Associates Today

Your Good Health:
Avoiding the Holiday Blues

The holiday season can be a long one, especially in our industry with all the pressures of sales deadlines, year-end goals and customer demands. If your personal life is hectic as well, you might find yourself fighting the “holiday blues” which can actually have serious ramifications on your health.

According to an article from MedicineNet, consequences of holiday stress and anxiety can include headaches, excessive drinking, overeating and insomnia. Some people are even diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), also referred to as seasonal depression.

So how do you cope with it? First, take a close look at what might be causing your stress and reflect on the factors that contributed to your holiday blues last year:
* Unrealistic expectations
* Financial pressures
* Excessive commitments
* Fatigue
* Inability to be with family and friends

Next, try to set more realistic goals and expectations for this year. Other tactics include reaching out to friends to make a plan for celebrations; sharing some of the holiday tasks with your spouse, children or other family members; finding inexpensive ways to enjoy yourself; and helping others either inside your family/friends circle or in the community.

Another general rule during winter months is to get regular exposure to bright light (such as fluorescent lights if the sun is not shining). If you are a person who routinely feels depressed, lonely, anxious or sad, you may want to seek out professional counseling or look for a formal or informal support group.

Christmas at the World’s Largest Indoor Train Display

Heidelberg Associates can get discounted tickets to take the kids to the popular EnterTrainment Junction, a huge indoor venue boating the world’s largest indoor train display. You can even meet Santa and Mrs. Claus! EnterTrainment Junction is just off I-75, 20 minutes south of Dayton and 20 minutes north of Cincinnati.

Tips from Together Credit Union:
How to Have a Safe, Credit-Friendly Holiday Shopping Season

(formerly Anheuser-Busch Credit Union)

Beware of opening store credit cards.
Don’t open a store credit card while shopping just to get an extra 10%, especially if you don’t go to that store often. Keep in mind that spending habits, new credit applied for and new credit received all impact your credit score—so it may be wise to avoid this offer.

Don’t overspend on a store credit card (if you already have one).
If you have a store credit card, it’s easy to spend more than you typically would just because you get a discount or receive points. Make sure you’ve got your budget planned out before shopping and make a promise to yourself to stick to it.

Redeem the points you already have.
If you currently have a credit card with perks or points, consider redeeming some of them as using those to purchase gifts. This is a budget-friendly way to check a few folks off your gift-giving list.

Only shop on websites you trust.
There’s a lot of unsecure websites out there. Make sure that you don’t fall victim to a scam or identity theft, and only shop online with sites that have earned your trust (and have strong, positive consumer ratings).

Create strong passwords for your online accounts.
PASSWORDISMYPASSWORD just won’t do it. (And neither will your date of birth.) Choose a complex set of lowercase and uppercase letters, plus numbers and symbols.

Remember:  Make the most out of the holidays!
Enjoy the season! Credit scores and credit security shouldn’t become a worry when you’re making smart choices. For more information on financial wellness, budgeting and useful calculators, visit our Together Credit Union website today.

Questions? Contact Teresa Evans at tevans@togethercu.org or reach our Columbus branch at 1-614-888-2299. Together Credit Union is an equal opportunity lender.

Single Sign-on is here:
At the end of November, we rolled out Okta SSO (Single Sign-On) to create a centralized session and user authentication service in which one set of login credentials can be used to access multiple applications. Detailed instructions and Q&A Fact sheet were sent to all associates via email. Keep an eye out for new websites or “chiclets” being added to your home page.

M360 Mobility:
On November 1 members of Cincinnati’s AB Sales Team moved to M360 Mobility empowering them to work effectively with the right information at the right time.

What to look for in your email from IT Support:
Single Sign-on – Continued additions of chiclets to your Okta home page.
SharePoint Training – Training from your IT Team on the use of SharePoint.
OneDrive Training – Training from your IT Team on the use of OneDrive.
Sales iPad Training – Training from your IT Team on VIP Sales Application including running reports.

Ongoing Projects:
OneDrive / SharePoint– In the upcoming months, your IT Department will be migrating your files, documents, and settings from Box to your OneDrive and SharePoint in preparation of going live with full Office 365.
Sales iPad Training – We will be offering video training for VIP’s Sales Application giving tips and tricks and information on the use of canned iDig reports.
Single Database– Early 2020, Heidelberg Dayton will be added to the Single Database environment.
WAN Upgrade– The infrastructure team will be replacing our current internet connection solution.  Benefits include cost reduction and increased IT response and resolution deployment time.

Monthly Tip & Trick

Time to change your Passwords! With the introduction to Heidelberg’s single sign-on software, Okta, now is the perfect time to change and strengthen your personal password.

Things to include for your new password:
-At least eight characters
-One or more of each of the following:
—Lower-case letter
—Upper-case letter
—Number
—Punctuation mark

Look-alike characters to protect against password glimpses, such as:
-O as in Office and the number 0
-Lower-case l, as in L and upper-case I, as in i
-The letter S and the $

Things to avoid for your new password:
-Words you can find in the dictionary
-Personal information, such as names, addresses, and birthdates
-Keyboard patterns, such as qwerty or 12345
-Common acronyms
-Repeating characters, such as hhhhh9999