Found this out from my partner who works for a large grocery store chain; if you get hurt at work, upper management will fucking write you up for ‘working unsafely’ which is insane. I worked there as well, but before they started punishing people for reporting injuries. I’m absolutely infuriated by this policy, as I have had bad experiences with works comp before where the company harassed me for daring to be injured.
I have a story about my own experience getting hurt at this job, as well. Suffice it to say, most jobs in the retail industry absolutely hate when one of their employees dares to get hurt while on the clock.
I had worked at this store a few years back and was injured by a piece of shitty equipment that my coworkers had also been complaining about being dangerous long before I was there. It was a clothes rack that I was dragging into the back room— ‘safety’ latch collapsed under the weight of the clothes and crushed one of my fingers, trapping it between two metal bars.
The heavy weight of the clothes kept my finger pinned and it was a frantic struggle to get the digit out before the weight sank me further. Blood started pouring out of the wound and I stood there for a second in an ‘ohshitohshitohshit’ panic as the pain indicated this wasn’t just bad pinch.
I was dripping blood onto the floor and felt like I couldn’t go get help because I was scared of getting yelled at for ‘creating a biohazard’ mess. (I really should have just said fuck it and left in hindsight, but I was at the end of a long shift and not thinking clearly once I was injured.)
I managed to flag down another employee to get a manager. It was probably another 5 minutes passed before one of the various managers finally showed up. Dude takes a look at my injury and says ‘ok, now that you’ve let me know you got hurt, you’re gonna keep working right?’ I just stared at him in disbelief, and said “NO— I am going to the ER now.” I ended up needing stitches and have a permanent divot that scarred over.
I was on reduced duty for a week, and the management of my department was _not happy _ with me.