Damn this is hard to get past the paralysis of what this personally means for our family -

[MoonchildCA]

6. Well, it has been 10 years since she worked there, so maybe they have changed the policy.

Also, it could have been regional. She did have a questionable district manager, who I think was let go a year or two later.
She knew most of the employees in our area, as they often covered shifts at different stores. Another difficult thing they had to deal with is if they had to call in sick, they had a list of all the employees in the area and had to call around to cover their own shift.
I remember once, my daughter was so sick, she could barely get out of bed, and she had to call around forever before she found someone. That was really stressful.

I'm glad to hear things have improved. She sought out the job after high school, because she had heard they were a good company to work for.