Call-out
In UK shift-work usage, a call-out is when someone is contacted at short notice and asked to come in to work, often outside their planned rota.
A call-out is when a worker is contacted at short notice and asked to come in and work, usually outside their planned rota or normal hours.
In UK workplaces the term usually points to the employer asking someone to attend, not the worker saying they cannot. It comes up in maintenance, care, security, transport, and other teams that need emergency or out-of-hours cover. The operational question is whether someone can get in quickly enough and whether the work really needs urgent attendance.
Different elsewhere: in US scheduling, a call-out commonly means the opposite — an employee notifying their manager that they cannot work a scheduled shift. Reading the term in the wrong market can invert who initiated the change.
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