The Callback Log Memo
The office manager of a 12-person clinic sends this note: "Effective Monday, all patient callbacks must be logged before the end of the same business day. Staff working off-site may log callbacks the following morning. Last month 38% of callbacks were logged late. Almost all late entries came from the two front-desk staff, who never leave the building." A receptionist replies, "So the problem is the front desk, not the policy." The clinic director is not convinced and asks for a careful reading of both the memo and the reply before the rule takes effect on Monday. Two of the twelve staff work off-site two days a week; the remaining ten, including both front-desk staff, work only in the building.
1. Identify the unstated assumption the receptionist's reply depends on, and explain why it is an assumption rather than a fact stated in the memo.
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Assumption: the front-desk staff handle roughly their fair share of callbacks, so a concentration of late entries there reflects their behaviour rather than their workload.
Why it is an assumption: the memo reports only where late entries came from, not how many callbacks each group handles. Raw counts of late entries say nothing about lateness rates until you divide by volume. If the two front-desk staff handle, say, 60% of all callbacks, a 38% overall lateness figure concentrated among them could be entirely normal.
Second hidden assumption: that off-site staff were not late. The memo says most late entries came from the front desk, which quietly implies some did not - the reply drops that group entirely.
2. Name the single piece of data that would most weaken the receptionist's conclusion, and explain how you would use it.
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Data to request: callbacks handled per person (or per group) last month, so lateness can be converted from counts into rates.
How to use it: compute late callbacks ÷ callbacks handled for (a) the two front-desk staff and (b) everyone else.
- If front desk = 40 late out of 400 (10%) and everyone else = 30 late out of 120 (25%), the reply collapses - the front desk is the better group.
- If front desk = 60 late out of 100 (60%) and others = 4 late out of 260 (1.5%), the reply is essentially correct.
Without the denominator, the 38% figure cannot be attributed to any group.
3. Rewrite the memo's second sentence so that "off-site" and "the following morning" are unambiguous.
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Sample rewrite: "Staff scheduled to work off-site that day may log their callbacks any time before 10:00 a.m. on the next business day. 'Off-site' means any day on which the staff member is not scheduled to work in the building. If the next business day is a clinic holiday, the deadline moves to the following business day. All other staff must log callbacks before 5:00 p.m. on the day of the call."
What the fix adds:
- A named population (scheduled off-site that day) rather than a vague status.
- A clock time, not just "morning."
- A rule for holidays and weekends.
- A default deadline for everyone else, so no group is left without one.