Man up there insisted he needed to lift his truck to avoid "bottoming out" in "two foot snow drifts" so that he can get to work. Let's break that down. A "lifted" truck is one that has been modified to increase the height of the undercarriage over the ground. In the US, this is often done in one-inch increments. Four inches is about as much as you'd lift a Jeep Wrangler without getting crazy. That's roughly the depth he's talking about. A 'knee boot' that would fit you would be about two feet high, and if you were wearing it, two feet would be about the top of the boot. If you had to walk through snow that deep, you might have some trouble. But if you only had to walk through a "drift" that deep, probably not, since the surrounding snow would not be that deep. Next is ground clearance, also called ride height, which is the vertical distance between a flat surface a vehicle is on and the lowest-hanging part of the vehicle that is not intended to contact the ground.

Man up there insisted he needed to lift his truck to avoid "bottoming out" in "two foot snow drifts" so that he can get to work. Let's break that down. A "lifted" truck is one that has been modified to increase the height of the undercarriage over the ground. In the US, this is often done in one-inch increments. Four inches is about as much as you'd lift a Jeep Wrangler without getting crazy. That's roughly the depth he's talking about. A 'knee boot' that would fit you would be about two feet high, and if you were wearing it, two feet would be about the top of the boot. If you had to walk through snow that deep, you might have some trouble. But if you only had to walk through a "drift" that deep, probably not, since the surrounding snow would not be that deep. Next is ground clearance, also called ride height, which is the vertical distance between a flat surface a vehicle is on and the lowest-hanging part of the vehicle that is not intended to contact the ground.

US regulators usually measure this in mm, but truck salesmen will often give clearance in inches, because most US consumers understand that better. They are usually referring to the distance between the bottom of the differential case and a flat surface the vehicle would be parked on. Clearance is a compromise between the desire to get the vehicle's centre of gravity as low as possible for stability and safety, while not threatening the physical vehicle, since bottoming out causes damage. It's bad for the vehicle to bottom out, obviously. But "bottoming out" has nothing to do with snow depth, so I don't know why Mr. Man brings it up. It doesn't hurt a vehicle to drag through snow, and you can't "bottom out" on it, even if it's dense and slushy like he (later) said. Most passenger cars like a Honda Civic can bull their way through several inches of snow -- sloppily and slowly, but capably -- as long as they've got good all--season tires, and even better if they've got snow tires. It's not ideal, but if you had to do it, you definitely could.

And a car like that can also blast through "two foot snow drifts", as long as they're already in motion and the prevailing depth of surrounding snow is not more than, say, 6-8 inches. My old stock (unlifted) Jeep Wranger could go through three feet of snow (prevailing depth, not "drifts") from a dead stop -- not well, but it could do it. So I really have no idea what Mr. Man is going on about. Finally, we have the "get to work" part of his dramatic narrative. While labour laws in the US are definitely employer-friendly in most places (and we've all had to deal with that in various ways), there are still limits to that. Exemptions typically apply only to certain persons and roles, such as emergency services. If you're uncertain if you might be exempt, then you're not. Someone would have told you. If that person was your boss at the Quik-E-Mart, they're full of shit; you would have some kind of official notice of exemption, and you'd definitely know for sure.

If you're not exempt (and the vast majority of people are not), and your boss tells you you "have" to come in, they are breaking the law. And if you try to comply, you will be breaking the law, too. And if you refuse to come in, and your boss decides to discipline you for it (including termination), they're breaking more laws. You will not only easily win at the Labor Board, but they will get in trouble with regulators. Maybe it's because of my background in legal assistance, but I've had no problem standing up to those demands, and never been disciplined for it. Far too many of my fellow Muricans are fully conditioned to just roll over when bosses bark at them. I have often told my bosses that I won't risk my life to come in, and nothing's ever come of it. Very few jobs are worth your life.

As a general rule of thumb, if your job does not involve something literally essential to human life and safety, you should stay off the roads and stay home in any conditions of serious concern -- major snowstorms included. Now, if Mr. Man was the kind of person who's actually exempt from driving bans, he would know that clearly, and would also know that it's unusual, and would have clearly stated that up front. But he didn't. He instead made some mumbly noises about working for NRC (the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a US regulatory agency that oversees the civilian nuclear power industry). That may or may not be true. But NRC are not nuclear operators. They're nuclear regulators. Their job does not involve the safe operation of nuclear facilities, only the regulatory oversight of the industry that operates such facilities. NRC inspectors do personally visit those facilities, but they're only there to look at stuff. They don't run the plants. It's a paperwork job, mostly. It's important, but it's not like being an EMT. It's more like being a restaurant inspector. If they can't show up today, tomorrow or next week is just as good. It's not the kind of job that anyone needs to get to right away, never mind in life-threatening conditions. When you put all that together, it's pretty obvious that Mr. Man is full of shit. You don't have to know a whole lot to figure that out. All you really have to do is just take a few seconds to stop and think about what he said. At best, he's making excuses for jacking up his truck so he can feel more manly. At worst, he's just making it all up. But all of it being true is an extremely remote possibility.