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Hi, I work for a Walmart in Southern California pushing carts. This isn't my dream job but it pays. I was told up front that I wouldn't be transferred to another position for 6 months so I figured work as hard as possible and do everything I was asked to do if I wanted to move on to another position. Problems popped up immediately. In principle we have an electric cart pusher but in practice they haven't been willing to provide any training for how to use it. The store is also chronically understaffed. So I was resigned to having to push unsafe numbers of carts as the norm in order to meet my obligations and to keep from being locked out of the store at the end of the shift or having to clock out late. I even wound up buying my own personal protection equipment and flashlights since those weren't provided. Three weeks ago I wound up having a 4 hour shift where I had to keep moving 20-30+ carts at a time to keep up. It was a very busy evening and no one had been consistently collection carts earlier in the day. At the very end I realized I had just enough time to try and collect 40 carts in one area, and then push those carts to the overflow. It turns out this was too much for my back. Two weeks ago I filed a workers comp claim for my lower back. I was put on light duty. Last week I got the clear to return to work. Since then I've been pushing safe numbers of carts but I've had to work faster to keep up. Yesterday I started feeling intense pain in my upper back. Today I had to leave work early because I couldn't even handle moving one cart. Between these and an existing spinal arthritis issue I'm done with carts. The good news is I have a follow up with the workers comp doctor Tuesday at 8:30. I figure I'll get started on PT and I'll get put on light duty again. I'll also update my former case manager with the Dept. of (Vocational) Rehabilitation about the doctors decision along with my managers at Wal-Mart. In the mean time I'm not sure what position they could transfer me to. Everyone in my family has planter fascitis which rules out cashier positions. I'm also having trouble with asset protection, just standing is very painful and I'm horrible with recognizing faces. And stocking would trade one source of back strain for another. I'm not 100% sure where I fall within the workers comp dynamic. I doubt I'm permanently disabled. And while I'd appreciate the vocational training mentioned in the states workers comp guide I doubt that'd happen either. I couldn't really afford a lawyer if my end goal wound up being either transfer to a different department or part ways on good terms. So, um, what do I do now?
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Aug 23, 2016 08:46
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 19:31 |
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Milk the light duty for 40 years and retire?
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Aug 24, 2016 14:36
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