You may think that attempting to recover from a work-related injury on your own is the right thing to do. You may believe that your employer will appreciate you efforts to remain on the job and try to heal before pursuing workers’ compensation benefits. But waiting to report a work-related-injury may cause complications in terms of your physical health and your workers’ compensation benefits.

Drawbacks of Working With an Injury

Anyone will tell you that it’s a bad idea to aggravate an injury or illness by denying it rest. Unfortunately, rest doesn’t pay the bills. Therefore, many employees tend to outweigh their need for rest with their need to put food on the table. Additionally, some employees worry that if they take too much time off, they will lose their jobs.

However, continuing to work after an injury or during an illness can cause more problems than it will solve. Yes, you may secure your weekly paychecks, but for how long? Continuing to work while injured can:

  • Increase the risk of further injury. No matter what type of injury you have, failing to take care of yourself can make it worse. Furthermore, when you are in pain and not functioning at 100 percent, you run the risk of making mistakes and causing additional accidents that can lead to further injuries.
  • Imply that your injury isn’t severe. When you attempt to work after sustaining an on-the-job injury, you’re basically showing that you can do your job while hurt. If you can do your job while injured, the injury must not be that severe. And if your injury isn’t severe, why would you need workers’ compensation benefits?
  • Make it difficult to prove that your injury happened at work. Continuing to work when injured can make it difficult to pinpoint exactly when and how the injury occurred. As such, your employer can argue that it didn’t occur at work. That is why it is important to file an injury report immediately after your workplace accident in order to establish a timeline.

For more information on how to pursue a successful workers’ compensation claim, contact our office today at (386) 673-4412 to schedule your free consultation! We have over 25 years of experience helping injured employees get the workers’ compensation benefits they need, and we look forward to speaking with you about your specific situation.

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