Yesterday evening I stopped at Boston Market to get something to eat. The woman who was waiting on me had her hand and arm wrapped in an ace bandage and she looked to be in considerable pain. Turns out she'd fallen through the ceiling at work that morning. I asked if she gone to the doctor, she looked at me..."No, I have to work." Really puts things in perspective. I hope things work out for her.
Posted by Mickey at December 14, 2004 6:43 PMFell through the ceiling at work???!! The perspective I would have on this is that if her employer is not letting her off to seek treatment for a work-related injury, said employer is setting himself up for a whole heap of legal trouble.
Posted by: Mark on December 16, 2004 7:31 PMWhat Mark said.
Posted by: Ith on December 17, 2004 12:41 PMI felt very sorry for this woman. She looked around before she answered me when I asked if she'd gone to the Doctor. I think she was afraid to lose her job. Sure, a lawsuit might be a fine thing, but it doesn't pay the bills while your waiting for it to be settled and you've been fired from your job for unrelated reasons. (right) And yes, don't get me wrong, that was my first thought too, but then I realized that without any type of cushion, she'd never be able to get through.
Posted by: Annmarie on December 17, 2004 12:53 PMWhy would she lose her job? In CA it's practically illegal not to report a workplace accident. Here, she'd report it, workman's comp would pay her doctor's bills and she'd get disability if she couldn't work for awhile. I even have to fill out accident reports for our employees who I'm aware hurt themselves, even if they don't want to go to the doctor.
Posted by: Ith on December 18, 2004 3:41 PMNaturally I don't know the whole story, but I wonder if she didn't want to be a complainer? She's working in a fast food store, Boston Market to be exact. Is it possible that she felt that if she complained that yes, they would take care of what they needed to take care of, but in the long run, it wouldn't be worth it for her because they might see her as a "whiner" after that? And if it's anything like my job, you always run the risk of the investigator deeming your injury as not work related and we don't have disability. We can opt to sign up for Aflac. With my job, they will pay everything and you'll get your paycheck if your hurt ion the job, but they take your birthday off away from you if they think it was preventable and if they feel that it wasn't worked related and you used sick time before they could get you in to see *their* doctor, they don't give you the time back, they tell you to see them, which everyone does, but really, how silly. One of the guys fell in the parking lot at work when he was walking out to his car, it was a nightmare for him. He almost lost his house because the township doctor said he could return to work and he didn't feel he could and his own doctor apprentlt felt he couldn't etc etc, it was a mess.
Anyway, yes, I could see a minimum wage employee being afraid to rock the boat.