[Infowarrior] - Treasury cuts ‘Humor in the Workplace’ job opening

[Richard Forno]

Treasury Dept. cuts ‘Humor in the Workplace’ job opening

Share on Facebook
By David Edwards and Stephen Webster

Published: July 17, 2009

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/17/treasury-dept-cuts-humor-in-the-workplace/

U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) on Friday morning called on the  
Treasury Department to axe a job opening seeking an applicant who can  
“create cartoons on the spot” in order to introduce “humor in the  
workplace.”
The move was seemingly in reaction to a link carried by right-wing  
news aggregator Matt Drudge who followed the Say Anything blog which  
picked up on the job opening in a Thursday post. The position was also  
the subject of a Fox News segment on Friday morning.

The job posting, offered on FedBizOpps.gov, called for the selected  
candidate to give “two, 3-hour, Humor in the Workplace programs that  
will discuss the power of humor in the workplace, the close  
relationship between humor and stress, and why humor is one of the  
most important ways that we communicate in business and office life.”

“Participants shall experience demonstrations of cartoons being  
created on the spot,” it continued.

“Several conservatives on Capitol Hill found it highly amusing that  
the Bureau of the Public Debt found it necessary to resort to humor in  
order to ease the stress of management meetings at a time when the  
federal deficit is ballooning,” noted The Hill.

“Of all the agencies, the Bureau of Public Debt should know that there  
is very little that is funny about today’s economic conditions,”  
Dorgan said, according to the Washington, D.C. publication. “I  
understand the need for motivation in the workplace, but I think we  
have a greater motivation to save the taxpayers some money.”

Buy 9:58 a.m. eastern standard time, the Bureau of Public Debt  
“determined that it no longer has a need for this requirement.”

Fox News host Steve Doocy jokingly asked, “[Vice President] Joe Biden  
says a lot of funny stuff. Would he be available to do this job?”

Clayton Morris, who called the job posting “absurd,” added that Biden  
may need a second job.

“Why not go over?” asked Doocy. “The Treasury Department is right next  
door to the White House!”

On FedBizOpps.gov, one anonymous user posting under the name “A- 
pimphand” jeered, “STOP WASTING TAXPAYER MONEY AND INFLATING THE  
CURRENCY. Obama wanted $787,000,000,000 for THIS?!”

“Every contractor on this list should be ashamed to be fleecing the  
American taxpayer with this worthless contract,” “A-pimphand”  
continued. “Hard working people are being forced to give the  
government the sweat of their brow…to fund this joke on the taxpayer.  
Every single one of you should be fired.”

“I’m all for laughter, and if any group of people need to learn how to  
laugh it’s federal bureaucrats, but even so,” noted Say Anything  
blogger Rob. “Is it appropriate - especially now in the midst of a  
national fiscal disaster - for the taxpayers to be footing the bill  
for laughter lessons?”

“What’s next?” asked Michael Roston at True/Slant. “FEMA will put out  
a requisition for sketch comedy as a means of disaster preparedness?

“Then again,” he added, “given the skillful way that President Bush  
dealt with Hurricane Katrina, you might think they’ve already done  
that.”