.
Workplace Injuries:
Should You Inform Your Employer?
It’s best not to keep quiet about them.
Workplace Injuries? Yes, they happen all the time.
.
We like to think that we’ll have typical, uneventful days at work. Well, when I say uneventful, I don’t mean dull or boring. What I do mean is having working days free from accidents and potential injuries. The sad truth is that isn’t always the case for some people.
.
Each year, thousands of us sustain workplace injuries. In many cases, the injuries occur through negligence on the employer’s part.
.
If you ever get injured at work, should you keep quiet about it? The short answer is no.
.
Here’s the long one:
.
Your employer might not even know about a safety issue!
.
Sure, you got injured by doing something. But, that doesn’t mean other people haven’t at your workplace. And they might have sustained injuries from doing similar tasks.
.
In those cases, it’s obvious there is a health and safety issue present. What’s shocking in many examples is the employer doesn’t know about it. Why? Because of fear.
.
Employees can be scared to report problems for fear of losing their jobs. Especially if they are new to the company. True, employers should be doing regular risk assessments. But, in reality, that seldom happens.
.
Telling your boss you got injured doing something will highlight a problem with the way a task gets done. Or the equipment used to complete that task, for example. The onus is on the employer to remedy that problem to prevent repeat accidents in the future.
.
.
You May Need Financial Help to Recover from Workplace Injuries
.
Some people don’t get help for the injuries they sustain at work. When that happens, those workplace injuries could get worse over time.
.
To properly recover, it’s important to get the right medical help. Usually, this means taking time off work to get back to normal health.
.
Telling your boss that you got injured at work is the first step to recovery.
.
To have any medical expenses and time off work covered, you may need to hire an injury lawyer. Otherwise, your employer could cover both your medical bills and your loss of earnings.
.
You can help to remove workplace bullies
Sometimes, supervisors or managers might bully staff into saying nothing about their workplace injuries. Again, the reasons might be down to fear of losing their jobs. As you can imagine, that always creates a toxic working environment..
.
The supervisor’s managers might not know about the bullying tactics they use. The only way to address such problems is to acknowledge they exist. You should consider they might be using those tactics on other workers – not just you.
.
By flagging up the workplace injuries you’ve sustained, you are highlighting a problem. If your line manager is bullying you, your firm is more likely to discipline or remove them than ignore you. Especially if they wish to avoid getting sued!
.
.
Final thoughts
Don’t suffer from the pain from your workplace injuries in silence. Especially if there’s a chance the injury could happen again due to employer negligence.
.
You should also not fear getting fired because of it. Workplace injuries are very common. The law is there to protect employees from such issues.
. .
.
.
.
.
.