Bailar, a graduate of the Harvard Business School with an extensive background in finance and management, attempted to place the postal service on a strong economic footing.
His major responsibility as United States Postmaster General was to ensure that the semi-independent government corporation could support itself on revenues from mail users.
One significant cost was labor, and Bailar is probably best known for negotiating a last moment contract which avoided a strike by unionized postal employees in 1975.
In 1987, he accepted appointment as dean and professor of the Jesse H. Jones School of Business Administration at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Bailar was appointed to the USPS' Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee in December 2006 by former postmaster general John E. “Jack” Potter.