The Postal Service wants employees to remember the federal guidelines on exchanging gifts with co-workers.
Generally, an employee may not accept a gift from a lesser-paid employee as a way to prevent subordinate employees from trying to buy the favor of management. There are exceptions, though:
• On regularly occurring occasions, such as holidays and birthdays, an employee can give a higher-level or higher-paid employee a noncash gift valued at $10 or less.
• An employee can give an appropriate gift of any value to a higher-level or higher-paid employee for a special event such as retirement, marriage, illness, bereavement, or the birth or adoption of a child.
An employee can also give a higher-level or higher-paid employee a gift of any value if they have a personal relationship that justifies the gift, and the employee does not report to the person receiving the gift.
There are no limits on gifts given to co-workers who earn the same or less pay. Likewise, a manager is not limited when giving a gift to a subordinate even if the subordinate makes more money than the manager, but the manager should be careful to avoid the appearance of special treatment and favoritism.
If a subordinate employee makes more money than their supervisor, then the supervisor can give the subordinate employee a gift of any amount on any occasion.
More information on the rules, which were updated in 2024, is available on Blue.
Employees with questions should email the USPS Ethics Office.
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