Workforce reduction follows seniority rules rather than service-impact calculations

Evidence

Again, this decruitment does not take place according to calculations of impact on service, but in response to the ethics of seniority. For example, different public agencies are typically asked to reduce their forces by a certain fixed percentage. Politicians do not want to choose between services and so establish a decision rule for work-force reduction. Street-level bureaucracies that do choose between units or services undermine the strategic implications of their choices by providing those with seniority the chance to “bump” less senior employees from their positions in sectors of the service For some enterprises reductions in personnel rolls can be cleansing but public agencies cannot take advantage of opportunities to eliminate ineffective workers. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1280

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s goal: a procedural decision rule (seniority bumping) silently substitutes for any evaluation of service quality or client need, routinizing outcomes without anyone deciding them.
• SEED: Angle: ‘The seniority rule as a moral alibi’ — how fixed-percentage cuts let politicians avoid choosing between services while quietly deciding who loses.