Sarah Gonzalez

Hello and welcome to Planet Money.

I'm Sarah Gonzalez.

Like Goodhart's Law.

Also the Peter Principle Parkinson's Law.

Today on the show we take a look at these laws that claim to explain just about everything that can go wrong in an office.

From bad managers to terrible procrastination.

And so that's how we thought we'd turn these laws of the office into like a real poster that you can hang in your office for your manager to see.

So today on the show, we'll hear the laws of the office along with a new one we found.

And we hear from 2018 Kenny and 2018 Sarah along with Alexi Horwitz-Gazi back when he was just a...

baby producer at Planet Money.

This is Charles Goodhart, economist, former advisor to England Central Bank, professor emeritus at London School of Economics.

But over time, it was.

People took Goodhart's Law out of the world of monetary policy and came up with new formulations of the law.

This is a real example.

The British government started pressuring its hospitals to see emergency patients faster, within four hours.

And sure enough, wait times dropped, just not always for the right reasons.

Another way of stating Goodhart's Law?

Be careful what you measure because your employees are going to make it happen.

And we're not even close to finished.

So, for example, Kenny and I have an entire week to finish this Parkinson's Law segment.