Helping Injured Construction Workers Recover and Transition After A Construction Accidents

Our law firm often meets injured construction workers who have suffered bad falls due to unstable scaffolding or faulty ladders. Still others request our help while recovering from serious injuries caused by falling objects on their construction sites. Although some workers do incur catastrophic injuries, many clients experience remarkable recoveries after undergoing surgeries and targeted rehabilitation programs.

Various medical & human resource professionals play key roles in client health journeys

As clients’ cases move toward settlement, occupational and physical therapists often teach them how to draw upon their past work experiences as they learn new job skills. Even those who must adapt to permanent physical limitations can often find new ways to earn a living. Hospital social workers, family members, or friends can help you make a list of the different types of jobs that now interest or attract you.

While your first job retraining opportunities will likely be offered to you after filing a New York worker’s compensation claim, you may need to wait much longer to pursue a new job. It can take many months (and sometimes years) to fully heal and regain enough strength to work again after some injuries.

Fortunately, New York City offers excellent resources for qualified workers seeking new job training. In fact, NYC Small Business Services provides online resources that can help you navigate the current in-person and online training opportunities. Be sure to always seek competitive or basic “living wages” so that you and your family can once again try to create savings for the future.

The following material briefly reviews some of the Bronx construction site injuries that often cause many of our clients to change jobs (and sometimes retire). It also looks at the specific types of jobs that often interest those who must leave the construction industry. Many highly skilled workers choose to teach newcomers and younger people how to properly perform the tasks that served them well throughout their first career.

Serious and catastrophic construction site injuries that can require retirement or new jobs

• Traumatic brain injuries. Recovery chances nearly always depend on whether specific types of cognitive (analytical or “thinking”) skills are affected. Some surgeries and long-term therapy programs can help people realize significant cognitive improvements.
• Spinal cord injuries. SCIs and TBIs usually present the greatest recovery challenges to our clients. Falls off ladders or poorly constructed scaffolding cause many of these injuries. Yet if workers can regain the full use of one or both arms – or if they choose to enter a new field like formal mentorship or teaching – they can find new jobs.
• Severe burns Injuries. Although clients’ recovery periods are often lengthy and painful, they can frequently find challenging new full- or part-time job opportunities.
• Fractured or crushed bone injuries. Depending on the precise body parts damaged and rehabilitation therapy outcomes, these challenges can be hard to overcome. Yet dictation software and other assistive technologies help many determined people enter new job fields.

While this list isn’t intended to be comprehensive, it does document many of the challenges that Bronx construction accident survivors can face if they try to return to work – even at much later dates.

Our Bronx construction accident law firm will make sure that all third-party safety or other government-related claims are included in any lawsuit we file on your behalf. All added recovery sums can help you and your family members pay your bills while you wait to see if additional rehabilitation therapies can help you work again in the future.

Type of new careers some non-management level construction workers may want to pursue

• Carpentry/Woodworking. Many of the skills you mastered on construction sites can readily serve you well in directly related professions – assuming you have not suffered permanent harm to your eyes or hands. Some skilled craftspeople also make a successful transition into cabinetmaking.
• Building maintenance and groundskeeper. While working at a city, state, or federal building might offer you the most job security, many private companies – as well as schools and universities — will likely appreciate your past construction site experience.
• Teaching skills classes for your trade union, a local high school, or even community college classes. Ironworkers, welders, construction site vehicle mechanics, and others often discover that they have highly useful skills they can teach to students. Any certification or licenses required to pursue these types of careers should be well worth the investment. You can always sit in on classes like these and speak with current instructors to learn more about their job satisfaction before pursuing such work. Many older workers find it quite meaningful to train the next generation of young people entering their field.
• Private plumbing work. Any construction site experience you gained while handling plumbing tasks may transfer readily to work outside that field. However, you must be sure you have fully regained your best health. After all, plumbers must be very careful to guard against slips and falls, eye injuries, breathing difficulties, and different types of harm caused by routine exposure to extremes of hot and cold.

Given the physical wear and tear many plumbers endure – you may find it preferable to teach new students the tricks of the trade that served you well in this demanding field. Highly experienced plumbers can play a crucial role in preventing a vast number of accidents that young people simply cannot fully anticipate.

Some of the new career options named below may also be suitable for other construction workers who did not gain any management or construction project oversight experience.

Contact our team at (212) 222-1111 for your free case evaluation.

New careers for injured management-level construction workers

• Professional building inspector. Chances are, you already know quite a bit about this profession since city inspectors often visit new building construction sites and various renovation projects. Your past supervisory or management skills may even help you make a lateral switch to this type of job – possibly even earning close to your former salary if you stay in this new field for an extended period.
• Construction site drone operator. Many past construction workers are now looking into this field – unrelated to past injuries. As one recent commercial business article noted, the use of drones on construction sites is clearly changing the industry – and likely for the better. If you enter this field, you can help both private entrepreneurs, as well as the city government. The latter has an impossible inspection schedule that can be aided by skilled construction site drone operators.
• Commercial sales positions. Your hard-earned knowledge about all the lumber and equipment that must be ordered and used on numerous construction projects can prove invaluable to both commercial realtors – or local stores like Home Depot. Just be sure to avoid undervaluing your worth to these employers (while still expressing a humble desire to learn how to successfully work in their environments). Many of these jobs are often offered on either a full – or part-time basis.

New career realities that may require limited sacrifices – yet one day benefit you

• Drop in income. While many jobs do not pay as much money as outdoor construction jobs – the full range of trade-offs can still be very worthwhile. However, if you stick with your new job for a few years – you may be able to approach your prior income level (especially if you start doing some self-employment work on the side).

 Be sure to consult the useful online learning resources that can help you start a side business and learn to run it properly. Special loans are even available for a limited number of small business entrepreneurs.

• You may need to actively learn how to draw your inspiration and sense of achievement from your new tasks. Keep in mind that almost all viable businesses would fail if they did not have an often unseen yet well-trained support staff.

 Allow yourself to develop strong self-esteem regardless of any new assigned job tasks. An honest day’s work is not only satisfying – it can help you support your family or attain other goals that benefit people beyond your own circle of influence.

• Find new ways to keep in touch with others in person and online. If you know you are a “people person” or enjoy brainstorming with others while doing your work, ask job training professionals to help you find a position that will help you meet these needs.

 Should your new job not offer such opportunities, then seriously consider entering mentoring programs that let you use your past or current job skills to help train others. Likewise, stay open to becoming the protégé of someone else so your own work can steadily improve based on this other person’s background. Depending on your own skill levels, you can also consider joining a trade union. They often offer many meaningful ways to help train others who enjoy learning useful job skills.

Finally, be willing to enter some of these jobs on a part-time basis if you still need added time to heal from your injuries. Many new employers will work with you – especially once they see that you’re highly dependable and get along with other staff members.

If you have suffered serious physical injuries after a construction accident caused by someone else’s negligence, you need to contact our Bronx construction accident injury law firm. We will carefully investigate all the facts of your case, review all your medical records, and then fight hard to win the maximum compensation available to you. We want every client to fully recover for all lost wages, pain and suffering, medical expenses, and other losses.

Contact our team at (212) 222-1111 for your free case evaluation.