If you work from home you might be glad to skip the drive to the office. However, you still technically “commute” even though it might be a walk from one room to another. If you get injured on that short route, you might be eligible for worker’s comp. A man in Germany got out of bed and walked downstairs to start working at his desk. Then, he tripped on the stairs and broke his back.  He decided to file an insurance claim though work that said he was technically “commuting” and the court AGREED.

There are already laws in the U.S. to allow for worker’s comp if you’re injured while working from home.  The strange part about the court in Germany is how they ruled. It only applied because he was on his way to his desk for the first time that day.  If he’d stopped at his desk but then gone to his kitchen to grab breakfast and fell while doing that, it might not have counted.