Maybe it’s because we are in Chicago and gun crimes have been out of control here for the last year, but I’ve noticed a large uptick in calls from people who sadly were robbed at gunpoint while on the job. I can’t imagine how terrifying that must be.
Following this happening you could experience a wide range of emotions and all of them would be sensible. The most common one that we see is severe anxiety. There is a fear or nervousness of returning back to work.
We usually get these calls soon after the robbery has happened and almost everyone who calls is scared and wants to know what to do. Our advice to anyone who has had to go through this is that treating a mental stress injury is no different than treating a leg or back injury.
By that we mean you need to go to a doctor, in this case a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Just as you can’t self diagnose a herniated disc or torn rotator cuff, you can’t state that you are unable to work due to the stress of the situation. What you can do is see a doctor, let them know what happened, how you are feeling since and what the prospect of returning to work feels like.
In most cases we’ve seen, a doctor will give you time off of work and schedule therapy for you with the hopes of getting you back on the job. Assuming your injury is in fact work related, all of your medical bills will be paid by the work comp insurance and you will get compensated for the time in which you are authorized off of work.
Just like with a back or leg injury (or any other body part), the longer you let these problems go untreated, the worse they are likely to get. So for your long term health we highly recommend that you get to a doctor ASAP. It’s helpful for the case, but more importantly it’s the right thing to do for your life.
Just like with physical injuries, these cases do have settlement value at the end. The hope is that you can return to your normal job, but if you medically can not then the insurance company will have to help you find work within your restrictions.
Like any job accident, nobody goes to work expecting something bad like this to happen to them. It does happen though. You should be slightly eased by the fact that there is a strong workers’ compensation system in Illinois that can help you recover.