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What does Parkinson's Law teach us?

Parkinson, by studying the evolution of the British navy during the first half of the 20th century, observed an inflation over time of personnel not directly productive.

Parkinson's Law is a direct consequence of social ambition: to rise in the social hierarchy, most people wish to become 'managers', that is, to command rather than to work directly.
Moreover, when resources become scarce, which leads to what is euphemistically called restructuring, one might believe that those outside production are fired first, but this is not the case, because they have more time to devote to maneuvering to defend their jobs, and are closer to decision-making sources.

Consequences of Parkinson's Law

The right-wing myth: to reduce public spending, one must outsource to private companies that are more efficient.
False: Private companies are more efficient ... when they are young. After a few years, there is more non-productive personnel because, in addition, there is a state department that only processes contracts, plus a commercial department that only responds to them.

The left-wing myth: to improve public services, it is enough to increase resources.
False: After a few years, public services become inefficient again, because non-productive personnel have continued to increase.

Conclusion: to have more satisfactory public services, the only solution is to truly understand Parkinson's Law and to fight, step by step, permanently, against the inflation of non-productive personnel.

Deepen

↣ Wikipedia article explaining Parkinson's Law

See the question 'What is Lean production?'
See also Chapter 2 'Generalized nepotism' from the book From Capital to Reason.