Imagine getting injured at work, like so injured that you can’t put weight on one of your legs. The obvious thing to do here is go to the ER, but in today’s story, the injured employee’s manager tells the employee to keep working.

While the employee complies for awhile, in the end, the employee is the one who wins!

Let’s read the whole story.

Serve pizza while hopping on one leg? Got it!

Back in the early 2000s I was a waiter at a famous red roofed pizza shack, it was back before they went downhill and closed the dining rooms.

One night the teenage dishwasher got caught selling weed to other employees and was fired on the spot by the newly minted manager who wasn’t much older.

No one was tasked with doing dishes after that and the bus tubs of dishes were piling up and people started setting them on the floor.

Working through an injury is not a good idea.

I went back to set some dishes on the pile, turned to go back to the dining room, and twisted my knee when my leg got lodged in between two bus tubs on the floor.

I heard a crunch and fell.

I sat on the floor in pain and then tried to get up and put weight on it with little success.

The young manager saw me and told me that I had to continue serving pizza because I was the only waiter and I would be fired if I didn’t.

You gotta do what you gotta do!

So I hopped.

From the kitchen window to the tables. Serving every pizza.

Customers asked what happened and I told them that and why I was still serving while hopping.

They were angry and one confronted the manager.

Time to go to the ER.

Finally I got sick of the hopping and called my girlfriend to come get me.

On the way out the door, the manager said “you better get a doctors note” and I left.

So I went to the ER. And I ended up having a torn meniscus and ACL damage.

Time to get a lawyer.

I lawyered up since I knew it was a sure bet, and a year and a half later I won a $10,000 settlement from the company.

The first thing I did when I cashed that check was have a huge pizza party with all my friends in that same restaurant.

That manager was there, giving me stink eye the whole time.

The manager was definitely in the wrong for telling the employee to work through the pain. I’m so glad he hired a lawyer, but I would’ve had the pizza party at a competitor’s restaurant instead.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person is surprised OP didn’t get more in the settlement.

This person had a similar injury at work.

This part bothered me too.

Another person calls OP “lucky.”

That manager made a huge and costly mistake.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.