Workplace injuries are all too common in America, with millions of incidents being reported each and every year. But what kind of injury is worth reporting? Major injuries should obviously be treated with seriousness and respect, and your employer will likely know as soon as it happens. But what about more minor injuries that don’t pose any immediate cause for alarm? Is it worth informing your employer, and does it matter in the grand scheme of things? No matter the type of injury you suffer, you should report it and make a written record, and today we will discuss why.
Minor Injuries Becoming Major – The Risks
Everyone has their own definition of a minor injury, and some injuries are, in fact, too insignificant to require formalizing them into a written report. If your job in an office involves paper and you get a tiny paper cut once in a blue moon, you are probably best keeping your employer out of it. However, this thinking shouldn’t mean that you should attempt to minimize or downplay injuries on the job; if you feel the injury is worth mentioning for any reason or think it may impact you or your job, report the details immediately.
Minor injuries have the potential to balloon into major issues down the line, and documenting the incident provides the needed proof of the event occurring in the course of your job. The most common type of injuries that might first seem minor but can become dangerous are head bumps, joint/back pain, and cuts/bruises/scrapes. Hitting your head never feels great, but you might think your job does not need to know if the pain subsides in a few minutes. However, when the pain comes back in a few days’ time and you bring it up with your employer, they have no reason or incentive to believe your story that it happened while on the clock.
Injuries that develop as a direct result of your job duties might also exacerbate over time if nothing is done to remedy the situation. This is common with repetitive tasks that might put a minor strain on your nerves or joints at first before manifesting into severe pain.
Reporting the same day as the injury isn’t essential to receiving eventual workers’ comp or similar compensation, but it does help the process along should it come to that step. In Florida, you generally have a 30-day window to report injuries for workers’ compensation. If a severe condition or injury truly did manifest from an initial minor pain and you plan to file for workers’ compensation, your employer should begrudgingly also be glad that you filed an initial claim. Workers’ compensation laws provide a clear avenue for businesses to pay out to injured employees that do not involve unexpectedly high fees and cash payouts.
In all likelihood, unexpected events that cause minor aches and pains will not become huge deals, but the risk-reward benefit is squarely in the camp of ‘report your injury.’ For a few minutes of your time and a small amount of paperwork, you can turn a complicated and messy process of lawyers battling it out into a simple claim process to receive your money.
If you suffered an injury during the workday and did not make an initial claim but now have significant symptoms or pain, contact both a medical care provider and a personal injury law firm like Probinsky & Cole. We will be happy to discuss your legal options and determine if you should pursue workers’ compensation or legal action.
