Getting injured at work is no walk in the park.

There are a lot more things to worry about than falling or getting cut with something. Repetitive strain injuries can be just as debilitating and painful.

Unfortunately many corporations have an odd way of dealing with it, and employees have trouble getting the help they need.

Check out how it worked at this company.

Get the doctor’s referral to receive vertical mouse, sure thing HR

I worked for a large multinational company some years back in the logistics industry and I did a lot of my work on the computer.

I developed a small infection in some small joint in my wrist due to using the normal mouse provided by IT.

I asked my boss if I could order a vertical mouse to relieve the pain in my wrist and I was thinking company would provide it.

Alas, the odyssey begins…

My boss referred me to our local HR (from hell).

Manager of the HR was called, behind her back, grim reaper and she surely lived up to the nickname.

Got a message from HR that the ONLY way to get another kind of mouse is to go through company mandated Healthcare provider and to get a referral from there.

I thought it was stupid because vertical mouses costs like 20-50€ and going to healthcare would surely add costs to that. But let’s do what the HR tells you, since they know better, and obviously don’t care about money.

Time to go to the doctor.

The doctor ordered some x-rays (300 €) and send me to to get instructions and training exercises from company’s dedicated physiotherapist (3*100e).

I went back to the doctor on a separate meeting( another 200 €) and she forwarded me to some hand surgeon (450€) for another opinion.

The hand surgeon was kind enough to inject some cortisone (100€) to my aching wrist and gave me one day sick leave ( 300€) to recuperate from the injection. So I spent that fishing and enjoying the nice summer weather.

After going through all the hoops to get the referral for the mouse, it took HR about 2 months to instruct IT to deliver me the mouse.

Some good things came out of it.

The cortisone actually helped and I didn’t have any use for the vertical mouse, otherwise I would have ordered it myself.

I just used the two months to remind my boss about the mouse on regular basis and asked him to contact HR about it.

It took close to 2000 € to go through the HR mandated route to get the relatively cheap mouse. But hey, everything has to be done by the book, right?

Talk about waiting for perfect timing!

Here’s the kicker.

Immediately after I received the mouse, I gave my two weeks notice.

My resignation and the mouse were totally unrelated, but I sure made HR and my boss to think that it was all about the mouse.

I was one of the most valued employees in our company, so my leaving sure did sting them a bit. It never fails to amaze me how stupid big corporations are when it comes to providing employees with necessary tools to ease their job.

It’s just a mouse! Why did they have to make sure a big deal out of it?

Here is what people are saying on Reddit.

You can only prevent an injury if we say so! Ergonomics shouldn’t be a privilege.

I like when good things come out of these posts.

I bet! Maybe I’ll try one.

That would not surprise me.

Haha! I’m sure many agree.

Workplace safety should be the default.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.