The Peter’s Inversion

When it seems impossible that someone so incompetent can be promoted, it might be Peter’s Inversion: a nurse wakes you up to remind you to take your sleeping pill; though the goal is for you to sleep, her reminding you was more important to her.

This may seem counter-intuitive, but it isn’t. Competence is both relative and subjective, as it’s something usually determined by your superior. If a rule enjoins nurses to remind every patient of his pills, the nurse followed the rules to perfection. These non-exceptions show that the Peter Principle exists in any organization with a hierarchy.