With regard to your concern that error rates and absenteeism are rising among the clerical support staff in our law firm, perhaps the problem lies in part with the design of their jobs. It may be that redesigning the work load could increase motivation and satisfaction. In reviewing the procedures you sent me, I see that their tasks are quite specialized. One worker enters data into standard forms, another types documents, another makes corrections to previously entered work, and so on. I also note that typically the clericals have no direct contact with the attorneys in the firm, presumably to insulate them from conflicts with the attorneys. You should know, however, that because the attorneys don't know which individuals are doing their work, they tend to criticize all the members of your department as a whole. M. Callahan has suggested the following changes to the clerical staffs' jobs: Blank 1 Question 5 Clerical staff should work for only 2 attorneys so they would have two-way communication and will develop a better understanding of how well they are doing. Blank 2 Question 5 They should do all of the required changes to a piece of work instead of having multiple clericals working on a single task. Blank 3 Question 5 They should decide by themselves the priority of assignments and schedule their time efficiently. Blank 4 Question 5 We should have a meeting with all the clericals to discuss why their role is so important for our law firm. Blank 5 Question 5 We should get them doing more than just creating documents. Some lawyers have mentioned the benefit of having clericals take on some assistant duties.