kikipeepers asked

Should the United States Postal Service stop spending so much money on making their employees a little less psychotic?

WASHINGTON — They bark like a pack of dogs, quack like a flock of ducks and hiss like a nest of vipers. They wrap each other from head to toe in toilet paper and aluminium foil and pipe cleaners. They build sandcastles and gingerbread houses and practice picking up oranges while blindfolded. These are the professional auditors and investigators who police the United States Postal Service. The mission of the USPS Office of Inspector General is to make the mail more efficient and cost-effective by rooting out waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement. Yet hundreds of IG staffers have been taking part in bizarre bonding and team-building exercises and playing goofy games that burn up millions of dollars — and appear to do little or nothing to curb postal inefficiencies. As stamp prices and postal deficits soared over the past few years, the agency's well-paid, highly trained employees got a lesson in scat singing, took an outing to a racetrack — and delved into the history of the Civil War during a $100,000 retreat to the battlefield at Gettysburg. On USPS time, they've composed Christmas carols, belted out 'We Are Family' at sing-alongs, conducted mock trials in which witnesses were paraded before a judge and jury — and played children's games like follow the leader. Under the supervision of Postal Inspector General Karla Corcoran, civil servants have been paid to emit animal sounds, embark on treasure hunts, dress in cat costumes and seek the counsel of make-believe wizards, magicians and mad scientists at mass gatherings of the workforce. They've been jetting into the capital from 15 field offices around the nation for 'annual recognition conferences' that celebrate the organization and its values. The tab for the last three confabs: $3.6 million, including planning and salary costs. Who foots the bill for these shenanigans? You do. Every penny of the IG's $117 million annual budget comes from the stamp-buying public...

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