PUSHING THE ENVELOPE BLOG

The Postal Service has more than 624,000 employees. Most are career employees with full federal benefits, but more than 93,000 are pre‑career employees, who tend to change jobs more readily as they decide whether working at USPS is right for them. Not surprisingly, this means having a good hiring process is important to ensure postal vacancies are filled on time and new employees are prepared to succeed.

Pretend you’re an auditor at the OIG, and your team has started an audit to review an operational or financial area of the U.S. Postal Service, which generally takes 6-9 months. Suddenly, you come across an urgent issue, something that the Postal Service needs to deal with right away. It can’t wait months until the main audit report is issued. What do you do?

Tracking essential Postal Service financial information over time often means hunting through dozens of reports and other documents. We have a new tool to help. The Postal Service publishes lots of important data reports on its own Financials page and in filings to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). One key report is the Postal Service’s Form 10-K, which provides annual financial data.

Today, March 5, is National Slam the Scam Day, warning us to shut the door on fraudsters who pose as government employees to try to scam us. Have you ever received a sketchy phone call from someone saying you owe the government money? Or a strange text telling you about a Postal Service package you’re not expecting? If so, this day is for you.

Happy New Year to all our Pushing the Envelope readers! Now that 2026 has started, we want to take some time to reflect on 2025, the Postal Service’s 250th anniversary. That’s right, the Postal Service predates the Declaration of Independence!