Survey time.

It's been a quiet week, Bank Holiday on Monday, has allowed us to catch up on some of those things lurking in the bottom of the in-tray for way too long! This week we're launching our Biennial Subscriber Satisfaction survey, we can't believe it's two years since we last asked you all what you thought. But the calendar doesn't lie and it was; so, here we go again. Follow the links from your copy, or return the questionnaire in your postal copy, to let us know how you think we're doing. As well as containing the survey this week's edition of CJS Weekly is 10 sides long with 69 new jobs, 36 of those sent direct to CJS.

Heavens above

It is a Bank Holiday weekend, the sun in shining and according to the forecast it's going to stay that way. With the forthcoming Bank Holiday postal copies of CJS will be a day late, due for delivery on Tuesday. This week's edition is 11 sides containing 68 new paid posts, 28 of which were sent direct to CJS. Well, we're off to enjoy the sunshine before the hoards arrive, one of the disadvantages of living in a beautiful (and oft filmed) area of the countryside - it's heaving on Bank Holidays (12+ coaches arriving simultaneously in a village of 400 souls!!) – still come 6pm it's 'ours' again so mustn't grumble.

A Grand Day Out

was had by all.

Despite no cattle, sheep or goats but all the usual stalls were there and the horse classes were well supported. Unfortunately we didn't win anything except a goldfish on the fair! However, the trophy given in memorial of KH dad was won by a Goathland girl, the first time it's returned to the village.

So back to work now.

CJS Office closed for the day.

Wednesday 22 August.

Is the day of our local agricultural show and all the office staff are off to the show. Due to the FMD outbreak in the south of the country there will be no cloven hoof livestock but we expect plenty of fur and feather and lots of horsey action in the show rings. Please send us an email or leave a message on the answerphone and we'll catch up with you on Thursday.

Back online...

For now! AW decided to go home, not much to do without broadband, and on route saw a BT van near where some new cables have recently been installed. She had a look at her computer and lo and behold it's back online. A quick call to the office to check on our status prompts an additional 'are you working yet?' stab at the keyboard and apparently we are too.
Right then, let's start to wade through the small heap of 'to dos'.

It's gone again...

AW phoned yesterday evening to say her internet connection had disappeared. We checked the office one - and guess what it's not working either. This is the third time in five weeks that our broadband connection has mysteriously gone awol. At least this time BT have the notes from last time and we haven't had to go through the rigmarole of line checking etc. They say we should hear from someone today, but we're not holding our breath. Anyway, here we are again back on steam driven dial up all internet and email working off a single laptop. As ever we'll carry on regardless and do our best not to let it affect CJS service to you. any and all news will be posted here to keep you up to date.

A normal week – well that's strange!

No extraordinary events, no newsworthy news – how boring!

What we do have for you is our latest Special Edition Supplement, the first to focus on training, officially published on Monday but already live, click here: http://www.countryside-jobs.com/Special_Editions/Current.htm

CJS Weekly is also printing, at just eight sides (54 job ads, 18 direct to CJS) it's a very small one this week ahead of next week's Bank Holiday. We think the last time it was this short was just before Christmas last year – ah well, that's Bank Holidays for you. Talking of holidays, just to warn you, the CJS Office will be closed on Wednesday (22/8) as it's our local agricultural show. With all the problems arising from the FMD outbreak in the south we are even more determined to support the show.

Well what a week!

CJS Monthly on Tuesday was published as normal and is fully available online and was collected by the posties as usual on Wednesday so it should be with most of you by now. BUT just as were finishing off the broadband connection disappeared (6.42pm precisely). We were tired and frazzled so it was left until morning. Wednesday morning still nothing, BT were their usual helpful selves on all three occasions when we phoned on Wednesday – turns out the whole village was out and we still don't know why. Thursday a repeat performance so a quick call to the local paper prompted a swift call from BT press office and lo and behold a couple of hours later the broadband is back! And so far that's the way it has stayed – but there are no guarantees that it will remain as BT seem unable to tell us what the exact fault was. So we wait for the next time. To add to the fun and games the electricity supply for one our homeworkers was also out on Thursday, although we did know about that one. Anyway despite all the obstacles we have managed to keep updating the website and have produced CJS Weekly as usual and it is currently printing, 11 sides containing 89 new vacancies 53 of which came to CJS direct.

We're live again.

Well, nearly 44 hours later and the computers started flashing lights at us, "we're connected to the outside world" they said in a whisper. So after hours of watching the little egg timer as dial-up slowly brought in emails and sent out web updates we're now working as fast as possible (watch those keyboards smoking) to catch up. Emails and online passwords should be sent as normal tonight but it might be tomorrow morning it depends how quickly we can chip away at the rather frighteningly huge heap of things requiring our attention.

No broadband - again

Once again BT has managed to cut our broadband but this time it's the whole of Goathland (the village in which CJS is based) that's several businesses including the Post Office all without broadband. So we're plunged back into the dark ages of dial up. Best guess is contact from BT within 24-48 hours of the original fault report...

Postal strike action latest.

News just received indicates that Royal Mail workers will be on strike next Tuesday / Wednesday, when CJS Monthly is due to be collected. This will not affect the online copy but will most likely mean that the paper copies due to you on Thursday will be delayed. We'll try to find out more next week.
Any information we do receive is posted at: http://www.countryside-jobs.com/CJS_Stuff/royal_mail.htm

It's Friday.

At last, it's been a long week and a strange one at that. Mixed post deliveries and collections means the usual publication subscriptions didn't arrive and we searched for the jobs from websites instead, all outgoing post seemed to go as normal it was just the incoming that was sporadic, today there was a small mountain. It's reported that Royal Mail has a backlog of around 10m items. R is settling in and learning the peculiarities of the CJS office and yesterday Niall came for coffee and sticky buns to meet the 'newbies' R and Hebe. Taking of whom she's doing remarkably well for an 8 (nearly 9) week old and has not disrupted office life anywhere near as much as we thought she would – but give it time….

Anyway despite all of that CJS Weekly is now being printed and should be with you as normal, RM permitting. This week's edition is 12 pages long containing 89 new paid vacancies of which 43 were sent direct to CJS.

New recruit.

The CJS Office has a new recruit. Please meet Hebe:As you can see she's small, has four feet and is canine! Already been pressed in service in the recycling department - munching empty boxes. She's a very intelligent little dog and has her own blog at: http://black-labrador.blogspot.com/
So if you hear strange noises in the background when you call us it's probably Hebe!

No post.

Post again - no post yesterday due to action further up the delivery chain. No post today because of local action. If you've sent us something and you've not got a reply by Monday please contact us - it may be lodged in the growing RM backlog.