# The laws of the office revisited

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/planet-money-551334/the-laws-of-the-office-revisited
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/planet-money-551334/the-laws-of-the-office-revisited.md
Podcast: [Planet Money](https://stenobird.com/podcast/planet-money-551334)
Published: 2026-03-11T07:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.npr.org/2026/03/11/nx-s1-5726849/laws-of-the-office-poster
Audio file: https://tracking.swap.fm/track/XvDEoI11TR00olTUO8US/prfx.byspotify.com/e/play.podtrac.com/npr-510289/npr.simplecastaudio.com/43b5acee-463e-4612-95ad-d2596d9dd337/episodes/bcdc515d-980a-406a-80af-472268f426df/audio/128/default.mp3?awCollectionId=43b5acee-463e-4612-95ad-d2596d9dd337&awEpisodeId=bcdc515d-980a-406a-80af-472268f426df&feed=hvWWWzRv&t=podcast&e=nx-s1-5726849&p=510289&d=1775&size=28414207
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/planet-money-551334/episodes/the-laws-of-the-office-revisited
Duration seconds: 1775

## Resource

Live event info and tickets here. If something is going wrong in your workplace, there's probably a law that explains why. Meetings always seem long, and never end early? There’s Parkinson’s Law, which says work expands to the time allotted, or, restated: meetings will always take up all the time blocked on Outlook calendars. Is your boss bad at managing? Check the Peter Principle, which says people are promoted to their level of incompetence. A good worker does not a good manager make. And yet … here we are. Once you hear these laws, and a few others, you start to spot them everywhere. Today on the show, we picked a few of the most famous and powerful ‘laws of the office’ and tested them out on each other. Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift . / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter . This episode was hosted by Kenny Malone, Sarah Gonzalez, and Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. It was produced by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. Bryant Urstadt edited this show. Planet Money ’s executive producer is Alex Goldmark. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

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## Transcript

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