Accident vs. Incident

In the Walmart World, there are two levels of employee mishaps.

The first level is called an "incident." This simply means that you have hurt yourself in some manner. The associate is supposed to tell a member of management that they have run into a cart, cut themselves with a knife, whatever. The manager than has the associate fill out a one page report on what actually happened.

The second level is called an "accident." An incident becomes an accident if the associate has to see a doctor. Then there is a lot more paperwork that has to be done.

Confused? Here's a scenario:

George trips over a pallet and stubs his toe. This is an incident. He is not hurt badly, he just stubbed his toe. George gets home and takes off his shoes and his wife screams loudly because his toe is the size of a large dill pickle. She takes him to Urgent Care where the doctor tells him it is just badly bruised. This has just become an accident simply because he went to the doctor. How badly the associate is hurt has nothing to do with whether it is considered an incident or an accident.

Does that make sense?