Employee News - April 17, 2020

King County Employees sent this bulletin at 04/17/2020 01:44 PM PDT

A service of the King County Department of Human Resources

Supporting each other and our community

With a guiding vision of “Making King County a welcoming community where every person can thrive,” King County employees are thinking about how best to support each other and our community through this pandemic. Though we are not all on the front lines, the actions we take are critical to the success of those who are.

Balanced You supports King County employees in living the “We Are One Team” value by providing tips on how you can do what you can, where you can to support the efforts of our front line workers to contain the virus and help those in our community who are most vulnerable. Visit the Balanced You blog for more information.

Accessing leave during COVID-19

King County offers a variety of leaves to help employees support our community and take care of themselves and their families during the COVID-19 outbreak. You can learn more about available leaves for COVID-19-related issues and their eligibility criteria on this webpage. There is also more information about other types of leaves on our Benefits website.

Leave options include:

Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act
Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act
MOA with unions for Paid Administrative Leave (PAL)
COVID-19 leave

Find out more.

Reminder: Emergency childcare for first responders and essential workers

Employees who are essential workers under Governor Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order can now access free emergency child care through a King County program to help parents who are working on the front lines of the COVID-19 response.

First responders and essential workers are defined by the Governor Inslee’s March 23 Proclamation and include front-line essential medical professionals and support staff, first responders, corrections officers, transit workers, and others. Read more.

Self-care Toolkit for King County First Responders and Essential Personnel

First Responders and Essential Personnel are employees who report to work during an emergency. These employees are often under extreme stress as they adapt their work in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

To support these employees in managing stress and caring for their own-well-being, Balanced You has developed a Self-care Toolkit for First Responders and Essential Personnel. In this toolkit, which is designed to be printed or read electronically, you will find resources on:

Physical health
Burnout and secondary traumatic stress
Mental health resources and stress reduction techniques
Tips for integrating well-being into the workday

The toolkit can be downloaded at the Balanced You blog. Please help us in distributing this toolkit via email and print to King County’s First Responders and Essential Personnel.

Executive Constantine on Harborview bond measure: a generational opportunity to support region’s trauma hospital

King County Executive Dow Constantine transmitted legislation to the King County Council today that would place a capital improvement bond measure before King County voters on the November 2020 General Election ballot.

The measure seeks voter approval of $1.74 billion in general obligation bond funding over 20 years for health and safety improvements at King County’s Harborview Medical Center, including: increasing critical health care capacity; updating and expanding infection control capability; and expanding capacity for behavioral health services.

“This is our generational obligation - to ensure our region continues to be the best place in the country to receive emergency medical care. There are a lot of competing needs – this is one where we are compelled to step up. It is a priority we must not postpone and cannot ignore,” said Executive Constantine.

Benefit education videos help employees learn about their benefits

Your employee benefits package is an important part of your compensation. Learning about your benefits is essential to making informed choices about your options.

A series of short videos has been created to explain some of the complex topics by breaking them down into bite-sized pieces. Here is one focused on Understanding your health benefits to help you learn about your medical, dental, and vision plan options. Get more information and resources on the Benefits, Payroll and Retirement website.

COVID-19 update: Further Metro service reductions begin Saturday, April 18, to support essential travel and transit workforce

Crossposted from Metro Matters

As the region continues to respond to COVID-19, King County Metro will reduce weekend bus service beginning Saturday April 18, and further reduce weekday bus service starting Monday, April 20. Water Taxi and First Hill Streetcar will continue to operate on previously reduced schedules.

This revised Reduced Schedule (below) provides a core network of public transportation services to maintain access to critical supplies, services, and worksites across the region. Read more.

Report: Promising results of social distancing to slow spread of COVID-19; Health officials stress importance of continued measures

Crossposted from Public Health Insider

New research from the Institute for Disease Modeling suggests the spread of COVID-19 illness is slowing down thanks to the collective actions of residents in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, who are broadly following the “stay home” message.

Public policies on social distancing correlated with mobility reductions

Newly published findings suggest the spread of COVID-19 slowing is good news, and health officials stress that continuing social distancing guidelines is the most-effective way to continue this positive trend and avoid a resurgence of the illness. Read more.