I was hitting the ski slopes when a bizarre accident occurred.
While fumbling my way off a chair lift, another chair hit me from behind and knocked me out cold. I woke up with a headache, in a hospital bed and immediately called my insurance company.
After explaining what happened the insurance rep said, “We’re covering nothing on this claim. You hit yourself in the head with a chair on a ski lift. You’re an idiot. And that’s a pre-existing condition.”
Contributed by:Dan Seidman, http://www.salesautopsy.com
A story broke this weekend about how a woman in Canada lost her health benefits after she was seen having a good time in Mexico via a facebook picture. I don’t see a problem with having a good time in Mexico, but it’s a different story when you are sick-leave from your job due to depression and getting benefits for it! Keep this idea in mind when an employee has a questionable work comp claim. The insurance carriers are getting smarter about their claims monitoring, while the claimants are winning Darwin awards left and right.
original article from Mashable.com
Haven’t had enough coffee this morning, so today’s post is just a simple link to some great book ideas from Seth Godin. If you don’t know who he is, read every one of his 9 best sellers first, then click on the link.
Books Written by Seth Godin
Books Recommended by Seth Godin
2 minutes after posting his last reading list, his new one came out! I haven’t read anything on his November list, but he has yet to make a bad recommendation! November reading list.
Just dawned on my that you might not know who Seth Godin is. He’s leading the charge on bringing new marketing ideas to entrepreneurs that are changing the world. Drop what you are doing and sign up for his blog. It comes out like clock work at 6:30 am or thereabouts every morning, and is always inspirational and thought provoking. Take a 5 minute break from Sportscenter and read this.
Shameless self-promotion: Like any of what you have read? Become a fan of ConstructionRiskadvisors on facebook.
Thanks for reading.
-Dan
It has come to my attention that there is a company out there that is piggy packing on well-known thermometer technology to prevent injuries related to lack of knowledge of slippery surfaces and the consequences there in of walking on them. The company is called IceAlert, and they have developed a pedestrian warning system that helps alert your customers to the potential for ice on your walkways and parking lots. It’s such a simple solution to an all too common general liability claim that occurs anywhere there is foot traffic and the potential for the temperature to dip below freezing, that I can’t believe no one had thought of it prior to now! The beauty of Icealert’s system lies in its simplicity. All you as a business or property owner, have to do is install about 10 of their signs/alert systems, and you are essentially warning your customers and employees that dangerous and slippery conditions exist, and that they need to slow down and walk more carefully. Then if they slip and fall because of their own clumsiness or lack of attention to the conditions around them, they have no one to blame but themselves for not heeding the warnings that you as the business owner have provided for them. Another upside to this system, is that any members of your staff doing salting or de-icing know when the temperature has slipped into the danger zone, and can appropriately react and prevent ice buildup on road and walkways on your property. Since no one has invented a cure for lack of common sense when ice exists, check out Icealert to winterize your cold weather risk management program.
By now you probably know a handful or more people who have been afflicted with H1N1/swine flu. Vaccinations have been in short supply nationwide, and healthy men who are physically active (construction workers) are not anywhere near the top of the list. So then what happens when a big portion of your laborers gets sick? You are spending all your time bidding work, just so you can get your laborers out in the field, doing what they do best. And now that you have bid the job, you have no one to complete it, because all of your “guys” are out with a contagious illness.
Sure, you could go to the union halls, but you’re a non-union contractor. Or you could drive by Home Depot in the morning, and see if anyone there understands how to safely perform a job in your trade. There are also plenty of out of work contractors on Craigslist who are looking for any kind of day labor they can get. So you’re thinking to yourself, “we’re gonna be ok, we have the manpower to do the job”. Then people start getting hurt, people who were being paid under the table so you could get the job done in the time that your bond stated you would. And now these workers, who supposedly were trained in your trade, are making errors and delaying the project more so than if your regular workforce was performing the job after it being on hold for a few days while everyone fought the cold. These workers are getting injured, and are not on your payroll, so the whole worker’s comp thing gets very complicated and can jack up your insurance costs over the next 3 years. We all know how important it is to keep those experience mods under 1 right now, so you can keep your ability to bid any job that you have the ability to effectively complete, and preventable accidents are not going to keep you, or get you back “into the black” So if you run into an issue where a lot of your key folks are getting sick, give them a few days to get better because the whole project will end up in better shape because of it. If you or your employees have any further questions on symptoms and treatments, send them to http://www.flu.gov/know.html. And construction company owners, if you need any help with this type of risk management or any other construction specific inquiries, head on over to www.constructionriskadvisors.com
