Flu season usually peaks between December and February. If your locations span more than one state or city, late October is the time to check that your sick-time policy, your call-in process and your coverage plan still hold up.
It’s a Monday in January. Two of the six people scheduled at one of your locations are out sick. One texted the general manager’s personal phone at 5:40 a.m. The other didn’t call at all. The manager is now covering the floor, and nobody is sure whether either person has sick time left or what the policy says about the one who didn’t call.
Multiply that by every location you run, and you have a normal week in flu season. Here are four things to settle before then: the rules where your locations are, your call-in process, coverage, and tracking.
A note before you start
This article is general information, not legal advice. Sick-leave rules depend on where each location is and change often. Check your local requirements with your state or city labor department or employment counsel before changing a policy.
Why late October
In the U.S., flu season usually runs through fall and winter, and activity most often peaks between December and February, according to the CDC. Across the seasons from 1982-83 through 2023-24, February was the most common peak month.
That gives you about six weeks to review the policy, brief managers and set up coverage.
The patchwork: sick-time rules depend on where each location is
There’s no single federal paid sick leave rule for private employers. What you owe depends on where each employee works, in layers.
Some states have their own paid sick leave laws. Some cities and counties add their own rules on top of the state law, or have one where the state doesn’t. As of October 9, 2026, A Better Balance’s paid sick time tracker lists 18 states plus Washington, D.C., and 17 cities and counties with paid sick time laws. Counts vary by source, depending on how broader paid leave laws are classed, so treat the tracker as your starting point and confirm with your state labor department.
Where laws exist, they tend to differ on the same handful of points:
How leave builds up, and how much an employee can earn or use in a year
Whether unused time carries over, and any cap on the balance
What the time can be used for (some laws cover the employee’s own illness and family care; a few allow any reason)
How much notice an employee has to give, and when you can ask for documentation
Whether using protected time can count against someone under an attendance policy
What records you have to keep and how employees see their balance
Laws also change, and effective dates often land mid-year. A policy that was right when you wrote it may not be right this winter.
For a 30-location operator across three states, that leaves two ways to write a sick leave policy: one per state or city, or one that meets the most generous rules you’re subject to, applied everywhere. The first costs less in leave; the second is simpler to explain and harder to get wrong. Ask your employment counsel which fits.
Policy checks to run before December
Work through this list once for the brand, then once per location.
Map each location to its rules. List every location with its state and city or county, and note which sick-leave rules apply to each. Start with the tracker, then confirm with the state or local agency.
Write the specifics down per location. How leave builds, any annual cap, carryover, and allowed uses. If a manager can’t answer “can she use it for her sick kid?” from the written policy, it needs work.
Check your documentation rule. Many laws limit when you can ask for a doctor’s note. Make sure your policy, and your managers, follow the rule for each location.
Look hard at your attendance policy. If you use points, strikes or call-out limits, check how protected sick time fits with them. Many sick-leave laws restrict counting protected time against an employee. Have counsel review how any system you use tracks call-ins.
Brief your managers. They answer the 5:40 a.m. text. Give each one a one-page summary for their location, not the whole handbook.
Get the update acknowledged. Post the revised policy where staff will see it and ask everyone to confirm they’ve read it. Our guide to the handbook acknowledgement process covers how.
Make calling in sick one simple step
What broke that January Monday was the call-in process: one text to a personal phone, one no-show, no record of either.
Set one call-in channel for every location. It should work before the shift starts, reach the manager right away and record the absence. Tell every team member what it is, in writing.
In Woven, a team member calls in from the app for a shift today or tomorrow. They can report missing the full shift, running late or leaving early, pick a reason from your company’s list and confirm against your call-in policy text before they submit. The location manager and anyone else you’ve set up are notified. If someone calls the store instead, the manager can record the absence on their behalf, so the record stays complete.
Plan coverage before the first wave
Flu spreads through a team. Plan for two or three people out at the same location in the same week, and decide now how you’ll handle it:
Name the cross-trained people for each role at each location.
Build an on-call list, and check that people on it agreed to be there.
Decide who can approve a pickup when the general manager is the one who’s sick.
Set the point where you shorten hours or pause a service instead of running a location short.
In Woven, a call-in can turn the scheduled shift into an open shift. If coverage alerts are on for that position, eligible coworkers are notified that the shift is available. Anyone who wants it volunteers, and the manager approves which volunteer works it. The homepage Who’s Working view flags today’s shifts with no clock-in after the grace window, so a no-call no-show surfaces early.
For return to work, follow the CDC’s guidance: people can go back to normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, their symptoms are getting better overall and they haven’t had a fever without using fever-reducing medicine. This isn’t medical advice.
Track balances and patterns without a spreadsheet
Employees need to know what they have left before they call in. Operators need to see patterns across locations.
Keep accrued sick-time balances in your payroll or HRIS, since that’s usually where the hours and the required records live. Use your operations tools for the day-to-day picture.
In Woven, a team member requesting time off sees a running total of days used against their allowance before they submit. Managers keep attendance records for each absence and can mark whether the shift was made up and who covered it. Call In Insights show missed shifts by location, position and day of week, with an estimated lost-revenue figure. Three locations spiking in the same week shows up as one pattern.
Tracking this across texts and a shared sheet today? Our post on tool sprawl shows what that costs.
How Woven keeps call-ins, sick days and team updates in one place
Most of what goes wrong in flu season happens between systems. The policy lives in a handbook, the call-in arrives by text, and coverage gets sorted in a group chat on someone’s personal phone. Woven keeps those steps in one system across every location:
Call-ins: a team member reports a missed shift, a late start or an early exit from the app, and the manager is notified right away.
Coverage: the shift opens up, eligible coworkers are alerted, and the manager approves which volunteer works it.
Sick days and time off: team members see days used against their allowance before they submit a request, and managers review requests in a time-off calendar.
Policy updates: send the revised sick-time policy to the positions and locations it applies to, ask staff to acknowledge it, and send a reminder to anyone who hasn’t opened it.
Day-to-day coordination: team chat and direct messages keep shift questions where managers can see them and the company keeps the record.
Before flu season peaks: what to do and when
Picture that January Monday again, with the work done ahead of time. Both absences come in through one channel before 6 a.m., a coworker who volunteered picks up the open shift, and the manager stays on the floor. Getting there takes about six weeks, in this order:
This week: map each location to its sick-leave rules and note where your current policy falls short.
By mid-November: update the policy, give each manager a one-page summary for their location, and get the update acknowledged.
Before December: set one call-in channel, name your backups and on-call list, and make sure every absence lands in one record.
Woven can take most of that list off your plate: the policy update and acknowledgements, one call-in process for every location, coverage for open shifts, and one record of every absence. The legal review and accrued balances stay with your counsel and payroll.
Frequently asked questions
Which states require paid sick leave?
It changes often. As of October 9, 2026, A Better Balance’s tracker lists 18 states plus Washington, D.C., along with 17 cities and counties. Use it as a starting point and confirm with each state’s labor department.
If my locations are in several states, which sick-leave law applies?
Generally, the rules where the employee works, including any city or county law. Employees who split time between locations raise harder questions. This is general information, not legal advice; check with employment counsel.
Can I require a doctor’s note for a sick day?
It depends on the location. Many sick-leave laws limit when you can ask for documentation. Check the rule for each place you operate before you write it into your policy.
Does sick time carry over to next year?
Under many laws, unused time carries over, often with a cap on how much. The details vary by state and city, so check your local requirements.
How should managers handle last-minute sick call-outs across locations?
Use one call-in channel for every location that reaches the manager and records the absence. Have a coverage plan ready: cross-trained staff, an on-call list, and a named backup who can approve pickups.
What should a manager do when someone comes to work sick?
Send them home and record it like any other absence, so the shift can be covered and the record stays complete. Whether that time is paid depends on your policy and the rules where the location is. For when they can come back, the CDC’s return-to-work guidance above is a clear standard to give managers.
See how Woven handles call-ins and coverage at every location. Book a demo, or explore Woven for people teams.
Flu season usually peaks between December and February. If your locations span more than one state or city, late October is the time to check that your sick-time policy, your call-in process and your coverage plan still hold up.
It’s a Monday in January. Two of the six people scheduled at one of your locations are out sick. One texted the general manager’s personal phone at 5:40 a.m. The other didn’t call at all. The manager is now covering the floor, and nobody is sure whether either person has sick time left or what the policy says about the one who didn’t call.
Multiply that by every location you run, and you have a normal week in flu season. Here are four things to settle before then: the rules where your locations are, your call-in process, coverage, and tracking.
A note before you start
This article is general information, not legal advice. Sick-leave rules depend on where each location is and change often. Check your local requirements with your state or city labor department or employment counsel before changing a policy.
Why late October
In the U.S., flu season usually runs through fall and winter, and activity most often peaks between December and February, according to the CDC. Across the seasons from 1982-83 through 2023-24, February was the most common peak month.
That gives you about six weeks to review the policy, brief managers and set up coverage.
The patchwork: sick-time rules depend on where each location is
There’s no single federal paid sick leave rule for private employers. What you owe depends on where each employee works, in layers.
Some states have their own paid sick leave laws. Some cities and counties add their own rules on top of the state law, or have one where the state doesn’t. As of October 9, 2026, A Better Balance’s paid sick time tracker lists 18 states plus Washington, D.C., and 17 cities and counties with paid sick time laws. Counts vary by source, depending on how broader paid leave laws are classed, so treat the tracker as your starting point and confirm with your state labor department.
Where laws exist, they tend to differ on the same handful of points:
How leave builds up, and how much an employee can earn or use in a year
Whether unused time carries over, and any cap on the balance
What the time can be used for (some laws cover the employee’s own illness and family care; a few allow any reason)
How much notice an employee has to give, and when you can ask for documentation
Whether using protected time can count against someone under an attendance policy
What records you have to keep and how employees see their balance
Laws also change, and effective dates often land mid-year. A policy that was right when you wrote it may not be right this winter.
For a 30-location operator across three states, that leaves two ways to write a sick leave policy: one per state or city, or one that meets the most generous rules you’re subject to, applied everywhere. The first costs less in leave; the second is simpler to explain and harder to get wrong. Ask your employment counsel which fits.
Policy checks to run before December
Work through this list once for the brand, then once per location.
Map each location to its rules. List every location with its state and city or county, and note which sick-leave rules apply to each. Start with the tracker, then confirm with the state or local agency.
Write the specifics down per location. How leave builds, any annual cap, carryover, and allowed uses. If a manager can’t answer “can she use it for her sick kid?” from the written policy, it needs work.
Check your documentation rule. Many laws limit when you can ask for a doctor’s note. Make sure your policy, and your managers, follow the rule for each location.
Look hard at your attendance policy. If you use points, strikes or call-out limits, check how protected sick time fits with them. Many sick-leave laws restrict counting protected time against an employee. Have counsel review how any system you use tracks call-ins.
Brief your managers. They answer the 5:40 a.m. text. Give each one a one-page summary for their location, not the whole handbook.
Get the update acknowledged. Post the revised policy where staff will see it and ask everyone to confirm they’ve read it. Our guide to the handbook acknowledgement process covers how.
Make calling in sick one simple step
What broke that January Monday was the call-in process: one text to a personal phone, one no-show, no record of either.
Set one call-in channel for every location. It should work before the shift starts, reach the manager right away and record the absence. Tell every team member what it is, in writing.
In Woven, a team member calls in from the app for a shift today or tomorrow. They can report missing the full shift, running late or leaving early, pick a reason from your company’s list and confirm against your call-in policy text before they submit. The location manager and anyone else you’ve set up are notified. If someone calls the store instead, the manager can record the absence on their behalf, so the record stays complete.
Plan coverage before the first wave
Flu spreads through a team. Plan for two or three people out at the same location in the same week, and decide now how you’ll handle it:
Name the cross-trained people for each role at each location.
Build an on-call list, and check that people on it agreed to be there.
Decide who can approve a pickup when the general manager is the one who’s sick.
Set the point where you shorten hours or pause a service instead of running a location short.
In Woven, a call-in can turn the scheduled shift into an open shift. If coverage alerts are on for that position, eligible coworkers are notified that the shift is available. Anyone who wants it volunteers, and the manager approves which volunteer works it. The homepage Who’s Working view flags today’s shifts with no clock-in after the grace window, so a no-call no-show surfaces early.
For return to work, follow the CDC’s guidance: people can go back to normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, their symptoms are getting better overall and they haven’t had a fever without using fever-reducing medicine. This isn’t medical advice.
Track balances and patterns without a spreadsheet
Employees need to know what they have left before they call in. Operators need to see patterns across locations.
Keep accrued sick-time balances in your payroll or HRIS, since that’s usually where the hours and the required records live. Use your operations tools for the day-to-day picture.
In Woven, a team member requesting time off sees a running total of days used against their allowance before they submit. Managers keep attendance records for each absence and can mark whether the shift was made up and who covered it. Call In Insights show missed shifts by location, position and day of week, with an estimated lost-revenue figure. Three locations spiking in the same week shows up as one pattern.
Tracking this across texts and a shared sheet today? Our post on tool sprawl shows what that costs.
How Woven keeps call-ins, sick days and team updates in one place
Most of what goes wrong in flu season happens between systems. The policy lives in a handbook, the call-in arrives by text, and coverage gets sorted in a group chat on someone’s personal phone. Woven keeps those steps in one system across every location:
Call-ins: a team member reports a missed shift, a late start or an early exit from the app, and the manager is notified right away.
Coverage: the shift opens up, eligible coworkers are alerted, and the manager approves which volunteer works it.
Sick days and time off: team members see days used against their allowance before they submit a request, and managers review requests in a time-off calendar.
Policy updates: send the revised sick-time policy to the positions and locations it applies to, ask staff to acknowledge it, and send a reminder to anyone who hasn’t opened it.
Day-to-day coordination: team chat and direct messages keep shift questions where managers can see them and the company keeps the record.
Before flu season peaks: what to do and when
Picture that January Monday again, with the work done ahead of time. Both absences come in through one channel before 6 a.m., a coworker who volunteered picks up the open shift, and the manager stays on the floor. Getting there takes about six weeks, in this order:
This week: map each location to its sick-leave rules and note where your current policy falls short.
By mid-November: update the policy, give each manager a one-page summary for their location, and get the update acknowledged.
Before December: set one call-in channel, name your backups and on-call list, and make sure every absence lands in one record.
Woven can take most of that list off your plate: the policy update and acknowledgements, one call-in process for every location, coverage for open shifts, and one record of every absence. The legal review and accrued balances stay with your counsel and payroll.
Frequently asked questions
Which states require paid sick leave?
It changes often. As of October 9, 2026, A Better Balance’s tracker lists 18 states plus Washington, D.C., along with 17 cities and counties. Use it as a starting point and confirm with each state’s labor department.
If my locations are in several states, which sick-leave law applies?
Generally, the rules where the employee works, including any city or county law. Employees who split time between locations raise harder questions. This is general information, not legal advice; check with employment counsel.
Can I require a doctor’s note for a sick day?
It depends on the location. Many sick-leave laws limit when you can ask for documentation. Check the rule for each place you operate before you write it into your policy.
Does sick time carry over to next year?
Under many laws, unused time carries over, often with a cap on how much. The details vary by state and city, so check your local requirements.
How should managers handle last-minute sick call-outs across locations?
Use one call-in channel for every location that reaches the manager and records the absence. Have a coverage plan ready: cross-trained staff, an on-call list, and a named backup who can approve pickups.
What should a manager do when someone comes to work sick?
Send them home and record it like any other absence, so the shift can be covered and the record stays complete. Whether that time is paid depends on your policy and the rules where the location is. For when they can come back, the CDC’s return-to-work guidance above is a clear standard to give managers.
See how Woven handles call-ins and coverage at every location. Book a demo, or explore Woven for people teams.
