>I had no idea that there was a sick policy

Old manager/orientation

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>But the whole point that the sick policy depends entirely on the manager when you have a central app...

Doesn't sound like it to me, sounds like the sick policy involves texting/calling the manager first, otherwise this post would be about "My manager did not follow the sick policy" instead of "I followed an old/ad hoc sick policy"

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>If my wife is KO'd I don't want to have to second-guess how to call her sick.

So you're going to login for your wife on her work app? I've worked for a few companies where that'd get your wife KO'd from a job as well. Also, apps can go down, wifis can go down. The quickest/most reliable way to contact anyone not physically in one's presence is via phone.

The lesson here is always know employment policies, especially when under new management.

"...which tells a lot about your new manager"

Or the old manager or the corporate structure of communications itself. There are a lot of people in this chain that can be/are wrong.