CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, March 09, 2010

"Work Expands to the Time Allowed"

Lifehacker: "Yesterday I found a copy of Parkinson's Law for $1 at a library book sale. This book is best known for it's opening line: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."

1 comment:

Brian Alderman said...

I hadn't realized that this was a "formalized" law either. We've had discussions about fitting tasks to the time allowed in PTM, but this takes it to a new level. Most fascinating for me is the idea that corporations and large bureaucracies expand for themselves at a rate that can be measured. I would love to see the proof of this law, and such a defined number seems ridiculous to me. But not completely far fetched. The idea that people create work for each other must be true if we keep everyone employed- look how inefficient many companies are.