Between returning to work, light duty accommodations, disability payments , and changing careers, the price nature of your job matters a great deal after a work injury.
A variety of factors go into what your life will look like after a work injury. While your St. Louis workers compensation attorney will be aware of them, it is a smart idea to obtain some basic knowledge on your own. One of those elements is the precise nature of your job. Here’s why.
Your Ability to Return to Work
One of the primary factors that affects your lifestyle and compensation after an injury is how long it takes you to go back to work. The two elements that make up that amount of time are the severity of your injury and the nature of your job. To show you how they interact, let’s go through two examples.
- A worker in the logging industry breaks his leg badly when he falls out of a tree. No matter how long he takes to recover, he may not be able to do his job again, as it is very physically demanding.
- An employee who works in an office breaks his leg when falling off a ladder. Because his work is not physically demanding, he will likely be able to come back in just a few weeks.
As you can see, these two employees will have vastly different experiences because their jobs are so different. One of the primary aspects of this effect is that the second person can likely return to work quickly, while the first likely cannot.
Light Duty Accommodations
One thing companies frequently do for injured workers is bring them back on light duty work. What this usually means is that employees hold a new position where their day to day tasks are less demanding. A typical example is someone in the manufacturing industry moving from the floor to the office. Unfortunately, some businesses do not have light duty positions.
Disability
One form of compensation that you might get after a work injury is disability payments. The amount you’ll receive is not standardized, though. Instead, it depends on what you did at your old job and how well you were paid for it. In general, your benefits should be high if you cannot work your former position, and lower if you still can in some capacity.
Changing Careers
Lastly, we have a lifestyle issue. If you cannot return to your job, you may want to break into another profession. Doing so is no easy task, though, and you may have to seek further education and training. This path forward is one you will likely look into if you suffer a severe injury.
Between returning to work, light duty accommodations, disability payments, and changing careers, the price nature of your job matters a great deal after a work injury. There is one thing that is static in every one of these cases, though. It is the importance of consulting with a St. Louis work injury attorney. Doing so is one of the best ways to raise your chances of a favorable result, so it is definitely worth your time. Give us a call 24/7 at (314) 361-4300 for a FREE Case Evaluation.