Government Workers Take Break From Regulating to Carve Jack-o’-Lanterns

• October 12, 2014

NASHVILLE—Halloween is fast approaching. And at the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, officials want to boost morale by teaching workers to carve jack-o’-lanterns.

Why are employees of a taxpayer-subsidized agency worrying themselves with pumpkins?

Agency spokesman Eric Ward said Michael’s Arts and Crafts employees are offering the free demonstration to agency employees during lunch breaks.

“These are fun activities intended to build camaraderie among employees,” Ward said. “I hope that you would consider the fact that employee engagement and workplace culture are common ingredients to productive and efficient workplaces.”

The agency’s Office of Talent Management, which is supposed to help employees with team development, recruitment and professional goals, is helping with the demonstration, Ward said.

Ward would not answer specific questions as to how many employees this particular branch of the Department of Environment and Conservation has or how much money taxpayers allocate to it every year.

Earlier this year, sources inside the TDEC suggesting management received negative feedback on an employee happiness survey, but agency officials downplayed those concerns. The agency would not disclose results of the employee survey measuring whether employees were glad to go to work.

Justin Owen, president of the free-market Beacon Center of Tennessee, said TDEC plays one of the biggest roles of any state agency in regulating the state’s businesses.

“If its employees have so much free time to socialize and play on the Internet, the department should be shrunk, and taxpayer money returned to our pockets,” Owen said. “Tennessee businesses should not have to face unnecessary hurdles just so bureaucrats can justify their positions.”

Read more at Watchdog.org.

Chris Butler | Contributor

Chris Butler is a reporter for Watchdog.org, a national network of investigative reporters covering waste, fraud and abuse in government. Watchdog.org is a project of the nonprofit Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity.

Follow on X Watchdogorg

Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE

Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.

The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.

In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.
You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.

GET MY FREE EBOOK