Unpredictable demand makes some client waiting economically unavoidable in street-level agencies.
Evidence
Clients frequently may be quite willing to pay the costs of waiting. Clients undoubtedly understand that there are times when they will have to wait, unless bureaucracies hire enough staff to meet peak demand. And since demand in most street-level bureaucracies is to some degree unpredictable—even schools often have to hire new teachers or shuffie teacher assignments after school has started-it would be too costly to provide services so that waiting would never occur. Waiting becomes injurious and inappropriately costly only under certain conditions. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 714
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Waiting costs fall on clients, not workers, to protect worker efficiency