So much work...so little time...
A very common complaint among Illinois workers is that they’re swamped with work, and there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get it all done.
But is the stress of the heavy workload enough to entitle you to workers’ compensation benefits to cover your physical or emotional injury caused by the workplace stress?
Not necessarily, unless there is something more that distinguishes your work stress from the stress most everyone experiences in trying to get a job done on time.
A woman doing clerical work for a hospital recently tried to bring such a claim for workers’ compensation benefits (note, this is a recently published case in a workers’ compensation law journal, not a claim we handled). She suffered from an increase in gastrointestinal issues and anxiety, that she believed was caused by her stress at work. There was simply too much work to do, and not enough time to get it done. Her claim for benefits was that the mental stress of her employment caused both a physical and a mental injury. Both these claims were denied.
To qualify for workers’ compensation benefits for a physical injury caused by workplace stress, you would have to be able to show that your situation was different than the stress that people experience generally. What kind of mental stress do your job duties put you under, that makes your situation a true workplace injury?
For the clerical worker there was no real distinction. Generally, people have deadlines to meet, and they feel pressure to meet them. But she didn’t claim any kind of unusual or unique deadlines, and she didn’t claim that she was disciplined for not getting her work done on time.
The clerical worker also tried to claim that her workplaces stress caused a mental injury in addition to her physical injury. But again, she could not make a case for her stress being out of the realm of the stress of the general public.
If you’re claiming that your job stress caused you a mental injury, then you would need to be able to point to some stressful situation in your workplace that was so much greater than the typical workday stress and tension that many workers experience. You should be able to show some severe, emotional event that happened primarily because of your job.
The classic example used to prove a case is a worker who had nightmares after seeing a co-worker get crushed by a machine. If something like that happens to you, you may very well have a claim.
We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys. Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.
