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Everyone’s work situation is different. Some people work at great places that treat them really well. Other people have employers who are nightmares. And for a lot of people the job is just a job and they don’t feel strongly about it one way or the other.
When you get hurt on the job, you can receive work comp benefits for your time off of work due to the injury. This includes when you have restrictions that your employer can’t accommodate. You get paid until they can accommodate you or your doctor returns you to work.
The exception to this is if you quit your job. When you do so, unless your doctor has you fully authorized off of work, they can usually stop paying your weekly work comp checks. That’s because they can lie and say they would have a job within your restrictions had you not quit.
Now this is often bs. We’ve seen situations where restrictions couldn’t be accommodated, a worker quit, and then miraculously the employer, through the insurance company, said a job would have existed. They know it’s a lie of course, but just saying it is usually enough for them to get away with it. That’s because it’s really hard to prove it’s not now true.
I’ve unfortunately seen a lot of workers lately hurt by this law. People get frustrated with how their employer is treating them or think they might have another opportunity. Or in one case, a worker knew they’d never feel safe returning to their job, so they just quit because they decided they’d never go back. Doing so ended up costing them over $10,000 in lost pay. The better/smarter thing to do would have been to keep the desire to not go back to themselves until they were in a situation where they had to go back such as a full duty release.
And often when you don’t want to go back, you might find that there will never be a job for you. This could be a good thing as it can greatly increase what your work comp settlement is worth. So you can get your goal of not having to go back to the job and get more money out of it in the end.
While some people will ultimately decide to quit even if it lowers the amount of benefits they receive, our #1 piece of advice is don’t do it until you talk it through with an attorney so you can make a fully educated decision that you won’t regret.
Bonus tip. If you do quit, know that isn’t the end of the case. You can still get your medical bills paid and a settlement when you are all better.
