who first ar-
ticulated what we all knew
was Laurence J. Peter, the
‘former’ B.C. proféssor of
education who went to the
‘States and: wrote The’ Peter
‘Principle.’ ‘in ‘a heirarchy,
indi

iduals'. tend’ 10. “rise to.

. deliver ;

exception.. Look at B.C.
Look at anything.
their level of incompetence.)
Now he's given us another
“clever and hilarious work in
Why Things Go Wrong, or
The .Perer Principle
Revisited. (William Morrow,
$17.95)
The author makes dozens
‘of perceptive comments.
You may ormay not be fired
for, incompetence, for in-
stance. Equally, you may or
‘may not be fired for com-
petence. Being too compe-

take out - dining in :

salad selection, ham, bacon, sausages, omelet.
fresh frutt,- “hash browns, crepes, pancakes and

delivery or, dining in.

tent tends to make your im- ©

any, large pizza

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mediate superiors uncomfor-
table. Incompetence,
moreover, sometimes brings
big rewards,

Remember the Edsel, the
bomb the Ford people
brought out in the late 1950s?
It was to be a new concept in
cars, something that would
set the style for decattes. But
the car failed so badly it may
have cost Ford
$350,000,000. Never mind.
The guy who designed the
thing went on to become the
corporation's chief stylist of
commercial vehicles.

This and other examples

of super-class screw-ups in- :

spired the professor to for-

mulate Peter's Tenure Prin- :

seating 4
at "a4

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criidre

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; 964- 061 1

$ 5956

international Plaza /

ciple, which is: ‘A man is
known by the company, that
Keeps him.

Outstanding incompetence
is not confined to corpdora-
tions, It is rife in the profes-
sions, universities (regarding
which Peter comments on
the. numbers of educated
fools), and in government, :

The Veterans Administra-
tion Medical Centre in Long
beach issued a memo to
employces: If they received
any phone threats against,
the president, ‘they should;
make a note of the name and
social security number of the:
caller, if given.

“The meat cutter at a
hotel in Switzerland lost a
finger and filed an insurance |
claim, The insurance com- ;
pany sent a claim) in- |
vestigator to the hotel. The |
claim investigator asked to
work the machine. He lost a
finger. \

“Buses on the Hanley-
to-Bagnall run ‘in Stafford-
shire, England, reguarly

‘failed.to stop for passengers.

In response: (o complaints,

’ Councillor Arthur Cholerton
: explained that if buses stop-

ped to pick up passengers,
the timetable would be
disrupted.’

Canadian regulations, says

Easter

‘Sunday Brunch

1999 Marine Or: /
North Vancouver *

“tiam-4 pm

downtown,

. Easter ‘sunday, ‘April - ~
a a RB Hamilton & Georgia, |

the author, prohibit a person
from “entering aircraft in
flight .""

At the Howard Hotel in
Baltimore, ‘‘contractors lit
fires in the boilers, then
noticed they had forgotten
to install the chimney.”

Criminals are notoriously
incompetent, too. While
teaching in the B.C. prison
system, Peter interviewed a

man who had left _ his.

driver’s ticence at the scene
of the crime.

The author is candid
about his area of expertise
— teaching. The best teacher
he ever came across, he said,
was a woman who taught
elementary school and
adamantly refused to get a
teaching degree or to become
an administrator.

He is enthusiastic about
equal opportunities for
women. Women, he says,
should have just as many
chances as men to prove
themselves incompetent.

Brunch is better at

Bennington’s

at the quay

Toe ieee

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:. of the popular CBC gardening show, :
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Bring your, gardening ¢ queries and.
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dest to find Vou; solutions.

‘Join us won ‘tyou?

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