The Peter Principle

In 1969, Dr. Lawrence J. Peter and his colleague Raymond Hull released a profound theory of management known as the Peter Principle, which states that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence", meaning that employees tend to be promoted until they reach a position at which they cannot work competently. This...is where I am.

My claim to fame in my department (if such a thing exists) is that I have held every major position that exists. I have worked at various times as a Lobby Monitor, Front Desk Receptionist, Linen Assistant, Student Assistant, Resident Assistant, Conference Assistant, Residence Hall Staff Assistant, Graduate Assistant and finally as Community Director, where I currently serve in the worst possible way. This is my level of incompetence.

I've come to this conclusion as I sit at the front desk at 2:30 in the morning. I am an unmitigated failure as a Community Director. Well, no. Let me not be so hasty and extreme as to suppose that there was no way I could have been good at this position. I am a mitigated failure as a Community Director and I say this because I know exactly what my problem was. The same things that made me a great RA, RHSA and GA make me a horrible Director. Before, I was always quick to be there for the rest of my team. If they fell off then I picked up the slack. If my Director needed me for additional tasks, I never told him I was busy. I never looked at events in my personal life as having priority over my work life, because I signed a contract saying that I would always do the job and the nature of the job is to serve in whatever capacity is needed.

The second trait that made me great at every other position was the fact that I always made myself available to the residents. Days, nights, afternoons and in-betweens. We socialized, I listened, I understood when no one else would make the effort. And because of this I was always in the best position to manage the building and the residents based on what they needed and what they wanted.

These are horrible traits to take into a management position. As a supervisor I can't just understand that I have employees who are falling by the wayside. I'm supposed to correct them, not forgive them and do their work for them. I also can't get too familiar with them, or situations like the one I find myself in tonight become all too common.

At 11:17 p.m. I get a text from my midnight receptionist saying that she wouldn't be able to come in tonight. Between the training at her other job and the long shift she had put in there, she'd be too tired to come here. I find a few things wrong with this:

1. I shouldn't be expected to care about your other job.
2. You're still there because you weren't relieved but you've shown no problem leaving this job when not relieved on time.
3. You wait until 43 minutes before your shift to tell me you're not coming in. Ugh.

But you know, whatever, we have an on-call schedule just for this very eventuality. I look at the schedule and realize that an RA can work 12-4 and I'll work 4-8. Slightly inconvenienced but still better than one person working the entire shift. I text this plan to RA...no answer. I call him 10 minutes later...no answer. I end up at the desk at midnight. He shows up around 12:40 explaining that HIS other job kept him out later than he expected. No explanation as to why he couldn't respond to my text. I tell him that since I am already down here that HE will work the 4-8 a.m. shift.

Another RA came down earlier to borrow a pair of scissors. He sees me at the desk. I tell him that I have scissors in my apartment. I run upstairs a few minutes ago to grab a snack. This RA is on my sofa watching movies. I would NEVER have just left my Director at the desk. The few times I saw him at the desk I made him leave immediately because there is no scenario when I as an RA or a GA should sit on my ass while my supervisor does the work of someone beneath him. It just never felt right. Apparently my staff members have no problem with it.

Sadly, I know what the problem is, and it's me. I became too familiar with my staff. We were too friendly from the start, when I was still learning the position and didn't understand that everyone isn't...like me. So I work the desk and they sit upstairs and eat cake. My cake. Or they sit in their rooms with their girlfriends and shrug off the fact that the Director came down to work because they couldn't be here. I suck.

Legal Note: Opinions in this post are my own and not representative of the university I work for or the people I work under. All suppositions, presumptions, theories, hypotheses, etc. are my own. This blog is for entertainment purposes only, blah blah blah. There are purposely no names included in this post, and I have revealed nothing that violates either general expectations of privacy or the University confidentiality agreement, which, actually... I never signed anyway. All of that is to say...don't be trying to sue me.