I work for a prominent electrical parts and wire distributor. Last October I sustained an injury at work while lifting something heavy, and in December I got very sick. (Covid and then RSV, within the same month.) Missed 12 days of work that month, probably should’ve been in the hospital, and still haven’t recovered completely.
I injured my lower back (October) lifting a reel of copper wire. It wasn’t debilitating enough that I stopped work that day, but I did tell my manager as soon as I seen him. Said I’d let him know if it got worse.
Fast forward to now. Injury has gotten worse as time has went on, so I make an appointment with my general practitioner to have it looked at. As of today it’s really impacting normal life. By the end of the work week I’m not standing when I shower, and the pain regularly has me contemplating taking a half day. Male, 24.
Ask my manager if there’s any paperwork I need to fill out. He says he’ll call the benefits department. I insist that I’m the one who makes the call.
Benefits refers me to loss prevention, and I explain the situation to them. They’re dumbfounded that a claim was never made. They call my manager.
Workers compensation claim is made on my behalf, and when asked, my manager had to guess the date that my injury happened (obviously he didn’t do any documentation or report.) And he picks a day in early January. (It was actually in fall 2022.)
I see my GP, he says no improvement by now isn’t a good sign. Orders me an MRI. That’s going down tomorrow. I’ll update when I can.
Now, here’s where I want advice. I’m planning on leaving because I don’t want to risk aggravating the existing injury or further damage to my body working in a warehouse. We already have one guy with a herniated disk (which I may have as well) on light duty. I doubt my company would tolerate paying two.
Will I still have rights if I put in my two weeks? What if I got a less physically demanding job right away? I’m still showing up and working but it’s definitely making my condition worse. I don’t want to forfeit anything that can help me in my healing process.
My manager hasn’t been sympathetic with me about these things in the past, so I’ve essentially been keeping it to myself until now. I tore my labrum last year (non work related) and his only comment/question was asking if I could still drive forklift.
I doubt I’d get approved for FMLA without documentation of a debilitating injury (which I may have after my mri), especially considering that I used all my sick time and vacation between my illness and other appointments. And I’m not sure if I even qualify, as I’ve only been with the company for 9 months.
To make this even more complicated, I absolutely can’t afford to burn bridges here, because a probable next position for me would still have me buying from these guys as a daily customer.
My boss leaves for vacation next Wednesday. I want to put together a course of action before then. Perhaps my 2 weeks. Any advice?