Monday, August 17, 2026
USPS Ethics Awareness Week begins
The organization’s annual campaign focuses on maintaining integrity
The Postal Service will begin this year’s USPS Ethics Awareness Week on Monday, Aug. 17.
The annual campaign aims to educate employees on the importance of conducting themselves with integrity and help the organization maintain its trusted reputation.
This year’s campaign will focus on the misuse of Postal Service property and time, use of USPS vehicles, the sanctity of the mail, and reporting relationships and nepotism.
In recognition of Ethics Awareness Week, Link will publish stories with ethics reminders each day during USPS Ethics Awareness Week, and the Smart Business Moments LiteBlue page also will have daily reminders.
The USPS Ethics Office will conduct an ethics training via Zoom at 3 p.m. Eastern, Thursday, Aug. 20.
Ethics tools and resources are available year-round, including the Ethics Blue page and the Ethics section of usps.com, as well as the USPS Ethics mobile app with a self-help feature.
For more information, employees can email the USPS Ethics Office or call 202-268-6346. The Ethics Office responds to questions within 24-48 hours.
Don’t throw away used batteries
Most contain hazardous materials such as lithium and lead acid
The Postal Service is reminding employees and contractors to properly dispose of used batteries, as most contain hazardous components.
This include lithium, lithium-ion and other dry cell batteries; sealed lead-acid batteries; and spent or inoperable batteries from mobile scanners, phones, laptops, emergency lighting and other electronic equipment.
These batteries should be stored in closed containers, clearly labeled, and recycled within one year through Cleanlites Recycling’s mailback or pickup services, which is available on eBuy Plus.
Alkaline batteries are not considered hazardous waste in most of the country and can be disposed of in the trash if a local recycling option is not available. The exception is California, where alkaline batteries must be treated as regulated waste.
Large batteries, such as vehicle and forklift batteries, have different requirements.
The Environmental Affairs and Corporate Sustainability Blue page has more information. Facility managers should consult with their USPS environmental specialist on state-specific universal waste regulation.
Heroes
He helped a man who was having a seizure
The customer had collapsed in his driveway on a hot day
Rural Carrier Kulbir Hundal was delivering mail in Livingston, CA, recently when he saw a customer collapse in his driveway.
The customer was having a seizure on a nearly 100-degree day.
The Postal Service employee called 911 and stayed with the man until paramedics arrived.
The Livingston postmaster later learned that Hundal had saved the life of a local bank manager’s brother.
“We didn’t know anything about the incident until I went to the bank to get change for the office,” Sucha Attwal said. “The bank manager came over to me and said one of our carriers is a hero.”
Employees featured in “Heroes” receive letters of commendation through the Postmaster General Heroes’ Program. The nomination form is available on Blue.
Week in Review
Here’s what Link covered Aug. 9-15
Informed Delivery app updates and a vigilant NJ employee made news
Users of the Postal Service’s Informed Delivery Mobile app will notice several improvements after the latest update, as Link reported last week.
Among the new features are an option for notifications, package management and a dark mode.
Link also reported on the organization’s third-quarter financial results, a new video on the results of the Postal Pulse survey and the latest “Mailin’ It” podcast, with USPS Historian Stephen Kochersperger discussing how the organization moved west as the nation did.
And we ran reminders: for drivers to be on high alert as students go back to school, on the number for employees to call for facility updates during emergencies (888-EMERGNC) and on the need to be vigilant against quishing, in which scammers use QR codes to steal data.
We also shared the story of Patrick Selfridge, an eagle-eyed retail associate in Avalon, NJ, whose hunch that something was off with hundreds of stamps turned out to be correct; and the “People” column spotlighted Markell Turner, a letter carrier in Hamtramck, MI, who took part in a Touch-a-Truck event aimed at letting community members get an up-close look at work vehicles.
Finally, “Heroes” brought you the story of Kulbir Hundal, a Livingston, CA, rural carrier who was delivering his route on a hot day when he saw a customer having a seizure in his driveway.
Hundal called 911 and stayed with the man until help arrived. Postmaster Sucha Attwal said that he only found out about the heroic action when he went to the bank to get change for the office — the ailing customer was the bank manager’s brother.
“The bank manager came over to me and said one of our carriers is a hero,” Attwal said.
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USPS Ethics Awareness Week begins
The organization’s annual campaign focuses on maintaining integrity
-
Don’t throw away used batteries
Most contain hazardous materials such as lithium and lead acid
-
Heroes
He helped a man who was having a seizure
The customer had collapsed in his driveway on a hot day
-
Week in Review
Here’s what Link covered Aug. 9-15
Informed Delivery app updates and a vigilant NJ employee made news