Jan 30, 2019
Should I Return to Work Early After a Workplace Injury?
If you have suffered a workplace injury, your doctor might tell you to
take a specific amount of time off in order to make the best possible
recovery from injury. While might enjoy having time off at first, the
thought of returning to work could make you feel excited. However, this
could result in wanting to come back sooner than anticipated. Even though
the goal is to get back to work, you don’t want to rush the healing
process because you are bored at home.
The following are several reasons why you shouldn’t return to work
early after an on-the-job injury:
-
You could re-injure yourself – When a person’s health improves following an injury, perhaps
earlier in the timeline than expected, it is quite tempting to return
to work and better provide for your family. Yet, your doctor advised you
to take a specific amount of time off for a reason. If you decide to return
to work early, you could risk re-injury because you didn’t take
enough time to completely heal. -
You have rights to protect yourself from your employer – In some cases, employers want injured employees to return to work
earlier than expected. However, employers are prohibited from asking employees
to come back to work or make termination threats against your doctor’s
recommendations. In addition, people are afraid of losing their job to
someone else while they’re away, prompting them to return to work
sooner than expected. Remember, there are laws which provide job security
to injured workers. -
Your workers’ compensation benefits could be denied – If you return to work early, your employer or workers’ comp
insurance company could claim that you weren’t actually hurt in
the first place or your injury wasn’t as serious as you originally claimed.
At
Hansford McDaniel LLC, we understand that returning to work is your top priority. However, our
Atlanta workers’ compensation attorney recommends you not to go
back too soon, based on the reasons we mentioned above.
If you experienced issues with your worker’s comp claim in Atlanta,
contact us and request a free consultation today.