Not to be confused with the [[law of triviality]], sometimes called Parkinson's law of triviality, by the same author.
>[!abstract]
>Parkinson's law can refer to either of two observations, published in 1955 by the naval historian C. Northcote Parkinson as an essay in The Economist:
>
>1. Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
>2. The number of workers within public administration, bureaucracy or officialdom tends to grow, regardless of the amount of work to be done. This was attributed mainly to two factors: that officials want subordinates, not rivals, and that officials make work for each other (Wikipedia, 2025).
>[!related]
>- **North** (upstream): [[Bureaucratic theory]]
>- **West** (similar): [[Law of triviality]] (organizations over-focusing on small details)
>- **East** (different): [[Efficiency principle]] (work contracting to the minimum time required)
>- **South** (downstream): [[Time-wasting in organizations]]