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Work in an office? You could still suffer a serious injury after a fall

| Mar 22, 2021 | Workplace Risks

Office work is supposed to be less dangerous than many other occupations — and it probably is. That doesn’t mean, however, that you’re entirely free of danger while you’re on the job.

Slip-and-fall accidents are one of the most common office accidents. They cause more disabling injuries than most people realize. In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that officer workers are up to 2.5 times more likely to end up disabled after a workplace fall than other kinds of workers.

What are the biggest fall hazards for office employees?

It doesn’t take much of a fall to end up with a head injury (especially if you hit the corner of a desk as you go down), a spinal cord injury or a broken hip.

How do such falls happen?

Consider these possibilities for office falls:

  • You trip over a loose carpet that wasn’t properly secured to the floor
  • You snag a heel on a run in the carpet and a pulled thread causes you to stumble
  • Your co-worker has a bad habit of running extension cords everywhere and you trip on one while you’re carrying a box of papers to your desk
  • You have a tile or marble entrance to the office and you slip on it because it was over-polished and slick
  • You slip on the tile or marble floor because someone spilled something and it wasn’t cleaned up
  • You’re walking down a flight of steps because the elevator’s broken and the lighting is so poor that you can’t see where you’re going
  • You fall out of your chair because it’s old and breaks while you’re sitting in it or leaning over a file cabinet or desk drawer

If you’ve been injured in a slip-and-fall accident at work, notify your employer as soon as practical and get immediate medical attention. Then, speak with a San Jose attorney about your rights.