Slacker Window - The gray area between screwing up an unpleasant assignment badly enough that you won't be given similar ones in the future and screwing it up badly enough that you get fired. A way to avoid Carter's Trap.
Posted by Chris at July 17, 2006 11:20 AMIsn't Carter's Trap a specific case of a larger law (the name of which I do not know, if it has one) that says that anytime you perform better than expected, the next time the expectations will be that much higher?
Classic examples are budget and schedule: If you do not use your full budget for any one year, the next year your budget will be lowered by the amount that you went under. Likewise, if you finish ahead of schedule, on the next project you will be expected to perform at the same level.
It almost sounds like a corrolary of the Peter Principle.
Except for the 'rising to incompetence' part.
Posted by: Chris of Dangerous Logic at July 17, 2006 10:50 PM