The Peter Principle

The Peter Prin­ci­ple is the maxim that in a hier­ar­chy every employee tends to rise to his level of incom­pe­tence. Specifically:

It holds that in a hier­ar­chy, mem­bers are pro­moted so long as they work com­pe­tently. Sooner or later they are pro­moted to a posi­tion at which they are no longer com­pe­tent (their “level of incom­pe­tence”), and there they remain.