"They released me but I can't do it."

Why this happens so often

The physician does not know your job. "Released to full duty" is frequently written against a job title rather than actual duties — how much weight, how high, how often, on what surface, for how many hours.

The examination was short. A ten-minute visit does not reveal what eight hours of overhead work does.

And the release may have been written for something other than your capacity — a treatment plan ending, a benefit period expiring, a form that required a box to be checked.

What to do this week

1. Give the physician your actual job description, in writing. Weights, heights, frequencies, hours, surfaces, and equipment. If your employer has a written description, get it. If not, write your own and be specific.

2. Ask for the release to be reconsidered against those duties. This is a normal request and it is frequently granted, because the physician was working from incomplete information.

3. Try the work if it is safe to try — and document what happens. A documented failed attempt to return to work is among the most persuasive pieces of evidence in a workers' compensation case. It is far stronger than a prediction that you could not do it.

4. Report the symptoms immediately, in writing. Same day. To the employer and to the physician. An undocumented flare-up did not happen, as far as the record is concerned.

5. Do not just quit. Resigning can complicate temporary disability, the job displacement voucher, and any retaliation claim. Report the problem and let the record build.

If it does not get fixed

A medical-legal evaluation — a QME or AME — resolves a dispute about your work capacity. How that works.

And if the restrictions ultimately stand and you cannot return, that goes to the job displacement voucher, to permanent disability, and in a serious case to whether you can compete in the open labor market at all — which is the vocational route to 100% permanent total disability. How that is proved.

And if you get hurt again trying

A new injury while attempting to work within a release is generally a new industrial injury or a compensable consequence of the original one. Report it immediately as its own event. More on compensable consequences.