Parkinson's Law, or, The rising pyramid --
The will of the people, or, Annual general meeting --
High finance, or, The point of vanishing interest --
Directors and councils, or, Coefficient of inefficiency --
The short list, or, Principles of selection --
Plans and plants, or, The administration block --
Personality screen, or, The cocktail formula --
Injelititis, or, Palsied paralysis --
Palm thatch to Packard, or, A formula for success --
Pension point, or, The age of retirement.

Parkinson's Law states that 'work expands to fill the time available'. While strenuously denied by management consultants, bureaucrats and efficiency experts, the law is borne out by disinterested observation of any organization. The book goes far beyond its famous theorem, though. The author goes on to explain how to meet the most important people at a social gathering and why, as a matter of mathematical certainty, the time spent debating an issue is inversely proportional to its objective importance. Justly famous for more than forty years, Parkinson's Law is at once a bracingly cynical primer on the reality of human organization, and an innoculation against the wilful optimism to which we as a species are prone.