Buffer staff screen clients by informally judging whether to let them persist.

Evidence

Thus street-level bureaucracies commonly employ receptionists, clerks, secretaries, and other facilitators to provide information in person or over the telephone, to assist clients in locating the proper place in the bureaucracy, and to make informal judgments as to whether they should persist in Controlling Clients and the Work Situation seeking help. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 944

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the reader’s Hypotheses 4 and 5 (gatekeeping across staff, aggregate case filters) and the doctors’ assistants example. — connects to: Waiting-list persistence is ambiguous evidence of genuine client need; Anticipation of later review makes workers prejudge and filter clients for other agencies — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 557

Broader Connections

• Waiting-list persistence is ambiguous evidence of genuine client need #expands (0.85)
• Anticipation of later review makes workers prejudge and filter clients for other agencies #exemplifies (0.80) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 557