National Safety Month 2020 Brings Attention to Workplace Safety

June 2020 is National Safety Month, as coordinated by the National Safety Council (NSC). Each year, National Safety Month shares with the country several safety topics that need more attention. This year, the focus is put mostly on the workplace and how everyone can be safer and healthier at work.

Pay Attention to Your Mental Health

Many people throughout the country are only recently becoming aware of mental health difficulties, how they can affect anyone, and how work can cause or worsen them. Anxiety and depression are among some of the most common mental health difficulties experienced by American workers. Overworking yourself can make you feel stressed, which may lead to constant anxiety. Or you can start to feel like your life is entirely centered around your work, which can hurt your sense of identity and cause depression.

For National Safety Month 2020, try to pay more attention to your mental health and that of your coworkers or employees. Pushing yourself too far and thinking only of your physical health is damaging in many ways. Your productivity and focus while at work will suffer as a result, so it is in your employer’s best interests to ensure your mental health is being considered and protected.

What many employees do not know is that mental health difficulties are often covered by workers’ compensation policies. If your mental health declines due to the scope of your work and your doctor instructs you to take time off to rest, then you may be able to use workers’ compensation benefits to provide a portion of your wages during the time you are not working.

Ergonomics Help Stop RSIs

A repetitive stress injury (RSI) is an injury caused by the strain of performing the same action again and again. For example, typing on a keyboard for 40 hours or longer a week can start to hurt your wrists and may lead to arthritis, even though the act of typing is quite benign and effortless at first.

Ergonomics is the design of a product or item to maximize comfort, especially when that item is used repeatedly or often for work. You can get an ergonomic keyboard and mouse to prevent arthritis, an ergonomic chair to stop chronic back pain, and so forth. Your employer should help you get ergonomic office supplies and products to maximize your efficiency in the workplace and minimize the chances of you suffering an RSI.

Repetitive stress injuries can be cited in workers’ compensation claims. If your doctor has diagnosed a serious sprain, strain, or other RSI and they suspect your work caused it, then you should talk to an attorney about seeking workers’ compensation benefits that allow you to rest without crippling your finances.

Building a Safety Culture at Work

The National Safety Council also wants more people this June to talk about making a safety culture in their workplace. A safety culture is one that naturally promotes safety to the point that it becomes automatic or second nature. When a safety culture is created, everyone in the workplace strives to prevent workplace accidents and injuries.

Employers can promote a safety culture by incentivizing team members who prioritize safety or come up with new ways to be safe at work. Employees can also help build a safety culture at work by talking about safety with their coworkers and insisting that everyone follow the appropriate safety protocols at all times.

Have Questions? Call McHargue & Jones, LLC

Workplace safety is something close to our hearts at McHargue & Jones, LLC in Chicago. We are workers’ compensation attorneys who help injured workers seek fair and full compensation after a workplace accident. If you are injured at work for any reason, then we want to hear from you to see if you are eligible for workers’ comp.