It is also important to note that recovery of compensation benefits does not always depend on an employee's ability to pinpoint a specific incident that leads to an injury. Some conditions are caused by repetitive actions included in the everyday requirements of the specific job function for which the employee was hired. These conditions, called chronic trauma, can range from carpal tunnel syndrome to back ailments. They differ from the normal stresses one's body experiences. Compensation will not be awarded for typical strains.
Some factors distinguish chronic trauma from ordinary wear and tear.
For example, one way to determine if the injury is caused by chronic trauma is if the particular stress is a characteristic of the job or common to everyday activity. Two more ways to characterize the injury is if the symptoms developed suddenly or gradually and if they occurred during a particularly stressful period of time that may have triggered the injury. Travel injuries may be overlooked in terms of workers' compensation benefits by employees injured while not on the job site. If an employee is traveling by request of the employer on a business trip, delivering goods or performing a customer service call and is injured within the course of travel, the injury might be compensable. Many other injuries and related circumstances are compensable under the Massachusetts Workers' Compensation Act, most of which are impossible to list because of the uniqueness of each situation.