Attention! Iowa’s Workers’ Compensation laws changed July 1, 2017. This article’s information may be out of date. Visit our Workers’ Compensation Page for more information.
Have you considered the consequences of what would happen if you quit your job after a work related injury? If you were hurt on the job, it’s easy to become frustrated with your employer as a result of the situation. Maybe they were negligent and could have prevented what happened to you.
While the severity of a work related injury can vary, so too can your reason for wanting to quit your job or retire. Let’s consider what would happen for a waiter in a restaurant who has a shoulder injury, although this scenario could be applicable to many different fields and positions:
Steve is carrying a tray of food to a party of 5 during an unusually busy Tuesday lunch shift. At 11:45 he put on his brand new black loafers so he could break them in for a few hours during what is usually a slower time of the week. As he’s garnishing the last plate to bring out to his table, a bus boy mops up a small spill right outside the kitchen door. Steve normally doesn’t carry trays of food out, but today is different. Just as he walks outside the door, he slips and falls. Steve hurts his shoulder in the fall, making it very difficult to use his right arm. Steve never liked how his current place of work was managed.
Maybe if they would have staffed the place appropriately, a food runner would have been carrying out trays of food instead of himself and Nicki the hostess, who’s usually too busy texting her boyfriend. He wants to quit, but should he? Chances are that if he quits his job and begins working somewhere else where his injury is aggravated, his old employer or their insurance company will argue that this is an entirely new injury and that they are not responsible.
If you want to know what you should do in this situation, please give us a call or download our workers compensation guide to learn more.
