Heavy caseloads make it impossible for street-level bureaucrats to meet their mandated duties.

Evidence

Street-level bureaucrats characteristically have very large case loads relative to their responsibilities. The actual numbers are less important than the fact that they typically cannot fulfill their mandated responsibilities with such case loads. Public defenders sometimes come to trial without having interviewed their clients, or having interviewed them only briefly. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 250

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Resource inadequacy, overload, and role ambiguity correlate with poor worker mental health — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 270