A reader writes:

I work in retail. Today, a coworker was out, which prompted my boss to go over the policy for calling out sick. She explained that employees have to call out two hours before their shift starts, which seemed reasonable. However, she also said that we shouldn’t call out more than two hours early, which seemed odd to me. Her explanation was that her phone would be off and she wouldn’t receive calls after business hours. I asked if it would be better to send a text or email the night before, so she’d still see the message in the morning. She said no, we should wait until two hours before our shift. This is because “you might not feel well at 8 or 9 at night, but you could wake up feeling fine.” After she said this, another employee echoed, “Two hours is the standard policy everywhere.”

This is my first time working for a large company as opposed to a small business, so I have to ask, is this actually a standard policy? To me, it seems patronizing to assume employees can’t figure out which illnesses will pass overnight and which ones won’t, especially if we’re talking about a fever, or something contagious. I’m not often ill, so this has never come up for me at my current job, but at my previous jobs, it was never an issue to call or text the night before. Thoughts?

No, that’s a ridiculous policy and it’s not standard.

You’re an adult. You’re capable of knowing the night before if you’re sick enough that you likely  won’t be able to go to work the next day — and there will be times when you’re sick enough that you need to sleep as long as possible without setting an alarm for two hours before your shift. If you’re up vomiting half the night, it’s not reasonable to expect you to set an alarm for a few hours later to call out sick rather than just emailing sooner.

That said, you work in retail and retail is notorious for punitive policies that are rooted in mistrust of employees and which infantilize them and make their lives as hard as possible. I suspect your coworker who claimed that two hours is the standard everywhere has only worked in similarly crappy places.

Fortunately you can schedule emails and texts in advance to send at a later specific time, which would be a reasonable response to this.