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I am currently on the job hunt and about a month or so ago I got a summons for jury duty in my city. It is scheduled for 4/15/24. Today I received an email about a potential position. The woman called and while conducting the interview she said that the training for the position begins 4/8 and asked if I had anything that might interfere with me starting the position. I mentioned that I have jury duty on the 15 and that pretty much ended the interview. She asked me if I could possibly reschedule jury duty but in my knowledge there's not too many reason you can give to reschedule jury duty. It either takes an act of God or military service short of being in the hospital with some terminal illness.
Is it wrong to think that if a company is seriously interested in hiring you they could make some concessions about jury duty. It wasn't like I told then I had booked a 7 day cruise or had to go to my best friend's gender reveal across the country. This is jury duty.
Is there a possibility I could call the clerk of courts and explain to them that I am currently unemployed and that jury duty possibly cost me a job? Maybe they could reschedule it. However, that could mean that if this company does hire me they would have to allow me the time off later for jury duty, with pay?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I have had mixed luck with asking for a reschedule. In the municipal court I told them I was a business owner and could not be away from the shop and they let me off. It's up to that court and judge, no real rule of thumb. When I got the summons to superior court, same request, denied. It's certainly worth a try in your case, but if you don't get this job, you may run into the same problem again with a future interview.
Since in most places the courts pay you some money for jury duty, it's up to the employer, mine does give me the time off with pay but not all do.
Did you make it clear this was just the call for jury service and not jury duty as in sitting on a panel?
When asked by the potential employer, let them know you will attempt to get it rescheduled but often they require a formal offer letter in order to consider it a hardship cases.
Yeah, had it been the other way around, say I got hired THEN I got a summons for jury duty the job would have to let me go and pay me for the time away. In this situation the summons came first and that is now hindering me from being considered for this and possibly other positions.
Did you make it clear this was just the call for jury service and not jury duty as in sitting on a panel?
When asked by the potential employer, let them know you will attempt to get it rescheduled but often they require a formal offer letter in order to consider it a hardship cases.
Yes, I made it clear I would not be able to reschedule jury duty. And even if I was already seated on a jury, with this being a "potential" position she probably still would have pulled my application not wanting to give me the time off. Jury duty may only take a day if I'm not selected for an actual jury, but jury service means I've been seated and the trial could go several days. I seriously doubt they aren't going to hire me knowing I may be away a few days if they won't even consider me if I'm only going to be gone maybe 1 day.
They may have set training schedules and many places do not allow for missing training when you first start a job. If you missed 1 out of 5 days of training it could hurt you in the long run.
The OP does not mention the state of residence -- where I have lived the state or local government allows a lot of leeway when requesting jury duty service.
In Connecticut, the first notice mentions that the jury appearance (which may or may not lead to an empaneled jury) can be rescheduled for any reason at least twice in the coming 12-month period. Other New England states have similar rules.
It's unfairly restrictive to require a citizen to be somewhere at a given day and time, considering all of the long-lead-time obligations going on in many people's lives. Nowadays it takes weeks just to get a car servicing scheduled, not to mention medical scheduling, long-distance travel, and of course work deadlines.
Location: IN>Germany>ND>OH>TX>CA>Currently NoVa and a Vacation Lake House in PA
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In Virginia, my wife asked for jury duty to be rescheduled for a planned vacation. They had an automated system that took care of it for her with no questions asked.
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