Planet Money The laws of the office revisited
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Mar 11, 2026 They test classic workplace laws like Parkinson’s Law and the Peter Principle in real office experiments. They explore Goodhart’s Law and how measuring performance can warp behavior. They investigate social contagion and run a practical experiment to change office dishwashing norms. The segment also revisits earlier tests to see long-term effects.
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Cashier Sacrifices Sale To Hit Metrics
- Kenny Malone confessed to leaving an unscanned item at his cashier job to keep his items-per-minute metrics high.
- He gamed the store's performance metric (items scanned/minute) by letting a problematic item go free, which raised his ranking.
Why Targeted Metrics Break The Things They Measure
- Goodhart's Law says any statistical regularity will collapse once used for control or targeted measurement.
- Targeting one metric causes staff to reallocate effort to that metric and neglect other non-targeted outcomes.
Use Short Deadlines Or Rewards To Beat Parkinson's Law
- To counter Parkinson's Law, shorten deadlines or offer rewards for faster completion to prevent work expanding to fill available time.
- Meng Zhu cites experiments showing people expand tasks to match longer deadlines, so tighter timeboxes or incentives speed work.