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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > PARKINSON'S LAW

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pronounce PARKINSON'S LAW:

PAR kin sonz LAW

Hear it.
connect this word to others:

As we check out the useful term Parkinson's Law, let's review some similar terms: Occam's razor, Hobson's choice, and Murphy's Law.

First, imagine you're a student. You're running late to lunch, and you dash into the cafeteria, desperately hungry, with only seven minutes left before your next class. Somehow, in the next seven minutes or less, you have to buy lunch, eat it, and bolt before that bell rings. You rush to the counter, only to discover that all the salads, sandwiches, and pizzas are gone, and the only item that remains is a small, dry square of meatloaf. A fly lands on it. The lunch lady, spatula in hand, stares you down. She gestures to the meatloaf and raises her eyebrows. "She hates me," you think. "She's plotting against me. She's hiding the salads somewhere. She wants me to choke on this decrepit square of questionable meat." You stand there, saying nothing, trying to decide what to do, and the clock ticks on.

Now, try explaining:

1. What's the Hobson's choice here?

2. How could you apply Occam's razor here?

3. How does this situation demonstrate Murphy's Law?

Oh, and according to Parkinson's Law, you'll spend all seven minutes deciding whether or not to buy the meatloaf.

definition:

"Parkinson's Law" is the idea that the work you have to do will expand to fill all the time you have to do it.

The phrase was coined in 1955 by a British writer, Cyril Northcote Parkinson, who explained in this essay in The Economist:

"It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Thus, an elderly lady of leisure can spend the entire day in writing and despatching a postcard to her niece... The total effort which would occupy a busy man for three minutes all told may in this fashion leave another person prostrate after a day of doubt, anxiety and toil."

Most of the time, when you see the phrase "Parkinson's Law," it's in reference to tasks expanding to take up all the time they can. But some writers have applied the phrase more generally to mean the idea that anything tends to expand to fill all the available time, or space, or other resource.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, the proper kind, so you capitalize it: "We're just obeying Parkinson's Law."

Other forms: 

None are common.

There's an adjective: "Parkinsonian."

There's also another noun, "Parkinsonism," which usually refers to Parkinson's other main observation: that bureaucrats tend to make work for each other, then bring on more and more employees under them to perform it.

how to use it:

Pick the rare, precise, amusing phrase "Parkinson's Law" when you need to emphasize how people are allowing tasks to take longer than necessary.

Although this phrase might sound a little scholarly or even scientific, it's not! That makes it great for humor and casual conversation.

Many writers gloss it (define it in their text) when they use it. That's probably a pretty good idea, since it's rare.

You might talk about people obeying, following, blaming, crediting, breaking, or defying Parkinson's Law.

examples:

"To be a successful and happy leader, I believe we need time away from work... modeling a healthy work-life balance and keeping Parkinson's law in mind."
   — Josh Thompson, Forbes, 15 March 2023

"Perhaps, too, there is a Parkinsonian effect at work here: the standard allocation for mathematics in primary schools, often regardless of the ground to be covered, has for decades been the equivalent of an hour a day."
   — Robin Alexander, Policy and Practice in Primary Education, 1992

has this page helped you understand "Parkinson's Law"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "Parkinson's Law" without saying "tasks will grow like goldfish in a bowl" or "work expands to fill time."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "Feeling like a slave to Parkinson's Law, I took (some unreasonable amount of time) to (do a task)."

Example: "Feeling like a slave to Parkinson's Law, I took an entire afternoon to write, rewrite, and rewrite a single email."




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for April: Interpret the Titles!

I'll give you the title of some book, movie, or other creation, along with a summary, and I'll challenge you to interpret the title in three different ways.

For examples, and some tips if you get stuck, head here!

Try this one today: The Sixth Sense is a 1999 movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Here's a summary from IMDb.com: "Child psychologist Malcom Crowe is one night visited by an ex-patient named Vincent Grey, who is enraged. He wounds Crowe, then kills himself. A few months later, Crowe is visited by a 9-year old boy named Cole. He sees dead people who do not know they are dead. Because of this, he is called a freak in school. Crowe, at first, thinks Cole is seeing things, but after spending a lot of time with him (much to his wife's dismay), he discovers Cole may be seeing dead people after all." Just in case that wasn't clear enough, it's Crowe who's been unwittingly dead.

1. It's titled The Sixth Sense because... ?

2. It's titled The Sixth Sense because... ?

3. It's titled The Sixth Sense because... ?

To see some possible answers, scroll all the way down!

review this word:

1. A person who rejects Parkinson's Law is likely to embrace

A. low-cost, high-density housing.
B. time limits for unimportant tasks.
C. first-come, first-served policies.

2. According to The Hackers' Dictionary, Parkinson's Law of Data states that "_____."

A. data storage on the cloud is always unreliable
B. data expands to fill the space available for storage
C. data must be named and catalogued in a user-friendly manner




Answers to the review questions:
1. B
2. B


Possible answers to the game questions:

1. It's titled The Sixth Sense because it's about a boy who, in addition to his five senses, has a sixth sense that allows him to see the dead.

2. It's titled The Sixth Sense because, before revealing the twist at the end, the director only allows us to sense (to see and hear) a small fraction, say, a sixth, of what we would have needed to sense in order to know what was really going on with Crowe.

3. It's titled The Sixth Sense because, after the five main senses, the sixth one is a sense of humor, and this movie's twist at the end plays a joke on the viewer.


a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
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      How to motivate our kids to write.
      How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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