Just got called for 5 weeks of grand jury service in April. Anyone had this happen? Managed someone who has had this happen? How do I avoid getting fired?

(I know it is "illegal to fire someone for jury duty")

Grand jury service for an ad award show? You’ll be judging and working.

You should be fully protected by the law in this case.

I served on a grand jury a few years ago in New York.

A few things:

- a grand jury is much different than a criminal or civil trial jury. You hear evidence for many cases from the DA’s office, and you vote on whether there is enough for an indictment. Each one is very short. When I did it, we heard almost 40 cases over 4 weeks.

- They select a large pool (for me I think it was 21 ppl) and only 12 had to be present and vote for any given indictment. This allows for people who have a planned trip, or even up out sick or whatever. I had a planned trip for 3 days of the time, and they said that was fine, I could just miss those days.

- because of the above, there is not a typically jury selection process - there was no real opportunity to defer / get out of it. By my guess 95% of the people who were called in were put on a jury.

- your company will have a policy for jury duty. You should be paid as if it were PTO, but this does not use PTO days. Make sure to check this with HR/employee handbook obviously, but for me there was no limit to how long you’d be paid for, it was however long the trial/service lasted. You will be able to get paperwork verifying the length of service for this purpose.

- I was able to do work in between cases and on lunch breaks, and several days ended early. I still needed coverage to keep major work streams moving and for client meetings, I’d guess I was able to work 2-3 hours /day so that I didn’t fall too far behind.

I’m very pro jury and feel like more smart and capable people should be on juries rather than try to get out of it. It is on your manager and employer to ensure your work is covered while you are out. It is protected by the law if you are selected. If you are selected, set clear boundaries - you will have gaps where you can check in. I havent been selected but have worked with people that have and they put on their OOO and have simply not have been available.

Let HR know that you have received the call for jury duty and you will delay it due to workload. That way when you run out of possible deferrals, they can't say they didn't know...

If it helps, I’ve never heard of someone getting fired for serving for jury duty and I’ve been in the industry for 20 years. It’s mandated by law and illegal to fire someone for it. If you’re a civics nerd you’ll be into it, for others it’s a drag. But that’s how our justice system works. A jury is a hell of a lot better than some wizard of oz behind a curtain making life or death decisions.

I served on a 3 week criminal trial, so I couldn’t have my phone when we were in the court room. Meaning I couldn’t work for 3 weeks. I tried answering emails after work and on weekends, but I missed so much during the day that it wasn’t useful. The time flies by, the team adjusts without you and it’s fine. You don’t have a choice, and your team should understand that.

My friends that have done grand jury have all done it remote and only done half days so they were able to work just fine. Their teams were flexible and understanding.

I wouldn’t stress too much about it. You should probably get a new job if you are that worried about getting fired.

Even if you fall behind and can’t catch up, then get let go, you are standing on a pile of money from a giant lawsuit. Congrats.

this happened to me last year….you can’t get out of it once you’re selected but your agency can’t fire you because of it. I was still able to do some work during lunch breaks and when I was dismissed early though

I had grand jury duty for 13 weeks. Your company cannot fire you if you are selected. I doubt they would even try as it’s established that jury duty is a covered absence. You will need to turnover your tiny jury duty payment to your company if your company paid your days. My company paid. Of course, that was under IPG. I don’t know about other companies/holding companies.

I got called for grand jury and said I was unavailable bc of work. Luckily once they went through the process (explaining about vacations etc like AD1 wrote), they had enough for the pool and I was excused. So that possibility exists as well. It does make me sad though bc like McCann1 said it would be great if more smart and capable folks were on juries.

During the initial interview, tell them that you have family commitments and can’t do it, they will likely excuse you. They call-in and interview may people and select a few. I did it and it was so boring.

I'm currently in a similar situation but criminal case. Been on a jury since the beginning of the year. Look into the laws, but if you work a few hours a week, as a salary worker they have to pay you. At least that's in CA. HR tried to dock my pay but once I politely reminded them of the law, they backed off.

Getting out is simple. You should’ve never let them select you from the initial 2 day selection pool in the first place.

How do you know five weeks until you get picked for a case?

My friend who worked at Digitas had this happen to her and it was a really long trial. For some reason I think she worked (when she wasn't in court) and it was really tough and stressful. So make sure you have clear boundaries.