Uncertain About Your Future After A Workplace Injury?

If you are a breadwinner or adult with any financial responsibilities, there is almost no higher level of concern than being uncertain about your future, especially when you’ve been injured in the workplace. Sometimes, the concern can be crushing and feel almost as bad as the injury you’ve experienced.

On occasion, an employer will not agree with the extent of your injuries. And, sometimes, an employer will not accept that you’ve been injured in the first place and will not work with you in the filing process for workers’ compensation. If this should occur, your next step is to contact the PA workers’ compensation lawyer who can best represent you in such as case. In the following, we’ll discuss how to remove your concerns about the future with strategies that succeed.

5 Action Steps to Remove Your Concerns for the Future

Let’s first dig into the concerns for your future and that of those who depend on you. If you have a spouse, partner, children, or an animal who depends on you to provide financially for living needs, you are naturally going to be concerned if you are unable to work due to a workplace injury. You will be equally concerned if you are injured in the workplace with a resulting injury that hampers or inhibits your ability to work as you did before the injury occurred. What can be done to address these concerns about your future? We suggest the following 5 Action Steps to relieve these concerns.

Action Step 1:  Focus on the Immediate.

File your initial claim right away. Doing this removes the concern that maybe your memory isn’t clear about the circumstances that led up to the injury, or that perhaps you don’t remember the incident as clearly as you could’ve weeks ago. In Pennsylvania, you have 21 days to file your claim with your employer. If you haven’t filed within 120 days of being injured, you won’t receive compensation. Having said this, there are exclusions and limitations to the law, but an attorney will be the best resource for understanding when to file and what you may be eligible for if you haven’t filed already.

Thoroughly review and follow the instructions when filing a workers’ compensation claim. This sounds easy enough, but when you’ve been injured and may be experiencing continuous pain from that injury, filling out forms and following through on complex instructions can be very difficult. Enlist the help of a partner or friend to make sure you go through all the required steps to correctly file an on-time claim.

By focusing on this action step, part of your concerns about the future will dissolve because you already know you will receive some form of compensation, although you don’t know yet what that may be. Contact an attorney who is well-versed and experienced in workers’ compensation claims to determine what your injury may require and how to receive the compensation you deserve.

Action Step 2:  Get the Best Assistance

An injury of any kind in your workplace requires an immediate report. Seemingly small injuries, such as a cut or swollen ankle, may seem so inconsequential that you don’t want to mention it. However, an injury can become worse instead of better and even a small one can cause other health-related issues. After filing your claim, get the best assistance you can. If you need help with medical care, use insurance-provided caregivers. If you need medical appointments and physical therapy, get the best assistance you can, which will help with healing. These suggestions relate to your concern for the future because as you feel better physically, your outlook on life will get better, as well.

In addition to physical assistance, get the expert assistance of a lawyer who understands workplace injuries and workers’ compensation. This step is critical in lessening your concern for the future. An experienced attorney will know how to best represent you. In addition, your attorney will possibly be able to estimate your compensation package, which will further lessen your concern for the future. Look for an attorney who knows the major employers in your region or state and one who has a deep level of understanding of the pain and suffering you’ve experienced so that the representation will be appropriate to your needs.

Action Step 3:  Follow Your Instincts

This step may initially seem disconnected from your injury, but stay with us as we explain. Your injury has either injured you in a way that changed your workplace capabilities, or it has sidelined you altogether and you are currently in recovery from the injury and not working. Either way, an injury is an injury. While healing, you’ll want to concentrate on following your instincts.

What is an “instinct”? Quite simply, it is a natural, internal response or motivation to act. Often, after an injury, your internal senses are alive and quite aware of pain, but you will also be more aware of circumstances and situations around you. This includes people and places where you may work. Be aware and alert in what you observe and hear, as your instincts will guide you toward a better understanding of your injury and ways to move forward despite your injury.

Your instincts can guide you toward trusting those around you, as well. Allowing your instincts to guide you results in lower levels of concern for your future because you’ll be focused on the world around you instead of your fears. In this case, you want to know and trust those who are offering advice or expressing concern for you. Pay attention to those trustworthy friends and family; they have your best interests in mind.

Action Step 4:  Do Not Follow Your Emotions

While you’ll want to follow your instincts because they will help balance your concerns for the future, you’ll want to avoid following your emotions. After a workplace injury, the dominant emotion may be anger or total dissatisfaction, discouragement, or disagreement with your employer. Frankly, the worst move to make is to confront or even annoy your supervisor or employer. Such confrontations will only add difficulty to your situation and your employer may even resist assisting or compensating you if the situation between you and your employer becomes tense.

Resist any urge to use emotion, particularly anger, as a weapon because you are concerned about the future. Anger goes hand in hand with fear, but it does not need to remain housed with fear. Remove the anger, tension, and discomfort by exercising, if possible, or by engaging your mind in healthy pastimes instead of simmering in an unhealthy emotional pattern.

Action Step 5: Care for Others as They Care for You

The major portion of your concern for the future may be on behalf of those who love you or are part of your close social circle. While injured, you’ve received expressions of care and concern and now, as you recover, you can concentrate on lowering their concerns, as well as your own. Offer encouragement about the future to them, discuss positive possibilities for the future instead of any negative potential outcomes, and consider showing an expression of care for those in your close relationships because they are engaged in caring for you and that may not be easy for them. This simple act will lighten your fears and release your concerns.

After concentrating on these five action steps, you’ll carry fewer concerns for the future and you’ll be able to manage the present days better than before. We wish you the best in your recovery.