Hard-to-measure service quality makes covert erosion easy and durable

Evidence

This may be true for several reasons. First, if the quality of service is difficult to measure, so is reduction in service quality difficult to measure. Second, there are many ways to save money by eroding the quality of service without appearing to do so. They include offering services on a group rather than an individual basis, substituting paraprofessionals, often paid from other sources, for regular staff, and, conversely, forcing professionals to handle clerical and other routine chores, reducing the time they have to interact with their clients. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1237

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to Lipsky’s earlier claims that street-level work is defined by unmeasurable outputs and rationing.
• SEED: Angle: ‘The Unmeasurable Job’ — how unverifiable output quietly licenses degraded service across every public institution.