A coworker shoved a coffee stirrer into his ear hard enough to burst his eardrum, and when he brought the ER paperwork to his boss, he’s the one who got fired after a workers comp claim was about to be filed. Not the coworker who assaulted him. Not the manager who never filed an incident report. The guy with the ruptured eardrum and hospital bills got walked out. If that sounds like something that can’t possibly be legal, you’re right to question it.
The post hit r/legaladvice like a brick through a window. Over 3,500 upvotes. Hundreds of comments. And the story only got worse the more you read.
“I work at a drive thru and one of my coworkers stuck a coffee stick in my ear really hard and busted my ear drum. I went to the ER and they confirmed my ear drum was busted. I brought the paper work from the ER to my work expecting them to fire the guy who did it to me and to start my workers comp. Instead, they fired ME.”
Read that again. He went to the emergency room. Got documentation. Brought it to work like you’re supposed to. Did everything by the book. And the response wasn’t “let’s get you taken care of” or “we’re looking into this.” It was a termination.
Here’s the part that made me stop scrolling.
“My boss went back 2 weeks in camera footage to find something on me. He claimed I was ‘stealing’ because I set aside cash from a short order where the customer drove off without paying enough, and I asked a coworker to put it in the drawer later. The coworker who assaulted me wasn’t fired. No incident report was ever filed.”
So the boss didn’t fire the employee who committed assault in the workplace. Instead, the boss allegedly went digging through two weeks of security footage to manufacture a reason to terminate the injured worker. A short order where the customer drove off. Cash set aside. Asked someone else to put it in the drawer. That’s the “theft” they landed on.
And it gets worse. No incident report was ever filed for the ear injury. Not by the manager. Not by anyone. The assault itself was apparently treated like it never happened. The only paper trail was the ER visit the poster paid for himself.
The coworker who jammed a coffee stirrer into another human being’s ear canal hard enough to rupture the eardrum? Still employed. Still working shifts. No consequences.
If you’ve ever worked food service or retail, you know the pattern. Something happens, you report it, and suddenly management is going frame by frame through old camera footage looking for anything they can use against you. It’s a move that reeks of retaliation, and the r/legaladvice commenters spotted it immediately.
“Workers comp lawyer here. Get a lawyer asap. You can still get WC even if fired. You may also have a retaliation claim. One of the best defenses against a WC claim is delays in reporting, that manager might lie about when you reported it.”
That commenter nailed two critical points that most people don’t know. First: getting fired doesn’t kill your workers comp claim. Second: the employer’s next move is often to dispute the timeline. Suddenly they “don’t recall” when you reported the injury, and without that incident report they never filed, it becomes your word against theirs.
Being Fired After a Workers Comp Claim Doesn’t End Your Right to Benefits
This is the single biggest misconception I see in these threads, and it’s the one that costs people the most. Your right to workers compensation benefits doesn’t evaporate because your employer terminated you. Workers comp is tied to the injury and when it happened, not to your current employment status. You could be fired the same day you file. You could be fired a month later. The claim survives.
Every state runs its own workers comp system, but the core principle is the same everywhere: if you were injured during the course and scope of employment, you’re entitled to file. Period. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs oversees federal employee claims, and each state has its own workers comp board or commission that handles private-sector claims. Your employer can’t undo the injury by firing you, and they can’t undo your right to file by pretending it didn’t happen. If you’re dealing with a similar situation, our breakdown of your workplace injury rights covers the legal details.
What they can do, and what this poster’s boss apparently tried to do, is create enough confusion and delay that you give up. That’s the playbook. Fire the worker. Manufacture a misconduct reason so it looks unrelated. Never file the incident report. Hope the worker doesn’t know they can still claim benefits.
It works more often than you’d think. A lot of people in low-wage jobs, especially young workers in food service, don’t know their rights. They get fired, they’re scared, they’re dealing with a medical issue, and they just move on. That’s what the employer is banking on.
Why Digging Through Old Footage Screams Retaliation
Let’s talk about what the boss actually did here, because the timing tells you everything.
The poster gets injured. Goes to the ER. Brings documentation to work. And the boss’s response isn’t to address the workplace assault or file an incident report. It’s to go back two weeks in security footage looking for a terminable offense. That sequence of events is textbook workers comp retaliation, and it’s illegal in virtually every state.
Most states have specific anti-retaliation statutes that protect workers who file or attempt to file workers comp claims. In many jurisdictions, firing someone for filing a claim (or even for expressing intent to file) creates a separate cause of action entirely. You don’t just get workers comp benefits. You get a retaliation lawsuit on top of it. Some states allow double or triple damages for retaliatory termination. Some allow recovery of lost wages, emotional distress, and attorney fees.
The key to a retaliation claim is timing and pretext. When an employer fires someone days after a workplace injury, and the stated reason is something they dug up from weeks-old footage? That’s the kind of fact pattern that makes employment lawyers pick up the phone fast.
Courts look at what’s called “temporal proximity,” which is just a legal way of asking: how close together were the protected activity (filing for workers comp) and the adverse action (getting fired)? When those two things happen within days of each other, the employer needs a very convincing explanation for why the termination had nothing to do with the claim. “We went back two weeks in footage and found a cash handling irregularity” isn’t going to cut it when the same employer didn’t fire the person who committed assault.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission tracks retaliation as the most frequently filed charge in workplace discrimination cases. While workers comp retaliation is handled under state law rather than federal anti-discrimination law, the pattern is identical. Employers who retaliate don’t usually announce it. They find a pretext. They dig for something. They suddenly discover a policy violation that nobody cared about until the worker became inconvenient.
The Incident Report That Never Existed
Here’s a detail that should worry anyone who’s been hurt at work: the manager never filed an incident report. That’s not just sloppy management. It’s potentially a violation of OSHA recordkeeping requirements.
Under OSHA’s recordkeeping standard, employers with more than ten employees are required to record work-related injuries and illnesses. A ruptured eardrum from a workplace assault absolutely qualifies. The employer is supposed to document it on an OSHA 300 log and ensure proper reporting. Failing to do so is itself a violation that can result in OSHA penalties.
But here’s why it matters for the worker’s case specifically. That workers comp lawyer in the comments flagged it: “One of the best defenses against a WC claim is delays in reporting.” If the manager never created an incident report, the employer can later claim they didn’t know about the injury. They can say the worker never reported it, or reported it late, or that the injury didn’t really happen at work. Without internal documentation on the employer’s side, the worker’s own ER records and testimony become the only evidence of the timeline.
This is why the commenter’s advice to “get a lawyer ASAP” was so urgent. Every day that passes without the claim being formally filed is a day the employer can use to build their “we didn’t know” defense. A workers comp attorney can file the claim properly, preserve the timeline, and make sure the employer’s failure to document actually works against them rather than against you.
You can also file a complaint directly with OSHA about the failure to record the injury. That creates a separate paper trail that the employer can’t control or disappear.
What You Should Do If This Happens to You
If you’ve been fired after getting hurt at work, or you can feel the termination coming, the order of operations matters more than you think.
File your workers comp claim immediately. Don’t wait for your employer to do it, because as this story shows, they might never do it. In most states, you can file directly with your state workers compensation board. Every state has different filing deadlines, and they’re strict. In some states, you’ve as few as 30 days to report the injury to your employer. The statute of limitations for filing the actual claim ranges from one to three years depending on your state, but the sooner you file, the harder it’s for anyone to mess with the timeline.
Document everything yourself. Don’t rely on your employer’s records, because they might not make any. Keep your ER records, your diagnosis, photos of any visible injury, text messages about the incident, screenshots of your work schedule showing you were on shift when it happened. If you told your manager about the injury, write down exactly when, where, and what you said while it’s fresh. If any coworkers witnessed the injury or the conversation with your boss, get their names and contact information now, before the employer has a chance to influence what they remember.
Get a workers comp attorney before you do anything else. Most workers comp lawyers work on contingency, meaning they don’t get paid unless you get benefits. The consultation is almost always free. Don’t try to handle this yourself, especially if you’ve already been fired. The employer has already shown they’re willing to play dirty. You need someone who knows the system.
If you believe you were fired in retaliation for filing or attempting to file a workers comp claim, that’s a separate legal action from the workers comp claim itself. Some states handle retaliation claims through the workers comp system. Others require you to file in civil court. An attorney can tell you which applies in your state and whether you’ve grounds for both. Many workers in this situation end up with two claims running simultaneously: the workers comp claim for the injury, and a retaliation or wrongful termination claim for being fired.
You should also consider filing a complaint with your state labor board or department of labor. While they won’t handle your individual case the way a private attorney will, a complaint creates an official record of the employer’s conduct. If the employer has a pattern of retaliating against injured workers, your complaint could be the one that triggers an investigation.
And don’t forget the assault itself. A coworker deliberately injuring you is a criminal matter. Filing a police report creates yet another independent record of what happened and when. It also opens the door to a personal injury claim against the coworker, which is separate from both the workers comp claim and any retaliation claim against the employer. A ruptured eardrum isn’t minor. It can cause hearing loss, chronic pain, and recurring infections. The medical costs alone can be significant.
One more thing that doesn’t get said enough in these threads. If you’re working in food service, retail, or any hourly job and you get hurt, your employer isn’t your friend in that moment. Their insurance company is already calculating exposure. Their manager is already thinking about liability. The instinct to handle it “in-house” or trust that your boss will do the right thing is understandable, but it’s exactly the instinct that gets people in situations like this poster’s. Protect yourself first. File your claim. Get your documentation. Talk to a lawyer. Everything else is secondary.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still file for workers comp if I’ve already been fired?
Yes. Being fired doesn’t eliminate your right to workers compensation benefits. Workers comp is tied to the injury and when it occurred during your employment, not your current job status. As long as the injury happened while you were employed and within the course and scope of your work, you can file a claim even after termination. Every state has filing deadlines though, so you should file as soon as possible. Most states allow between one and three years from the date of injury, but some require you to notify your employer within 30 days.
What counts as workers comp retaliation?
Workers comp retaliation occurs when an employer takes adverse action against you because you filed, attempted to file, or expressed intent to file a workers compensation claim. Adverse actions include termination, demotion, reduced hours, pay cuts, harassment, or reassignment to undesirable duties. Most states have specific anti-retaliation statutes that make this illegal. The key evidence is usually timing (how close the adverse action was to the protected activity) and pretext (whether the employer’s stated reason for the action holds up under scrutiny). If your employer suddenly discovers a fireable offense right after you report a workplace injury, that’s a strong indicator of retaliation.
Does my employer have to file an incident report when I’m injured at work?
Under OSHA’s recordkeeping standard, most employers with more than ten employees are required to record work-related injuries and illnesses on an OSHA 300 log. Certain industries have recording requirements regardless of size. If your employer fails to document a workplace injury, that’s a potential OSHA violation you can report. More practically, the lack of an employer-filed incident report can complicate your workers comp claim because the employer may later deny knowledge of the injury. This is why creating your own documentation (ER records, photos, written timeline, witness names) is so critical.
Can I sue my employer for firing me after a workplace injury?
In most states, yes. If you can show the termination was motivated by your workers comp filing or your intent to file, you may have a retaliatory discharge or wrongful termination claim. This is a separate legal action from your workers comp claim. Depending on your state, you may be able to recover lost wages, benefits, emotional distress damages, and in some cases punitive damages. Some states also award attorney fees to workers who prove retaliation. You’ll need an employment attorney or workers comp attorney to evaluate whether your specific facts support a retaliation claim under your state’s law.
Should I file a police report if a coworker assaults me at work?
Yes. A deliberate physical assault by a coworker is a criminal act regardless of where it happens. Filing a police report creates an independent, time-stamped record of the incident that your employer can’t alter or suppress. It also preserves your option to pursue a personal injury claim against the individual coworker, which is separate from your workers comp claim against the employer. Even if you’re unsure whether you want to press charges, the police report itself is valuable documentation for both your workers comp case and any potential retaliation claim.
How much does a workers comp lawyer cost?
Most workers comp attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, meaning they take a percentage of your benefits award rather than charging upfront. The percentage varies by state but is typically between 15% and 25%, and many states cap attorney fees in workers comp cases. Initial consultations are almost always free. If you also have a retaliation or wrongful termination claim, fee arrangements for that portion may differ. The bottom line is that cost shouldn’t stop you from calling a lawyer, especially when you’ve been fired and the employer is already building their defense.
