It was never easy to be a working parent. All parents have their struggles, but working parents have to balance the demands of a job with the demands of their children. However, adding COVID-19 on top of the list of already-existing demands has only made things more difficult. In theory, working from home would be somewhat easier for a lot of people. You save the time and gas money associated with commuting and can do everything that you need to do in a more relaxed manner, with less supervision and micromanagement. For that matter, there is a certain degree of freedom that some associate with working from home, which doesn’t take away from your responsibilities but does take you out of a typically cramped office. However, this is not the case for working parents. Working parents not only have to do everything that they normally would do for their jobs; they also have to take care of their children, many of whom currently are not enrolled in traditional school. As your children not only attend virtual school or limited school sessions but also lack the ability to go play with their friends or play sports the way they normally would, you must split your time between them and your work in a way that you never have before.
One of the biggest questions that working parents may be grappling with in the face of their work from home assignments is the degree to which regulations have changed with their move out of the office. For example: are you still eligible for workers comp if you work from home? Some might dismiss the idea outright, but it’s not as straightforward an issue as it may seem to be. You’re still working, and you need to be compensated in every way that you deserve to be, whether you’re in the office or working from home. With that in mind, let’s look into this complex issue, and demystify some of the confusion that may surround it.
How Does Workers Compensation Work Typically?
You may vaguely know that you are entitled to workers compensation under normal circumstances, without understanding what that actually means. Usually, workers compensation operates under what is called a “no-fault” system. This means that if you’re injured in the course and scope of employment, you will be covered by your employers’ workers comp insurance. Even if the incident occurred due to your own negligence, you will still be entitled to workers comp. Now, if your injury is determined to be covered, you’ll be entitled to your first temporary disability payment, and that will usually be due within 14 days of your employer learning that you have a job-related injury or illness, followed by your doctor verifying that you cannot work as you normally would. Now, the issue when you work at home comes to determining whether the incident or illness that occurred was connected to your job in any way. If the injury or illness is connected to work, regardless of whether or not you were in the typical office that you work within, you would be entitled to workers comp insurance benefits. You working from home would be no different, in this context, from you working in a secondary office and being injured there.
How Is An Injury Or Illness Determined To Be Work-Related?
If the crux of the issue is whether or not the injury or illness in question is work-related, how will that be determined? It has to do with both your employer and your doctor. Just as you would in a typical workers comp case, you need to see your doctor and have them verify the injury or illness. As your doctor likely wouldn’t be present when the initial incident happened, they are often there simply to verify that the injury or illness is authentic. The first question would typically be whether or not your employer was benefitting from your actions when the incident occurred. Second would be whether or not the employer approved the activity under which the incident occurred. If, for example, you hurt your back while sitting at your desk and writing up a long report for work as approved by your employer, that would fall under those types of activities. Now, the next question would be whether or not the activity was required. If your employer gave you the opportunity to opt out of writing that report, the issue may become murkier. The benefit of the doubt does sometimes apply to these situations when you’re working from home. Your employer will probably be skeptical about you claiming that a twisted ankle that occurred at home was work-related. But if you can prove or reasonably argue that it was work-related, the situation will likely be different.
What Kinds Of Issues Can Be Covered By Workers Comp Insurance?
You may be worried about submitting a problem that occurred while you working from home in order to be covered by workers comp insurance. But in fact, you probably have more options available than you might think. If your dry eye syndrome was exacerbated by staring at your work from home computer to the point that you needed medical help, you could potentially have this covered by workers comp insurance. The older you are, the more prevalent dry eye syndrome tends to be, with an estimated 3.2 million women aged 50 and about and 1.68 million men 50 and above affected by the condition. This kind of condition could potentially be made worse when you work from home.
Really, depending on your occupation, you’re no less at risk of being injured on the job than you would be in the office. But you do need to be honest about preexisting conditions. About one in 25 American adults between 18 and 64 report facing work limitations that they attribute to arthritis. If your arthritis was made worse by working at home, you may still be eligible for workers comp benefits, but you won’t know until you look into the issue yourself. Numerous conditions could qualify you for workers comp; it really depends on how it occurred.
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