My name is Susan Wozniak and I’m the administrator for the USPS Employee Assistance Program, also known as EAP.
We provide employees with access to licensed professionals for counseling, support, therapy, coaching and more.
I’ve been with the Postal Service for six years — which kind of makes me a baby here. I started in supply management for the medical team, which is responsible for handling the EAP contract. I moved from working the legal, contractual aspect of EAP to running the program itself.
A big part of the job is making sure employees have access to mental health services that allow them to perform their jobs. The Postal Service is so large. We’ve responded to earthquakes, fires — basically anything can happen in our organization. And our people need support.
There are other tragedies, too — we supported employees after recent acts of violence, for example, and I had somebody call me because her child committed suicide. “I’m struggling,” she said, and I was able to say, “Let’s get you some help.”
EAP also helps employees become the best versions of themselves they choose to be. Some people might be in counseling for stress; others might simply want coaching to lose that last 5 pounds.
I would like more people to know what we have to offer. I’ve had 40-year employees say, “I didn’t know those services were available to me.” We recently launched 30-minute online orientation sessions — they run the first Friday of every month — to help people find out more.
When I’m not working, you might find me tackling improvements in my home outside of Denver, where I live with my two pandemic rescue kittens, Lila and Ruth. You also might find me driving my Corvette — I even belong to a Corvette club.
“On the Job,” a column on individual employees and their contributions to the Postal Service, appears regularly in Link.
