If mediation is chosen, a professional mediator from outside the Postal Service is brought in within two to three weeks. The mediator provides a neutral environment in which the employee and the supervisor who are in conflict sit together at the table and discuss their dispute. The employee is permitted to have a representative at the mediation. The parties are not required to reach any resolution, and the mediator cannot impose any resolution.
Most parties do, in fact, resolve their disputes at the mediation table.
Many others withdraw, settle, or just drop their complaints shortly after the mediation. First, the Postal Service uses only outside professional neutrals as mediators. This eliminates a structural bias real or perceived that can undermine the credibility of a mediation program. Transformative mediation s emphasis on facilitative mediation, and its prohibition on the mediator taking a directive role by, for example, telling the parties what to do, provide safeguards in practice against mediator influence to obtain any particular result in mediation. Transformative mediation aims to improve communication between supervisors and employees by fostering empowerment and recognition during mediation.