July 18, 2009 04:31 PM UTC

Not Funny--Federal Bureaucracy Vows to Remain Humorless

• 0 Comments
• by: ClubTwitty

An article on NYTimes.com, dated yesterday:

Treasury’s Humor Is Lost on Senator

The Treasury Department was trying to bring a little levity to the workplace, but Senator Byron L. Dorgan did not find it funny.

The department’s Bureau of Public Debt scrapped plans on Friday to hire a consultant to teach managers a class on using humor in the office after Mr. Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, objected.

In a posting on the Web site of Federal Business Opportunities, the bureau sought proposals for a contractor to give two courses, each three hours long, on humor in the workplace.

On Friday, the agency issued a statement apologizing.

Those North Dakotans sure are cute, in their serious, just plain folk sorta way. But perhaps in this time of belt-tightening the Bureau of Public Debt really doesn’t need a humor consultant. (Can you imagine, if being a humor consultant, taking that contract?)

In an e-mail statement titled “Not a Laughing Matter,” Mr. Dorgan said, “Of all the agencies, the Bureau of Public Debt should know that there is very little that is funny about today’s economic conditions.”

The Senator is, in the end, probably correct here.  Which, apparently, the Bureau came to realize:

“A recent procurement request for information seeking a training consultant to aid managers has been canceled,” the agency said.

The bureau’s statement said the request “did not represent an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars, and we regret the early steps taken on this effort.”

Back to the cubicle.  And no smirking.