Balanced You continues to partner with Mindfulness Northwest to offer free mindfulness classes and workshops to King County employees. Browse through the new spring 2023 mindfulness schedule to see new topics and register for a class. All classes are held live on Zoom. Mindfulness is a practice that can help you quiet your mind, find focus, and reduce some of the stress many of us experience. We have classes available for all employees that will teach techniques such as mindful movement, mindful relationships, and more.

From the Sheriff’s Newsletter On March 15, the King County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue and the Air Support Unit flew a rescue mission to Snow Lake, northwest of the Alpental Ski Area. The reported person in distress was vomiting, dehydrated, could not walk out on their own, and was a member of a 10-person back country ski group. As crewmembers gathered at the hangar in Renton, the necessary snow gear was loaded into the rescue helicopter and the crew briefed on the mission at hand. The rescue crew launched and reached… Read More

All King County employees get paid on a biweekly basis, every-other-Thursday, resulting in 26 pay periods per year. You usually receive two paychecks per month; however, March 30 will be the third payday of the month. The net dollar amount of these “third” paychecks may be larger because not all deductions are taken out. For example, Deferred Compensation, supplemental insurance premiums, Benefit Access Fees, and Employee Giving donations are not deducted from these checks. For more information about your paycheck, go to Payroll or speak with your department Payroll representative or timekeeper.

To allow for system maintenance, the PeopleSoft system will not be available starting on Friday, March 24 at 3 p.m. and is scheduled to be back online by 6:30 a.m. on Monday, March 27. During this planned outage, the Business Resource Center (BRC) will apply vendor updates and maintenance. 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. This outage impacts all PeopleSoft users. Your understanding and support is appreciated.

The course is searchable through NEOGOV Learn course catalog under “Career Support Services: Strategic Interviewing Skills” or you can enroll here. Several major updates have been made to the training content to prepare you for questions you may face from a King County interview panel. Even if you have taken this training before, there are a handful of new strategies, tips and techniques that will enhance your interviewing skills. Questions? Please email careersupportservices@kingcounty.gov.

Traditionally, large public projects are designed under one contract, and built under another. By the time construction crews start the work, design meets reality – often in the form of costly unexpected change orders to the project and delays. The Wastewater Treatment Division has project needs so critical it can’t afford such uncertainties. So, King County submitted the case for an alternative method of project delivery called “progressive design build.” This contracting method brings designers and builders to the same table at the early stages of project development. Read more.