Employee News
Telling the stories of King County employees
King County Executive Dow Constantine, King County Council Chair Claudia Balducci, and King County Board of Health Chair Joe McDermott today submitted a plan to the state Department of Health that would allow limited and modified openings for a wide range of businesses and personal activities. The county’s application includes recommendations from King County local health officer Dr. Jeff Duchin that would: allow all outdoor recreation permitted in Phase 2 in Gov. Inslee’s Safe Start plan expand opening indoor fitness studios for one-on-one activities allow restaurants to begin opening indoor seating at 25% of normal capacity allow hair… Read More
Crossposted from Public Health Insider Face coverings help protect our community from COVID-19. Unfortunately many members of the Black community are concerned that wearing face coverings may lead to dangerous and harmful encounters with law enforcement or other community members. Racism influences perceptions of face coverings and those wearing or not wearing them. After rounds of engagement and feedback from community partners, the decision was made to roll out the face covering policy as as a directive, not an order, so as to prevent further policing of black and brown communities or perpetuate further… Read More
Salary: $30.67 – $38.88 Hourly Location: Seattle, WA Job Type: Special Duty Assignment or Term Limited Temp (TLT) Department: DPH – Public Health Job Number: 2020AB11705 Division: Prevention Closing: 6/17/2020 11:59 PM Pacific Learn more about this position or view all available positions.
Through a partnership with the Washington Library System, Career Support Services and the Administrative Professionals Committee now offer employees the opportunity to connect with the King County Library and Seattle Public Library for MOS and MTA certification exams, as well as online study guides. Employees can earn their Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) and Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) certifications from home at no cost, as well as access study guides and practice tests to help earn the certification. As a reminder, employees may also use the online learning website www.Lynda.com at no cost with their… Read More
Each Wednesday all King County email users will receive an email from authorized King County vendor KnowBe4.com about phishing scams. 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… Read More
To allow for system maintenance, the PeopleSoft system will not be available this weekend, starting today, Friday, June 5, at 3 p.m. During this planned outage, the Business Resource Center (BRC) will apply vendor updates and maintenance. This work will begin on Friday, June 5, at 3 p.m., and is scheduled to be completed by 6:30 a.m. on Monday, June 8. The system will not be available for access by any County staff during this outage window. There will be a communication sent out to all County staff when the system becomes available. We realize that this outage impacts all… Read More
During Open Enrollment last year, you may have elected a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) to have money taken from your paycheck, pretax, to pay for dependent day care or certain medical expenses not covered by your health plan. Now, your expenses may have changed due to the coronavirus pandemic, so the IRS has relaxed rules pertaining to Health Care and Dependent Day Care FSAs. These changes are effective through the end of 2020. Increase or decrease your FSA contribution If you have a Health Care or Dependent Day Care FSA, you can… Read More
On Sunday, King County Executive Dow Constantine joined King County employees and volunteers to clean up and repair damage done to County buildings and resources. Executive Constantine shared his experience on Twitter, and through this accompanying message. “I was in downtown Seattle this morning to personally thank King County employees and volunteers who are repairing our facilities that were damaged by violent opportunists who hijacked last night’s peaceful protest against racial injustice. Some of our facilities – a childcare center, a homeless shelter, a homeless day center, bus stops – had broken windows or were… Read More
To allow for system maintenance, the PeopleSoft system will not be available the weekend, June 5-7. During this planned outage, the Business Resource Center (BRC) will apply vendor updates and maintenance. This work will begin on Friday, June 5, at 3 p.m. and is scheduled to be completed by 6:30 a.m. on Monday, June 8. The system will not be available for access by any County staff during this outage window. There will be a communication sent out to all County staff when the system becomes available. We realize that this outage impacts… Read More
A common challenge faced by individuals in business is how to lead and facilitating meetings that are interesting and solicit active engagement. This two-day training covers the skills used by a facilitator to design and run an effective meeting. How to be a better participant is also discussed. Topics include specific facilitation skills, group decision making skills, and how to deal with disruptive behaviors. This webinar will be led by notable trainer and meeting facilitator Lenny Borer, who specializes in classes on communication and problem solving skills, meeting facilitation, instructor training and… Read More
Crossposted from Public Health Insider Public Health – Seattle & King County shared perspectives from our local leadership about George Floyd’s tragic death, yet one more in an endless string of violence perpetrated against Black people in our country, and answered questions about participating in protests while reducing the risk of spreading COVID-19. Story: In recent days, community members joined protests locally and across the country in response to the death of George Floyd and so many Black lives that have been taken through senseless, violent and racist acts. This racism and hate comes… Read More
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have put together a useful website to support people during the coronavirus pandemic. It includes a list of possible symptoms to watch out for, such as fever, coughing, fatigue, and shortness of breath. View the site here. The website shares how anyone can have mild to severe symptoms, but that older adults and people who have severe underlying medical conditions like heart or lung disease or diabetes seem to be at higher risk. Additional symptoms can include: Muscle or body aches Headache New loss of taste or… Read More
On Sunday, following his Friday message to County employees, Executive Constantine shared this message on Twitter with the people of King County: A message from the Exec (Preface: I’m sorry for the many people who gathered to peacefully, earnestly protest injustice – an act of civic responsibility of the highest order – only to have the day & message hijacked by violent opportunists. This isn’t about the rioters.) We all know what we saw in Minneapolis. A court will make the legal determination, but we all saw black man’s life – George… Read More
Written by Richard Gelb, Environmental Public Health Planner, Department of Public Health, ProTech17 The systems of whiteness and racism in society have been more greatly revealed through the COVID-19 emergency. We see the historic and ongoing racial differences in the quality, affordability, and access to housing, health care, jobs, education, transportation, and technology resulting in disproportionately higher risk of infections for people of color. King County’s Antiracist White Action Group (ARWAG), one of several official Employee Resource Groups, helps white employees train themselves away from harmful behaviors and become more poised to… Read More
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… Read More
Salary: $21.02 Hourly Location: Various Locations throughout King County, WA Job Type: Career Service, Full Time, 40 hrs/week Department: DPH – Public Health Job Number: 2020NH11380 Division: Emergency Medical Svcs Closing: 6/30/2020 11:59 PM Pacific Learn more about this position or view all available positions.
The PeopleSoft system is available now. Thank you for your patience!
An emergency outage of the PeopleSoft system is required this morning. The outage will last for approximately one hour. We will send a follow up notice advising when the system is available. Thank you for your patience.
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.” The state warns: Be suspicious of any emails that… Read More
Crossposted from Public Health Insider 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… Read More