From Bob's Cluttered Desk

There can be little doubt that robots are coming. We see automation and robotics popping up everywhere, from self serve fast food kiosks to warehouse product management. It is said that by 2025 fully 50% of jobs that exist today will be automated. This, along with rapidly changing demographics, will have huge economic effects, and…

I was on the website LinkedIn last week when a users update caught my eye. I don’t know why it did; I was connected to the LinkedIn Member, but did not know her. The post was simply titled “Quilter surprised to receive photo of Marine amputee years later“, and it was written by Susie Wright,…

I've written a fair amount about Sandy Blunt. When I first started writing about him, the former Director of North Dakota's Workforce Safety & Insurance had experienced an incredible injustice at the hands of the state who employed him. I had only met him once, but felt strongly about the terrible way he had been…

You would think a judge would know better. But then again, since he was also the local cemetery Sexton, perhaps he was too busy to educate himself to the finer points of law regarding workers’ compensation fraud. And since he has been convicted of one crime related to the former position and is under indictment…

Former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels once famously said that living next to Illinois is like living next door to the Simpsons, “that dysfunctional family down the street”. Daniels made the comment while his state was the beneficiary of Illinois’ continued problems in getting their fiscal house in order, and employers were busily moving jobs to…

If there is one thing that we understand in the workers’ compensation business, it is that accidents happen on the job; and when they happen people sometimes get hurt. Still, even in the environment where we are accustomed to errors and incidents in the workplace, we don’t normally have to deal with colossal mistakes that…

Imagine if you will a person within a company that, while not managing specific claims or files, can coordinate all benefit activities, including the administration of workers' compensation. They would have direct access to all employees out on leave or off the job, regardless of whether the issue is FMLA, ADA or workers' comp. They…

The Keynote at this week’s DMEC Annual Conference in San Francisco provided an interesting presentation about generational shifts and differences happening in the workplace today. The speaker, best selling author Lindsey Pollak, a seemingly disgruntled Gen-X’r (not really) and “nationally recognized Millennial workplace expert”, gave the audience an informative and entertaining look at the generational…

There is far more to Disability Management than just the embracing of workers' compensation and it's injury related issues. That does not mean, however, that the workers' compensation community should not fully embrace the concept of Disability Management. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be happening.  I am attending the annual conference of the Disability…