It was only a bump on the head, right?-- There would be no reason to report something small, or at least this may be similar to something you say to yourself if you get hurt at work. Unfortunately, not reporting an accident immediately at work can have more negative consequences than what you realize. Here are four negative consequences you could face by pretending initially that nothing happened.  

1. Your injury could get a lot worse later--at home. - The biggest concern after you have been injured in any way on the job is your health. Even major injuries can seem like no big deal at first because you may still be in shock when it happens. For example, even deeper cuts in the hand can hurt way less than just a minor skin injury, such as a paper cut. Therefore, a cut could be really bad without you realizing it until later on. If you wait until later to go for medical attention, there could be more damage because you waited. 

2. Your employer may try to say you were injured before you ever came to work. - If you do not report an accident right away, you may think that reporting the accident the next morning at work will be fine. However, by then your employer could claim that the injury never happened on the premises because your didn't report it right away, and, therefore, they should not be held responsible.

3. Your employer may claim you had something to hide. - By not reporting your accident immediately, you may be inadvertently telling your employer that you felt you had something to hide. They may assume that you had drugs or alcohol in your system or even that you were acting in an unsafe manner, disregarding safety rules when you were injured.

4. You may have a hard time winning a workers comp case. - The longer you wait to file a report about an accident, the more opportunities your employer will have to try to find a way to get out of paying for your injury. 

The bottom line is, no matter how miniscule you think your injury may be, or how embarrassed you are that it happened at work, it must be reported to your employer. In addition, you should consult a workers comp attorney (such as one from Prediletto, Halpin, Scharnikow & Nelson, P.S.) to help guide you through the filing process to ensure you are treated fairly.