Improvement means deterioration.
Hutber's law comes from a financial journalist watching institutions announce reforms. Its diagnostic use is unkind and reliable: when a service announces improvement, ask what is being withdrawn.
In practice
- A council announces a "service transformation" and the library opens four days a week instead of six.
- A bank's "improved customer experience" closes the branch and adds a chatbot.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Organizations & Bureaucracy
- Essay
- The folklore of office life