From Bob's Cluttered Desk

It might be a stretch to say that smiling is a new disability. However, a study just published shows that employees who work with the public and who “force themselves to smile for customers or hide feelings of annoyance may be susceptible to heavy drinking after hours.” And of course, since heavy drinking may result in some form…

Six years ago, in 2013, I started my campaign to rebrand the workers’ compensation industry. As many people know, I believe it should be called “Workers’ Recovery.” The idea isn’t simply to change the name; the belief has been that the simple adjustment of one word would shift the focus of our industry, reduce litigation, save money…

The headline that caught my eye was “Sarasota lawmaker supports bill extending wait times for benefits to injured workers.” It opened with the sentence, “He claims he wants to protect workers who get hurt on the job, but State Sen. Joe Gruters (R-Sarasota) is backing a bill that would make injured workers wait 45 business…

On a conference panel almost 3 years ago, after the Castellanos decision that found Florida’s plaintiff attorney fee caps unconstitutional, I predicted that the state legislature would respond with quiet deportment, waiting several years doing nothing until the pain became unbearable, and then would do something colossally stupid. That prediction wasn’t entirely accurate. The pain,…

Editors Note: This missive has run the last two year’s to encourage involvement in the Best Blogs Contest. Because it worked so well then, and because Bob is essentially a lazy good-for-nothing sloth, it runs again this year. It has been updated to reflect current statistics. Greetings, fellow bloggers. I do not know if you…

Right off the bat we need to clarify that, while this story is about the IAIABC, Russians and recovery, there really is no collusion; except for a small group who traveled to the United States to share their story regarding Russia’s social welfare systems. It’s just that, in the media, you cannot write the word…

This may surprise many of you, but I have come to believe that the concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI), where everyone is guaranteed a basic income regardless of what they do, is an idea whose time has come. It just makes too much sense to ignore. Proponents of the idea have long argued that…

Recent events in Alabama should serve to remind us that workers’ compensation works best when balanced across the multitude of interests that are affected by it. The failure of efforts from a task force that proposed legislative reforms in that state may be due to broader influences than what has been previously discussed. Birmingham attorney…

Some people have jobs that stink, while others have a job that, well, really stinks. And the resulting lawsuit form a truly stinky job is another warning for employers everywhere. A Melbourne, Australia engineer is claiming his supervisor bullied him by repeatedly farting on him as well as “thrusting his bum” at him on numerous occasions. His…

There are just 7 days left for nominations for the 2019 Comp Laude® Awards. If you know of someone who is making a positive impact both for the workers’ compensation industry and the lives of injured workers, their name must be submitted by March 31, 2019.  The Comp Laude® Awards recognize exceptional individuals within the…