Daily printout: Aug. 13

The Postal Service is holding its second Equipment Scavenger Hunt, a contest to locate and return unused computer, retail, delivery and networking equipment.

Participation is open to all employees in the chief retail and delivery officer’s organization.

The scavenger hunt started Aug. 12 and will end on Sunday, Sept. 8.

This year’s contest will have a few changes.  

• Offices will be provided guidance for properly disposing outdated furniture, broken equipment and other unwanted items.

• Participants will also be able to put their Lean Six Sigma skills to the test and complete 6S tasks — safety, sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain — and earn yellow-belt certifications for points.

• To submit entries for equipment returns or 6S tasks, facilities must complete a submission form on the recently updated RADAR platform.  

• The submission form can also be used to print prepaid return labels and disposal instructions, when applicable.

Prizes will be awarded to individuals, offices, Post Office operations manager groups and district teams, based on point totals.

During the first scavenger hunt in 2022, Postal Service facilities uncovered 13,700 pieces of unused items worth an estimated $2.57 million.

Employees with questions should email the retail and delivery technology integration team.

Letter writing is a skill many people begin learning in elementary school, but the potential threat artificial intelligence poses to putting pen to paper is now in the spotlight, thanks to a recent TV commercial.

The Google advertisement, which aired during the 2024 Summer Olympics, showed a father encouraging his daughter to use the company’s Gemini artificial intelligence feature to help her write a letter to her favorite U.S. track athlete, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.

The spot, titled “Dear Sydney,” sparked a barrage of online chatter about how learning to write a letter with one’s own thoughts and feelings rather than using artificial intelligence is crucial to develop a child’s creativity.

Google pulled the commercial after the backlash.

“AI can be a great tool for enhancing human creativity, but can never replace it,” Google wrote in a statement.

“Our goal was to create an authentic story celebrating Team USA. It showcases a real-life track enthusiast and her father, and aims to show how the Gemini app can provide a starting point, thought starter or early draft for someone looking for ideas for their writing,” the statement reads.

As more companies offer artificial intelligence to make tasks easier, the issue of individual creativity continues to be a sticking point.

“I flatly reject the future that Google is advertising,” Shelly Palmer, professor of advanced media at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, wrote in a blog post.

“I want to live in a culturally diverse world where billions of individuals use AI to amplify their human skills, not in a world where we are used by AI pretending to be human.”

In a post on the Bluesky social media app, Linda Holmes, a novelist and podcaster, said there are special circumstances where AI is helpful but asked, “Who wants an AI-written fan letter?”

“A fan letter is a great way for a kid to learn to write. If you encourage kids to run to AI to spit out words because their writing isn’t great yet, how are they supposed to learn?” she wrote.

The Postal Service is marking USPS Ethics Awareness Week by reminding employees to follow the rules on using the organization’s property.

Misusing postal property violates federal ethics rules and can result in discipline, fines, garnishment of wages and termination of employment.

Employees should never:

• Use a USPS-issued phone or work computer for an outside business or second job; partisan political activity; gambling; pyramid schemes; to send or store inappropriate pictures or email messages; or to go to inappropriate websites.

This applies whether employees are on or off duty.

• Use a Postal Service vehicle for personal trips or deviate from their route for personal reasons.

For example, employees cannot use a USPS vehicle to travel to the airport for annual leave, and they cannot use a postal vehicle to commute from home to work unless they have received authorization.

• Use a USPS travel card to pay for personal expenses. Employees should keep their postal cards in a different location from their personal cards so they don’t mix them up.

Also, employees should never use a Voyager card to put fuel in a personal vehicle or to pay for snacks, drinks or other convenience items.

Additionally, any reward points earned for using a Voyager card to purchase fuel are considered postal property.

Both the Postal Service and the USPS Office of Inspector General routinely audit Voyager card usage, and violators are regularly caught.

• Borrow money from a postal drawer, even if they intend to repay it later.

Additionally, employees should remember their USPS ID is postal property and an important security measure. They should never alter or damage the badge in any way or allow others to use it.

The Ethics Blue page covers these topics in more detail.

For more information, employees can email the Postal Service’s ethics helpline or call 202-268-6346.

In its latest episode, the “Mailin’ It!” podcast looks at the Postal Service’s efforts to modernize its delivery vehicle fleet.

Justin Glass, the organization’s fleet management director, is the guest.

The 24-minute episode, released Aug. 6, is available on Link and other postal websites, as well as most podcast platforms.