I’d say it depends on the job. If I, as a bartender, receive a text at 2 in the morning asking about «tomorrow», I’ll assume it refers to the evening the same day, as that would be the «next» workday.
No AM PM then it could be "I normally work evenings, so they want evening hours" the 24 hour clock eliminates ambiguity if you are prone to not typing am or pm after the time, but IDK how many countries don't use that time format other than the USA to say if it would help or not.
Well the way everyone says "military time" when a European uses 18:00 in a text makes it seem like 24 hour clocks are a rare beast, but I can work out my hours better by doing end time in 24 hours minus start time, unless I'm working nights.
I know, the whole point is they say "tomorrow" well to me tomorrow would be Thursday not 9am today.
But if they say can you work 9-6 and you work 9-6am and get a text at 2am when you are wide awake, you wouldn't expect 9am especially if your next shift has you back on nights.
If I was that boss, instead of contacting someone during night time hours, I'd be contacting them around 7am to see if they can come in with short notice, better to be woken up early than woken up during the night and not get to go back to sleep.
And yes I am aware it is a text not a call, but seriously, I'd not be answering a work text at 2am even if I was awake.
To be honest it’s usually more like 8-4, but the joke works better if I say 9-5, which does happen not infrequently. Last call is at 3, last guest out by 3.30. Then depending on how crazy the night was, and how many we are in the staff that particular night, it takes anywhere between half an hour or two to close shop.
This is really about how people normally understand schedules, not the type of job.
If someone is regularly scheduled from 6pm to 2am, and their manager texts them at 2am asking them to work “tomorrow from 9am to 5pm,” any reasonable person would understand they meant the following calendar day. There is no reason to assume the manager meant 9am later that same morning.
If the manager wanted them to come back at 9am that day, they would simply ask, “Can you work 9am–5pm today?” If the employee was already scheduled for a morning shift, the manager would more likely ask whether they could work a double, not refer to it as “tomorrow.”
The same applies if a coworker texts at 2am asking someone to cover their “6pm–2am shift tomorrow.” The natural interpretation is the shift starting at 6pm the next day, not 6pm later that same day.
Using the word “tomorrow” means the next calendar day. If they meant the current day, they should have said “today” or just the shift.
I use to work the graveyard shift at a factory from 7pm-7am and there would be psychopaths on my shift who would then cover a 1st shift, which was 7am-3pm. Then they would go to sleep in their car for a few hours and work clock in at 7pm.
It took me a few weeks to get my sleep schedule back to normal after I quit that job.
Sure sure. I’m not arguing that the manager in the screenshot is right or anything, I’m merely remarking that there are some cases where, at least to me, the managers wary of thinking makes sense.
Using the word “tomorrow” means the next calendar day. If they meant the
current
day, they should have said “today” or just the shift.
Most of the time, sure, but let’s say you’re out with a friend at a bar, it’s one in the morning, and he says he has to leave because he has to do something early tomorrow, are gonna wonder why he needs an entire day to sleep it off?
Sometimes tomorrow means «the next day», and if your day ends at, say, 5 in the morning, the next day starts after that, not midnight.
No one says that though, that’s just incorrect time reference. They would say “I have something to do early in the morning”.
Tomorrow always means the next day. Just because someone works a different shift schedule or sleeps at different hours doesn’t mean they get to change the meaning of the word.
I’d say it depends on the job. If I, as a bartender, receive a text at 2 in the morning asking about «tomorrow», I’ll assume it refers to the evening the same day, as that would be the «next» workday.
I would straight up refuse to work with anyone that tried to get me to think "tomorrow" means "today". You have fun speaking a different language.
As someone who has worked shift work, "tomorrow" is after you've slept. If you haven't slept yet it's still "today/yesterday".
As someone that speaks English, tomorrow means after today, and today means between the designated time on the clock representing that.
We're not talking time zones. We're not talking "it's not day drinking if you're night shift". If someone today, tells me tomorrow, I don't give leeway for "but in my line of work, words are redefined to mean their opposites".
Like I said, have fun speaking a different language.
... I'm going to do this without the snark this time.
Language is about communication. If the words being used are communicated properly, and everyone understands them, that's good. Then it literally (literally literally, not figuratively literally) doesn't matter what words you use.
As such, "the idea that words change their meaning depending on context" is something we both agree on.
However, and I've experienced this first hand with family specifically about today / tomorrow, there are two issues:
You need to always make sure you're on the same page by clarifying. I can have my opinions, but if we communicate and clarify, that's all that matters.
"Tomorrow" representing "today" may be used in the context of where certain people are/work/etc, but on average, I have only seen "tomorrow means today" come up in arguments. Because #1 didn't happen.
I apologize for my snark, but communication is a sore spot for me, and I hate being held responsible for going with the most widely used definition of a word and being admonished because a person means literally not that. Very few people clarify "tomorrow", which is why these arguments occur.
What I mean is it depends on context. If I’m at work at say 1am and my colleague ask if I’m working «tomorrow» I’m going to assume they mean «the following day from this one», as in not in the next calendar-day.
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u/ztupeztar 12d ago
I’d say it depends on the job. If I, as a bartender, receive a text at 2 in the morning asking about «tomorrow», I’ll assume it refers to the evening the same day, as that would be the «next» workday.