According to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are roughly 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported yearly. If you’ve ever experienced one, you know that they can be very trying. In the interest of lightening the mood, however, we asked people to chime in with on-the-job injuries that have become a source of good humor—at least in retrospect. Read on for a few laughs.
Melanie Musson
Melanie Musson is a writer for ExpertInsuranceReviews.com. She loves spending as much time as possible outdoors with her family in the Rocky Mountains where they live.
Touched by an angel
I used to work at a place that had a large dining room with cathedral ceilings. Part of the Christmas decorations one year were giant five-foot angels which were hung from the ceiling. They were quite stunning and festive.
As I was serving lunch one day, one of the angels fell from the ceiling and hit me smack in the head knocking me over. I didn’t even know what hit me! One minute I was standing with a tray of food, the next I was on the floor.
You can imagine the neverending “touched by an angel” jokes that continued from my ruthless coworkers for the next several months.
It’s one of my favorite stories now. I mean, what are the odds of a huge decoration falling at that exact moment when I was standing right there. No other decorations ever fell down. I had no permanent damage, which is why I can wholeheartedly laugh about it now.
That girl that got hurt
Our Data Analyst was leaving work at the end of a super rainy day. The temperature was starting to drop pretty quickly, which turned the water in the parking lot into black ice. She slipped walking to her car and landed on her side…. hard. No one was around, so she just got up, dusted herself off, and got into her car. It was only upon driving that she realized a trip to the ER was probably a good idea!
The most awkward part for this employee was she was still relatively new at the company. She had only been working here for just about 7 months, so she quickly became known as “that girl that got hurt.” To this day, my business partner and I still warn her about ice outside, even if it’s a beautiful summer’s day. Luckily, this employee is a good sport about it all.
Lesson learned – we need to make sure the bank we share a building with is always doing their due diligence and salting the parking lot. It’s all about handling communication better so we can ensure our employees are safe. It’s lame that it took a tumble in the parking lot to learn that lesson, but we can all laugh about it now.
Bret Bonnet
Bret Bonnet is the Co-Founder and President of Quality Logo Products, a $42.5M promotional products distributor located in Chicago, IL, and recently ranked byPrint+Promo Magazine as the 13th largest distributor of promotional products in the US.
Alex Tran
Alex Tran is a wellness and lifestyle blogger at www.schimiggy.com. She is also a yoga and meditation instructor.
Falling in a puddle of sweat
One time I was teaching yoga and I slipped on the floor where someone’s sweat puddle was. The students all stood up to come help me, but I couldn’t teach the class after my fall. I immediately realized my shoulder had dislocated so I was unable to continue. Now that I look back, falling in a puddle of sweat was kinda comical. I even remember laughing it off after it happened, then realizing how injured I actually was.
Now I look on the floor everywhere I walk and make sure I avoid puddles. I also remind people to wipe their sweat puddles after practice to reduce potential injuries.
Fell to the floor
During my marketing career, I had a few embarrassing moments. It’s hard to rank them, but there is one that sticks out the most. It happened a couple of years ago. I was still the new guy at work. I didn’t quite know all the people, but I wanted to make a good impression.
It was the end of the year, and the agency had decided to throw a Christmas party. There was plenty of junk food and alcohol, and the company had hired an entertainer to add to the holiday spirit (unsuccessfully).
Things were going well. I had my belly filled up with food, and it was time to hit the liquor section. I had a few beers, followed by a glass of whiskey that turned into two. Then someone decided that we were all going to do tequila shots. Needless to say, my stomach didn’t agree with that combo.
I tried hard to pretend I was sober but to no avail. As I reached the restroom, my stomach decided it had enough, and it blasted away all the food and alcohol I had consumed. To add to my demise, I lost my balance, fell to the floor, and landed on my left hand and broke it right there.
The pain was so excruciating that I couldn’t move for a while. On top of that, my colleagues were giving me unsympathetic looks with a lot of “tsk tsk” sounds of disapproval. It took me over a month to heal my hand, but my ego remained bruised for much longer.
And there you have it. I’m not really proud of that moment, but now I can laugh about it, mostly.
Christian Antonoff
Christian Antonoff is a Marketing Manager at Excel Template. He has worked as a journalist and is passionate about music, concerts, and coffee. In his spare time, he loves to travel and attend art exhibitions.
Joe Palumbo
Joe Palumbo, President, Ice Dam Guys LLC
Slipped on the sidewalk
We’ve had technicians fall off roofs (avoiding injury!), slice open their hands with a steamer, and burn themselves. But the worst injury was to one of our most experienced guys. He finished the job and was out of harm’s way – or so he thought. He’d avoided all of the above mishaps but slipped on the sidewalk on his way back to the truck. He really messed up his back and was out of work for a full year.
One needs a sense of humor in this dangerous line of work, so he chuckles about that injury now. So do we, but we also use it as a “teachable moment” for our newer technicians. The most dangerous place you can be is wherever you let your guard down.
This is a crowdsourced article. Contributors' statements do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this website, other people, businesses, or other contributors.