In 1955, C. Northcote Parkinson opens his essay, “It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” He discusses bureaucracies and how they correspondingly tend to grow in the number of staff regardless of the amount of work to be done.
He provides anecdotal evidence of this phenomenon by illustrating the post-WWI British navy. Despite reducing the number of ships, the naval bureaucracy grew after WWI.
Naval ships. Free for use under the Pixabay Content License.
As Cal Newport writes in his book “A World Without Email,” bureaucracies expand and create unproductive behaviors–sending emails back and forth with little associated productivity.
While the Executive and Legislative Branches of our federal government have suffered under Parkinson’s Law, the Judicial Branch has remained relatively austere. (Interesting numbers here.) Anthony Lewis notes this advantageous posture of the court system in his book “Gideon’s Trumpet.”
Executive Branch has slightly over 2,000 staff. Congression has a little over 9,200 staff. Finally, the Supreme Court employs about 500 staff.
Keeping a bureaucracy focused and not succumbing to Parkinson’s Law is an interesting challenge.