Microblog #4 Why recover at work?

Your 'normal' on a workday probably involves getting up at regular time, getting dressed, negotiating the commute and that's even before you set foot in the door of your workplace.

When we are not performing those ‘normal’ activities it leads to deconditioning. You might notice this after being away for holidays, but it is even more prononouced after a worker is absent due to injury or illness.

Our muscles actually shrink, our capacity shrinks which means you are further back than you were before the injury. We have to regain all this lost capacity before we can get people healed again.

So it is better to maintain as much of your ‘normal’ as possible.

And that is one of the many reasons we encourage workers not to wait until they are 100% better, but a safe, controlled RTW on suitable duties.

“Productive work is good for you, being back at work speeds up your recovery and speeds up your healing. It has to be done in manner that is controlled and always primarily keeping people safe and that requires a little bit of expertise to help with that.”
Dr Sid O'Toole.