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Staying at home makes a difference - Thank you
Front line health care providers, essential workers, and many King County employees have been working to slow the spread of COVID-19. Thanks for doing your part.
Recognizing Metro operators for their dedication and commitment
The Seattle Times recently highlighted how the public is saluting Metro operators with bubbles and joy in an article from their Stepping Up series, which focuses on “moments of compassion, duty and community in uncertain times.”
The article shares how residents prepare for the next bus to drive by to show their appreciation. “Then the self-proclaimed ‘Bubble Brigade’ hooted and hollered, waved signs of support and blew kisses and bubbles at the lumbering yellow and blue buses that rolled by and occasionally reciprocated the sidewalk salute with two loud horn honks.”
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Mental Health Month week four: Supporting others
For the last week of Mental Health Month, Balanced You is focusing on the topic “supporting others.” Widening our view from self-care to collective care by supporting others’ mental health is important, especially during the ongoing pandemic, which has increased stress for so many.
While you may not be able to fix someone’s mental well-being, there are simple things you can say or do to help people in your life who are struggling. Actions such as practicing active listening by giving your complete attention to the person talking, asking how you can help, not judging, and knowing when to call for more help can have a big impact on someone going through a tough time.
Furthermore, when you offer help to someone struggling with their mental health, you’ll also improve your health, as social connection and doing for others are closely linked to overall well-being and a stronger ability to bounce back from stressful situations. Visit the Balanced You blog for tips on how to start a conversation with someone you believe is struggling, and what you can do to support them.
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Supporting each other and our community during COVID-19
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.
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Interactive webinar series for managers and supervisors, June 3
The Learning and Development Team within the Department of Human Resources is offering a live, interactive webinar series for managers and supervisors entitled Leading Remotely in Times of Uncertainty. The next webinar in this series, Staying Steady for Yourself and Your Team, will be held Wednesday, June 3.
This webinar will focus on how being a leader is a tough job during the best of times. In order to effectively lead a team, it is helpful to use self-care skills that can enable leaders to stay steady during the COVID-19 response- and beyond. By the end of this session, participants will be able to describe the importance of self-care as a leader, identify ways to support their team, and customize a plan of action to take back to their team.
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“Supporting our Kids through the Pandemic with Connection and Collective Care” webinar, June 10
During the recent Balanced You webinar “A Conversation on Self-care and Connection,” we heard from employees that one of your top concerns is how the pandemic is impacting your kids. Because you asked for help supporting your kids through this, we reached out to one of the area’s top parent coaches, Sarina Behar Natkin, to coordinate a webinar and Q&A session for King County employees.
The webinar will be held Wednesday, June 10 from 12:30 – 2 p.m. Register here.
The session will be recorded and posted for those who cannot attend the live event. Attendees will learn how to support their children and take care of themselves to build resilience and increase connection in the home. Following the presentation, attendees will also be able to get their top parenting questions answered. For questions or more information, contact Balancedyou@kingcounty.gov. Read more.
Pictured: Featured speaker and parent coach Sarina Behar Natkin
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Public Health publishes new COVID-19 key indicators dashboard
Our latest dashboard, Key Indicators of COVID-19 Activity in King County, Washington, provides a snapshot of several useful indicators, or metrics, related to COVID-19 activity in our community and the impact on our health and our hospitals. We talked to Dr. Jeff Duchin, Health Officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County to learn more about what these indicators mean.
Why are these indicators useful?
JD: The key indicators provide an overview of how we are doing in several important areas: disease activity, testing (specifically, PCR testing), and healthcare system status. The information indicated by these key metrics along with other data and recommendations are provided by Public Health to policy makers when they make decisions about whether current activity restrictions, recommendations and precautions to prevent COVID-19 are adequate, need to be strengthened or might be carefully relaxed. Read more.
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Phishing attempts around unemployment claims
State cybersecurity experts report recent phishing attempts that use official-looking messages allegedly from the state Employment Security Department to try and acquire employee account credentials. To the left is an example. Click here to view it larger.
As the state Office of Cybersecurity says: “Phishing emails are increasingly sophisticated and hard to detect. They may appear to be from people or organizations you know and trust. They may even contain information from previous emails threads so that it appears to be part of a continuing conversation.”
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Be suspicious of any emails that urge you to take action and try to create a sense of urgency.
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Never click on links or open attachments until you have verified the email is legitimate.
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Call the sender by looking up their phone number independently.
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Never call a phone number included in a suspicious email or reply to the sender.
Thank you for your help and cooperation. For help with security questions, technical issues or problems, contact the KCIT Helpdesk or call 206-263-4357 (3-HELP).
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Tech Tip: Intentional email from KCIT vendor KnowBe4 featured security tips for phishing scams
On Wednesday, May 27, 2020, all King County email users received the first email from authorized King County vendor KnowBe4.com about phishing scams, titled “KnowBe4 Security Tips - Social Engineering Red Flags #1: Sender.”
King County Information Technology (KCIT) has partnered with KnowBe4.com to regularly provide information and training to employees about phishing scams and other email red flags. KnowBe4.com is a leading industry expert in security awareness training. Its mission is to help employees to make smarter security decisions, every day, and keep the County’s and employees’ information secure.
Employees are encouraged to read through the helpful information in each email and review the security tips presented. For this first email, the tips include analyzing who and where the email came from. Employees can also rest assured the email comes from a verified source, and is not spam, as it does not feature the external email notice, seen below.
For questions or more information, contact the KCIT Helpdesk or call 206-263-4357 (3-HELP).
Featured Job: Paramedic Intern
Location: Various Locations throughout King County, WA
Job Type: Career Service, Full Time, 40 hrs/week
Department: DPH - Public Health
Division: Emergency Medical Svcs
Closing: 6/30/2020 11:59 PM Pacific
KC Headlines
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