Doin' the Jury Duty Shuffle
Several weeks ago I was summoned for jury duty. My original date was in the middle of May, when I was in the middle of several weeks of travel. I requested and received a brief postponement. My jury duty starts today.
Having jury duty doesn't simply mean "Go to the courthouse and wait," though. The county uses an online system where I need to check the day beforehand to see if I'm needed to appear the next day. It's similar to the system they used last time I had jury duty, nearly 10 years ago. I checked yesterday and the system said, "Check again Monday between 11-12." So I checked again just now and it said "Check again today after 5pm."
This process of checking twice a day and not knowing my schedule more than a few working hours in advance is frustrating. It's making a mess of my ability to get things done at work this week. Yes, my company provides leave for jury service. I will certainly use that when I have to report to court. But even with leave, there are things in my job that keep moving along without me. Including a presentation about one of my projects my SVP wants me to give to the entire division on Thursday. That presentation will be given on Thursday morning- with or without me. I'd like to know which to plan for!
Update: At 5pm Monday I checked and found that I'm summoned to appear for the jury pool on Tuesday morning, in downtown San Jose. If this continues going similar to my experience 10 years ago I'll spend all day Tuesday sitting in a court room, won't be called to the jury box for voir dire (it's kind of a lottery who gets picked from the pool), and will be sent home by 5pm having done nothing other than observe all day how slowly the wheels of justice turn.
Having jury duty doesn't simply mean "Go to the courthouse and wait," though. The county uses an online system where I need to check the day beforehand to see if I'm needed to appear the next day. It's similar to the system they used last time I had jury duty, nearly 10 years ago. I checked yesterday and the system said, "Check again Monday between 11-12." So I checked again just now and it said "Check again today after 5pm."
This process of checking twice a day and not knowing my schedule more than a few working hours in advance is frustrating. It's making a mess of my ability to get things done at work this week. Yes, my company provides leave for jury service. I will certainly use that when I have to report to court. But even with leave, there are things in my job that keep moving along without me. Including a presentation about one of my projects my SVP wants me to give to the entire division on Thursday. That presentation will be given on Thursday morning- with or without me. I'd like to know which to plan for!
Update: At 5pm Monday I checked and found that I'm summoned to appear for the jury pool on Tuesday morning, in downtown San Jose. If this continues going similar to my experience 10 years ago I'll spend all day Tuesday sitting in a court room, won't be called to the jury box for voir dire (it's kind of a lottery who gets picked from the pool), and will be sent home by 5pm having done nothing other than observe all day how slowly the wheels of justice turn.