10 Pound Weight Restriction
“You cannot lift more than 10lbs.” Our clients get told things like this all the time. 5-20lb weight restrictions are common. Sometimes no lifting whatsoever is the restriction. A lifting restriction is easy to overlook.
I had my appendix out about 10 days ago. I have a ten-pound wight restriction. It’s a good thing some insurance company doesn’t have surveillance on me. I have two kids under four. It’s easy to say you’ll never lift them, but as anyone who has ever had two kids and one spouse knows, it’s a lot harder in practice. So alas, I risk further injury because I’ve got a family to run. I’m incredibly fortunate that I don’t have lift at my job, or else I’d have serious problem.
Most of our workers’ comp clients aren’t so lucky. They have a job they need. Put an asshole supervisor into the equation and things can get really bad. We need tougher injured worker retaliation laws. Put an unreasonable adjuster on who wants to get surveillance and deny a claim because the injured worker has absolutely no choice but to lift a 12 pound bag of groceries and things can get bad.
What gets lost in all this is we’re dealing with human beings. People who have obligations to others in their lives. I get reminded of this often as I speak to clients. But I’m never more reminded than when it happens to me. No more than 10 pounds.
