One thing that surprises and occasionally frustrates me as an Illinois workers’ compensation attorney is when injured workers are blindly loyal to employers who treat them like absolute garbage. I get that people need to keep their jobs or don’t want to “make waves” or whatever. But I am not talking about that.

What I am talking about is employers who do things that are clearly in their interest and not the workers. Such as:

  • Trying to get you to work “just a little” off the clock instead of paying you for all actual hours worked.
  • Telling injured workers to lie to the doctor and say they were not hurt at work.
  • Promising to pay out of their own pocket for bills and lying about that.
  • Pressuring an injured worker to ignore doctor’s restrictions after an injury.

Companies like this do not care about you. They certainly are not worried that if they torpedo your work comp claim that it can have lasting damage are your physical and financial health.

The most recent gross employer behavior I saw was a Chicago area company that had a worker who hurt his back on the job while moving some heavy materials. He reported the injury, saw an orthopedic doctor and has a recommendation for surgery. He is in tremendous pain and has shooting pains going down his leg. It is hard for him to stand.

When he let his boss know what his doctor said, the boss accused him of “being in cahoots” with the doctor. He essentially implied that this worker was running a scam. Mind you that this worker has been there for almost a decade and has never filed a work comp claim in the past despite multiple injuries.

The boss sent him to a doctor friend who stated that no surgery was needed and he is fine. That doctor is not an orthopedic one and is apparently a close friend of the boss. That doctor’s opinion is in no way credible. Yet the boss is trying to gaslight his worker into thinking that the back specialist is making things up or the two of them are running a scam. In fact it is the opposite.

Despite all of this, the injured worker was hesitant to go forward. He is worried about hurting the company and making his boss mad.

As best I could, I explained how he could become permanently disabled from ever working again if he does not get the care that he needs and that hiring a work comp attorney is the only way to make that happen. I have seen workers end up crippled and homeless because they were “not the suing type” or let their boss pressure them into not pursuing a claim.

This happens at huge fortune 500 companies, small companies and everything in between. No matter where you work, you have to look out for you. A lawyer’s job is to protect you and advocate for you, but they can not care about what happens to you more than you do. There will always be another client. Another case. But you have one life and one body. And it is up to you to worry about that more than anyone.