Jun 4, 2023 | Accident prevention, Work Injuries
When you work in a warehouse, it can be easy to fall into a pattern of doing things. In time, you’ll likely have a routine that you could do in your sleep. Therefore, many people who work in warehouses will choose to wear headphones on the job. It’s understandable that you would want something to make the day a little less monotonous. However, while headphones provide the right amount of distraction, they also introduce a risk you might not have considered before.
Headphones and Warehouse Work: Understanding Common Risks
Concentration and alertness
One of the first and foremost risks of headphones in the workplace, are the attention they take away from your task at hand. Especially when using heavy equipment, fulfilling orders, manning a station, or moving heavy materials— you need to be present. There is the potential for missing something along the way when your ears aren’t in the game. Take, for example, if something falls from high up and is headed straight for you. In most cases, there will be someone close by who might yell ‘heads up’, ‘move!’, or ‘get out of the way!”. But, if you have headphones in— you might miss those warnings and end up with an injury as a result.
Becoming caught in machinery
Depending on what type of warehouse you’re working in, there might be equipment of some sort running at all times. Therefore, it is often ill-advised to have any sort of loose clothing, or cords, in the workplace. You never know when that loose cord of the headphones, which is connected to your body, might become caught in a machine and lead to your being pulled in that direction.
As an employer, it’s important to keep your protocol in check
Many warehouses ban headphones for these very reasons, however, when things are going well— it can be all too easy to not pay attention to potential dangers. Therefore, make it a monthly, or quarterly, task to perform random, routine safety checks. While you might have other responsibilities, keeping your employees safe should always be at the top of the list. So, check in, check cameras, and hold your employees accountable for making the right decisions.
May 14, 2023 | Accident prevention, Work Injuries
Workers in many different fields like to make use of personal headphones. This lets them listen to things like music and can help pass the time. However, they might not be a safe option depending on your job. It’s important to know when wearing these headphones might become a risk to your safety…
Personal Headphones: Risk vs. Reward
Limiting outside noise
Personal headphones can help you block out any outside noise or distractions. This can help when it comes to focusing more on the work you’re doing. However, it could also mean you don’t hear important audio cues around you. This could lead to you accidentally getting hurt because you were unaware of what was happening around you.
Headphones can also have a small noise-canceling effect on their own. This can lead some to think that they can be used in place of special noise-reducing headphones or earplugs. However, this is actually not the case. OSHA notes that these headphones aren’t as effective as specialty ones.
Snags and tangles
Another issue with personal headphones is the chance of them catching or snagging on something. This can already be annoying when it happens outside the workplace. However, it could also be quite dangerous when you’re working.
For example, if you have to do a lot of moving around at your job, then your headphones could easily catch on to something. This is especially true if your work involves any kind of machinery. Overall, it’s not worth the added risk to wear headphones when doing this kind of work where you want to be as safe as possible.
Potential benefits
It isn’t a bad idea to wear personal headphones at every workplace, however. It mainly depends on the job you’re doing. If you work in a more desk/office-type of job, then you might be able to wear headphones depending on your workplace rules. Compared to other office safety risks, headphones probably won’t be too much of a hazard.
Here, headphones can be especially helpful if you have a hearing problem. They can help you hear a bit better if you have to make phone calls or listen to audio. They can also help if you have something like tinnitus. Having something like music or soft noise playing can help those with tinnitus keep their mind off of the ringing.
Apr 30, 2023 | Work Injuries, Workers' Compensation
Many times, an injury is not as simple as one bruise on one arm. An injury can any part of the body, all which need documentation— no matter how small . Documenting injuries is an important step in your worker’s comp case because it will help your case. Because insurance companies are reluctant to make pay outs and cover charges, this documentation will be important during all parts of your case.
Documenting Injuries: Why It Matters
What to Document
You should be documenting injuries relating to your workplace incident. For example, let’s say you fell at work and used your arms to break your fall. The main injury might be your knee with scratches covering it. What you might not see is the shoulder or elbow pain you are suffering because your arms helped cushion your fall. Then, after you document the injury, and make sense of the situation, it can add context to how your arms might hurt as a result of the injury.
When to Document It
Documenting all relative injuries as soon as they happen is imperative to a successful worker’s compensation case. You should have a discussion with your doctor about your injuries. Documenting injuries does not have to be a formal, long-form write up. You can simply tell your doctor you’ve had some pain in that area. You can also document it in your pain journal. For most major injuries, reports should be made within a few days of the accident.
Why It Matters
An accurate injury report from a doctor or the emergency room will be your best friend in a worker’s compensation case. Make sure all details are included, no detail is too small. Sometimes, insurance companies will try to use missed details or incorrect information to discredit the incident. You can make sure this does not happen by documenting injuries personally and fact-checking doctor’s reports.
To conclude: no injury or pain is too small to document. When documenting injuries, make sure you are including all relevant information. Sometimes, even things you might think are irrelevant can be helpful to your case. Bruises, cuts, and small swelling that you believe will just heal with time are still important to include in your injury documentation.
Apr 23, 2023 | Accident prevention, Work Injuries
A repetitive strain injury is an injury that occurs from doing the same motion over and over again. Examples of these include carpal tunnel, bursitis, and tennis elbow. This type of injury can occur from tasks at work. However, there are ways you can prevent or minimize the chance for this type of injury.
Repetitive Strain Injuries: What Are They
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel is a condition that causes numbness, tingling, or weakness in your hand. This repetitive strain injury is caused by repetitive motions. These include motions like typing, or any wrist movements that you do over and over again. For example, people who work in dentistry have a high risk of carpal tunnel due to repetitive wrist movements while working. Also, you increase your risk when your hands are lower than your wrists while doing the movement.
The typical symptoms of carpal tunnel are not pleasant. For example, burning, tingling, or itching numbness in your palm and thumb or your index and middle fingers are symptoms. Other symptoms are weakness in your hand and trouble holding things, shock-like feelings that move into your fingers, and tingling that moves up into your arm. Proper ergonomics can help reduce the risk of this injury, but wrist braces are a good early treatment.
Bursitis
Bursitis is inflammation or irritation of a bursa sac. These are fluid filled sacs that are all over your body. Bursitis is common around major joints like your shoulder, elbow, hip, or knee. This repetitive strain injury can be caused from workplace activities including carpentry, painting, and scrubbing.
Common places for bursitis to happen are your elbow, shoulder, hip, thigh, buttocks, knee, achilles tendon or heel. This injury can cause pain, and you may notice your joint is red, stiff or swollen. Take breaks often when you’re making the same motions over and over again, and use good posture. If you start to have pain, stop, and see your doctor.
Tennis Elbow
Another repetitive strain injury is tennis elbow. This is a painful condition that usually comes from repetitive use of the muscles and tendons of the forearm and the elbow joint. Surprisingly, only 5% of tennis elbow injuries come from tennis.
Some workplace activities that could lead to tennis elbow include painting, working on cars or on an assembly line or playing a musical instrument. Other examples include kitchen work, such as cutting with a knife, or cutting trees with a chainsaw. This may cause your elbow to be sore. Treatment usually includes rest, ice, and over-the-counter pain medications. However, if the problem gets really bad, surgery may be needed.
Apr 15, 2023 | Personal Injury, Work Injuries
When it comes to worker’s comp cases— there are plenty of cases that come through our offices. From slips and falls, broken bones, construction injuries… It seems that hurt workers emerge from every field— no matter the assumed danger. However, what happens when you’re faced with workplace violence?
Workplace violence can come in different forms. From verbal and physical abuse, sexual violence, robbery… This type of violence comes in many different forms, which means that there are many ways to address it…
Workplace Violence: Addressing Unexpected Trauma
Prevention
Quite obviously, the best way to handle this type of trauma— is to prevent it. While accidents will always happen— there are certain steps you can take to prevent violence…
- Review your hiring and vetting process. Consider more in-depth background checks, reference checks— and even annual or semi-annual reviews of all staff.
- Review security and update. Install cameras, metal detectors, or whatever security settings you see fit to prevent danger in your workplace.
- Encourage staff to report threats, incidents, or fears of workplace violence in a way that makes them comfortable. Anonymous tips, emails to HR, and other means of reporting can prevent many issues.
- Take time every now and then to encourage team building exercises
- Provide workplace counselors for those in need, or those who face tragedy in their work or personal life.
Understand common stressors, causes, and red flags
There are some issues that can be outside of your control— such as sexual abuse, or armed robbery. However, much workplace violence occurs when there are angry employees, faulty protocol, improperly vetted employees, or general stress.
If you find yourself suspicious of potential workplace violence, or the victim of such, it’s important that you seek out assistance…
…Whether that comes in form of calling the police, reporting to your boss, or an attorney after the fact— there are options for prevention and also dealing with the problem.
If you have been the victim of workplace violence, we offer our condolences. The events you have endured can lead to injuries, physical and emotional trauma, as well as resulting medical costs— depending on the event. Therefore, you might need an attorney to defend your right to damages.
Apr 8, 2023 | Trucking/Tractor-Trailer Accidents, Work Injuries
There are plenty of different fields you can enter within the workforce. Form physical labor, to desk jobs, and even hitting the road. The thing to remember with any job, is that they come with their own set of risks. Even desk jobs come with a heightened risk of back and neck injuries. Another field that often leads to back injuries, is truck driving. Truck driving-related work injuries are extremely common due to the nature of the job. While many injuries are obvious in nature, there are also a few which you might not have considered…
Truck Driving-Related Work Injuries
Back and Neck
Quite obviously, when it comes to truck driving-related work injuries, your back is at a high risk of facing issue. If you consider what a truck driver is doing— driving long hours, sleeping in close quarters, and also occasionally lifting and unloading heavy materials… It’s easy to see how these injuries would occur. Therefore, it’s important to practice good posture in driving and lifting.
Consider purchasing additional support for your driver’s seat, and also pulling over for a stretch every now and then. While stiffness is pesky, it’s also not low-impact. You want to stretch your muscles, maybe take a short walk, and engage your back before sitting back down in that seat to avoid truck driving-related work injuries.
Slips and Falls
While you might not think that there’s much action which can lead to injury— there are actually a few different ways to face slip and fall truck driving-related work injuries. From getting in and out of the truck, to lifting the back door, lowering the lift gate… Even these seemingly small actions put you at risk for taking a tumble and hurting yourself.
Repetitive Stress Injuries, and Ignored Issues
You’re sitting in the truck for long periods of time. Your back might hurt a little bit, but you’re not too concerned. However, ignoring those little pains can lead to a bigger issue, and serious truck driving-related work injuries. In fact, ignoring that injury can lead to further injury down the line. Due to the fact that your back is under stress, and ignored— the issue can amplify.
There isn’t the same opportunity to heal while continuing your job when you’re a truck driver. Instead, you’re sitting down. Therefore, it’s important to take a day or tow when you need it. That way, you can avoid a prolong time spent off the road to trying to recover from truck driving-related work injuries.
