Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

It is comprised of two subsequent laws:

The law of the multiplication of subordinates.

Administrators need to grow their subordinates to address their perceived overload. They need at least two subordinates, not to resign their pension not share responsibility with only one other who becomes a competitor for promotions. These reports will eventually try to grow following the same narrative.

The law of the multiplication of work.

More administrative employees leads to more people issues to manage. Quality and input needs between each individual’s work creates more work in communications and editing without directly producing anything. The supervising administrator subsequently has to edit the results to meet their standard, meaning several people had to spend time only for the overseer to produce what they could have done alone (without the people issues and their effort expense).rP2


  1. C. Northcote Parkinson, “Parkinson’s Law,” The Economist, November 19, 1955, https://www.economist.com/news/1955/11/19/parkinsons-law. (See notes.)