While store owners may rub their hands at the prospect of crowded stores and ringing tills, if you are the one that needs to serve all those extra customers, there is less to celebrate.
The festive rush means extended hours, busier days and less rest. When combined with other factors, that means an increased likelihood of accidents and injury.
This year could be even tougher for store workers
Stores typically hire seasonal workers to help out during the busiest few weeks. Yet, many employers are already struggling for staff and have been the whole year. Workers across the nation have become more selective about the employment they take, leaving many employers short. Standing on your feet all day, amid crowds of people, for relatively low pay is not the most attractive offer.
What increases injury risk in the upcoming weeks?
Let’s say your store sees 200 customers on an average day. The week before Christmas and during the New Year sales, it rises to 1,000 per day. Here is how that might affect you:
- Customers get angry: There’s one flat-screen television left at the sale price, and two customers want it. People sometimes come to blows over such things, and if you are in the middle, you may get harmed.
- Inexperienced workers make mistakes: Usually, you mop the floor each morning and put out the warning signs. You are needed on the tills, so it falls to the seasonal staff. One of them forgets to put out the cones, and you slip and fall on the still-wet floor.
- You have to do everything faster: You need to get a box of shoes down from the storeroom. Usually, you have a colleague hold the ladder, but they are busy, so you climb it alone. The ladder slips, and you fall.
- You and your colleagues are more tired due to the extra work: Who is more likely to make a mistake that ends up in injury? Well-rested employees, or ones who are exhausted after the busiest week of the year?
If you are injured at work, at the very least, it will put a downer on your holiday season. Yet, many workplace injuries cause long-lasting damage. Finding out how to claim workers’ compensation benefits will be crucial.
