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.
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