I know you are British by birth and Australian by residence, and that you may nbot be entirely familiar with the laws of the United States, but when I tell you that I have to show up in Conroe for jury duty on Monday, I am not fucking kidding, and no, I can’t get out of it just to suit your whim. Specifically, I cannot:
a) tell them I’m offshore and can’t show up
b) tell them I can’t make it because I have to man your booth at the fucking job fair
c) tell them I didn’t get enough notice to change my work plans
d) simply ignore the summons, because “in Australia, you can just tell them to piss off, and that’s that”.
Furthermore, after I E-mailed you this morning explaining the situation, I particularly do not appreciate your declaring loudly in front of the other people in the office “What’s this about you having to show up for a court date or something?” It’s not a fucking court date, you utter knob, it’s fucking JURY DUTY.
I have explained the situation three times and offered to show you the summons so that you could read the requirements for yourself, and you declined to do so. So kindly stop bugging me about it. 8 AM Monday, I’ll be at the courthouse in Conroe whether you like it or not, so piss off and that’s that.
Go to jury duty and explain it to the judge. He will be more than willing to “educate” your boss. If your boss tries to screw you for it, let the judge know that too.
If it works like it does here, you probably won’t have to go anyway. Here they give you a number then have you call some recording the night before your jury duty to see if your number is in the range that’s selected. I think I’ve been summoned three times in the past 6 years and my number has never been one selected.
I wish confusion about jury duty was restricted to those not born in the U.S. Unfortunately, my former boss (US born and never left the country–something he was quite proud of) was equally confused. He once advised me just to ignore my jury duty summons. In his expert opinion, the courts were too busy to track down people who didn’t show up for jury duty. (I hate smilies, but I’m really damned tempted to use the rolleyes one here).
Sorry your boss is such a pig about it. Do you have an HR department or anyone above your boss you can let know about the jury duty? They should fill him in on the fact that he has to allow you to serve.
El Kabong, I just wanted to say way to go for being conscientious about jury duty. Too many people try to get out of their civic duty for frivolous reasons. I’m glad we have citizens like you.
Ha. I’m the local HR department. If he doesn’t believe me, I don’t know who he’d believe on this.
The problem here is that the company I work for is French, most of the management staff are expats and no one here except the local controller has much of a clue about US law. I’ve normally gotten on OK with the guy who’s giving me grief, but he does have quite the penchant for shooting off his mouth without thinking. If he keeps harassing me about this, I’ll sit him down and calmly explain to him that in my view he is attempting to coerce me into breaking the law, and I choose to think he is smart enough to understand the implications of that statement. If not, well, I’ll probably try to get the company’s legal counsel to explain what’s what to him.
The same situation happened at the plant where I worked, to a guy I know. His boss told him he could go to jury duty, but he had to come in to work on third shift. The juror told the judge about it, and the boss was fined for contempt of court.
My former boss, right around the time she was about to fire me, was harassing my co-worker about jury duty. She was making a big deal about how it was inconvenient and he was costing her money and this just wasn’t acceptable. She told him she “really couldn’t afford to give him more than one day off”, so he’d better do whatever he needed to do to get out of it. He came to me for advice, and I told him to be completely honest and tell the judge exactly what she said. It would tickle me pink if she got in trouble.
I have to report on Valentine’s Day, unless my number is exempt. I am sort of looking forward to going since I’ve never before been summoned. I have been getting a little bit of flack about it, but nothing like being coerced into breaking the law. The OP’s boss needs a little bit of education.
I sat on a trial jury last month. Between appearing, screening, selection, testimony, deliberation, and verdict I was only out of work for two days. Unless you get some bizarro media-frenzy circumstantial murder case, most jurys are done within a few days or a week.
So in short, your boss is a wanker and I’m glad you’re blowing him off.
Oooh! Oooh! Ask your boss for a note to give the judge, and tell him to list all the reasons he has given you why you can’t go on jury duty. Then give it to the judge. If your boss is the brass-plated mallethead he sounds like, I bet he will actually do it.
Same here. Plus the judge will be more than happy to rip you a shiny new asshole when the deputies haul your carcass up before him or her. He or she will do this in front of the entire courtroom just for added fun.
I got to see that once. Made a whole week of jury duty worthwhile watching that judge perform.