The Call Out

There’s a moment every fast casual operator knows too well. It’s early—too early—and the phone vibrates on the nightstand. You don’t need to look. You already know. Someone’s calling out.

Someone has been arrested. Someone’s car won’t start. Someone’s “just not feeling right.” The callout. Two syllables that can throw an entire service into chaos.

In fast casual, where margins are tight and the line moves whether you’re ready or not, a callout can feel like a betrayal. You start counting bodies in your head. Who can come in early? Who owes you a favor? How many tickets can the kitchen absorb before the wheels come off?

But here’s the thing we forget, especially if we came up the hard way: restaurants are human systems before they are operational ones. Flesh and blood. Coughs and fevers. Burnout and bad nights. You can’t policy your way out of humanity—but you can meet it with structure, clarity, and a little grace.

That’s what this is really about.

The Romance of Showing Up—and the Reality of Not

We love the mythology of the kitchen lifer. The cook who dragged himself in with a head cold. The cashier who worked a double with a busted ankle. There’s romance in that, sure. Nostalgia, too. But nostalgia is a liar. It leaves out the foodborne illness, the resentment, the quiet spreading of sickness from one station to the next.

In 2025, we know better. Or at least we should.

An employee calling out sick is not a moral failure. It’s a fact of life. The question for owners and operators isn’t how do we stop callouts, but how do we manage them without poisoning our culture—or our guests?

Do You Need a Doctor’s Note?

Short answer: no. Long answer: absolutely not.

Requiring a doctor’s note sounds reasonable on paper. In practice, it’s punitive, outdated, and disconnected from reality. Many hourly workers don’t have easy access to healthcare. Forcing them to sit in an urgent care waiting room just to justify a stomach bug helps no one—and often costs them money they can’t spare.

More importantly, it signals distrust.

A better approach is this: trust first, document always. If callouts become patterned—always Fridays, always before a holiday—you address the pattern, not the illness. A note doesn’t tell you whether someone is reliable. Their history does.

The Policy: Clear, Simple, Humane

If your callout policy can’t be explained in two minutes during onboarding, it’s too complicated.

Here’s a framework that works.

1. Define what a callout is.
A callout is notifying management that you cannot work a scheduled shift, with as much notice as possible. “As much notice as possible” matters. Encourage early communication. Reward it culturally, even if the absence still counts.

2. Set reasonable limits.
For full-time employees, a common and fair standard is:

• 6 callouts per year, excluding protected leave
• No more than 2 in a rolling 60-day period

For part-time staff:

• 3–4 per year, adjusted for schedule volume

This isn’t about punishment. It’s about predictability. When everyone knows the line, it stops feeling personal.

3. Separate sick from sorry.
Sick callouts are different from no-shows or last-minute personal cancellations. A no-show—no call, no text, no smoke signal—is a different animal entirely and should be treated as such.

4. Progressive accountability.
First excess callout: conversation.
Second: documented warning.
Third: final warning or schedule reduction.

Not because you’re cruel—but because consistency is kindness.

Is It Paid?

If you can afford to offer paid sick time, do it. Full stop.

Paid sick leave reduces callouts caused by desperation, not illness. It keeps sick employees at home, where they belong. It protects your guests and your team. And yes, it builds loyalty—the kind you can’t fake with slogans on the wall.

A practical model for fast casual:

• 1 hour of paid sick time accrued for every 30 hours worked
• Cap at 40 hours per year
• Unused hours don’t need to be paid out, but rolling over a portion builds trust

If paid sick leave isn’t feasible yet, be honest about it—and flexible where you can. Let people swap shifts. Let them make up hours. Don’t force them to choose between rent and responsibility.

Per Month? Per Year?

Think in years, manage in months.

Annual limits give breathing room. Monthly patterns give insight. Someone who calls out once every few months is living a life. Someone calling out twice a month needs a conversation—not a courtroom.

And those conversations matter. Pull them aside. Sit down. Ask what’s going on. You’ll be surprised how often the issue isn’t laziness, but burnout, scheduling conflicts, or something quietly falling apart.

The Tone Comes From the Top

You can have the best policy in the world, and it won’t matter if your managers roll their eyes when the phone rings.

How leadership reacts to callouts defines your culture faster than any handbook. If managers shame employees for being sick, they’ll come in sick. If managers treat every absence like a personal attack, resentment will rot the place from the inside.

Train your leaders to respond calmly. “Thanks for letting me know. Feel better. We’ll handle it.” That’s it. Handle the policy later. In private. With respect.

The Long View

Restaurants have always been places of controlled chaos. We adapt. We improvise. We make it work. But the best operators—the ones who last—understand that endurance comes from systems, not heroics.

A fair call out policy doesn’t make you soft. It makes you serious.

It says: we expect you to show up, and we understand when you can’t. It says: we’re running a business, not a guilt factory. It says: we remember what it was like to be on the other side of the line.

Because one day, maybe sooner than you think, you’ll be the one staring at the ceiling at dawn, phone in hand, hoping for a little mercy.

Build your policy like you’d want it built for you.

Are your employees abusing your call out policy? If they are, we can help!

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