Workplace games are nothing new. About ten years ago, there was a game called "Buzzword Bingo." You just select different words and slang phrase used at your workplace and write them in a bingo card grid. During company meetings, when that overused word was said you fill in the bingo space. One of my co-workers got a hold of that idea. Using an Excel spreadsheet, he wrote down 30 commonly overused postal words, like mail count, down time, -etc- and put them in the Excel database. His computer would randomly place the words on the 24 available bingo squares. Each card was different at those stand-up meetings. The cards were sold at 50 cents a piece and whomever got their bingo first won the pot.

 There have been several changes added to Postal Monopoly compared to classic Monopoly. The game tokens have been replaced or, as in the case of the dog token, totally removed. All dogs are dangerous says the P.O. - especially if you are a carrier. No dog spray is necessary to play Postal Momopoly. The race car token is now an LLV, the wheelbarrow is now a U-Cart . Other token changes include an Ipod, the coffee cup, New Balance sneakers and the snail token (symbolizing the station slug.)

 Because we are postal workers, the properties have been changed. Most of us have trouble owning ONE property and hope we live long enough to pay it off. If you do happen to own more than property - than God bless you. You are smarter or luckier than the rest of us. Instead of slumming on Meditteranean or Baltic Avenue or living like Donald Trump on Park Place and Boardwalk - the spaces begin with small household merchandise graduating up to major home improvements to extravagant vacations. When someone lands on your space they must buy that item from you. The railroads have been removed because I think purchasing new cars, trucks and jeeps would work better in this game than smelly diesel trains.

Everytime time you pass "Go" you must stop by the scan point and collect your fake $200 Monopoly money. Just like in the real game, you will notice that most people never land on Boardwalk or Park Place when you finally own them. Most people land on the Red or Orange properties. Quite frankly, it makes one wonder if Postal Monopoly is rigged. Perhaps that depends upon who is playing the banker in the game. Just like being in management, Monopoly requires no luck, strategy or people skills.

In classic Monopoly, the best "strategy" if there really is one is to buy all the railroads. Another strategy is to stay in jail as long as possible if you opponent has more "monopolies" than you do. That is why, on Postal Monopoly, we have removed the free parking space and have three jails in the corner spaces. Plenty of prison room just like the P.O. - but don't drop your dice! This game is not as bad as it sounds - it is all in good clean fun.

The way the game should be completed is that the winner is the one who worked the hardest and accrued the most money and assets. In test results, Postal Monopoly usually ends when a person who can't complete the route or can't complete the job will not be able to complete this game either. They will just kick the table and the board and game pieces will fly everywhere while they stomp off and pout.

Game over.