By Donna Motley, Vice President of Claims

Summer in Michigan! It seems like we have been waiting a long time this year for the arrival of summer. Not that we had a harsh winter or even a long winter – it just seems that our weather has been so up and down. I think when you live in a State that has snow, ice, cold temperatures and power outages, you work hard and like to play hard too ! At the first sight of 60 degree temperatures, people native to Michigan break out the shorts and flip-flops. We’ve been waiting and we are anxious!

First of all, we have to clean up from the winter or maybe even the left-over fall season. Now we can ride our bicycles or motorcycles. We can plant and maintain our flower or vegetable garden(s). We can hand-wash the car, wash windows, cut grass, trim bushes. We can now golf, play baseball, swim in a pool or lake, play horseshoes, cornhole, Jarts, you name it. Let’s not forget about boating, jet or water ski’s, tennis, maybe even Pickleball? Camping and campfires (setting up and tearing down). Traveling to other states or countries, hiking, and all around site seeing.

What do all these things have in common? We are most likely anxious to have fun and probably using muscles we have not used in a long time. An injury may even occur during any of these activities. We will definitely be pre-disposed to injury when we go to work if we are already nursing a sore back or sore shoulder. I type all day and after a weekend of trimming bushes, my hands are sore and stiff on Monday morning.

So, as an employer, be sure to obtain details when a Monday injury is reported to have occurred at your facility. Lacerations are obvious, but a sprain/strain or merely an allegation of “pain” being reported will be scrutinized by our department. Activities at work can certainly aggravate a condition, but there has to be a medically proven correlation between work and the diagnosed condition. Now that marijuana is legal along with the sale of edibles, individuals may not be taking the time to “cleanse or refresh their system” before returning to work Monday morning. The old fashioned alcohol “hangover” is easier to notice in a person. Alcohol acts as a diuretic. The active compounds of cannabis can cause an increase OR decrease in blood pressure. Cannabis can act as a diuretic. Compound those effects with summer heat and humidity inside a plant or shop, or while working out of doors, and it is certainly easy to see how it may result in an injury or ill health.

Remember, everything that happens at work is not always a work related injury. A work injury must arise “out of and in the course of employment”. More important than anything – we’ve waited a long time for summer fun, we want to be able to enjoy ourselves!