Report it now. Not next shift. Not after the weekend. Not when your supervisor "gets around to the paperwork." If you were hurt at work in New Hampshire and the boss is telling you to wait, that is exactly when you should assume the delay could be used against you later.

Here's the part most people don't realize: there are two different timelines moving at once. One is your notice to the employer. The other is the employer's obligation to report the injury into the workers' compensation system. Those are not the same thing, and your employer dragging their feet does not protect you.

In plain English, if you slip on a wet floor in a Manchester warehouse, wrench your back lifting in Nashua, get burned in a kitchen in Portsmouth, or breathe something nasty at a jobsite in Concord, you need to tell the employer as soon as possible and make sure there is a record of it.

Because once the story gets rewritten, it gets ugly fast.

A supervisor who says, "Let's just see how you feel tomorrow," may be trying to avoid a claim. Maybe they don't want a reportable incident. Maybe they think you'll shake it off. Maybe they just don't give a damn about what happens if your shoulder locks up three days later. Either way, waiting is how workers end up hearing this garbage from an insurance adjuster: if it was serious, why didn't you report it right away?

What New Hampshire employers are supposed to do

Under New Hampshire's workers' compensation law, the employer or self-insurer is supposed to record the injury and report it promptly. If the employer learns about the injury, there is a deadline to file the First Report of Injury. The state also requires additional reporting if the disability goes beyond a short period.

That matters because plenty of workers think the boss "opened a claim" when all that really happened was a quick hallway conversation. No form. No carrier notice. No useful paper trail.

If your employer says they will handle it, fine. But do not treat that as mission accomplished.

What you should do the same day

• Tell a supervisor you were hurt at work, and say what happened.
• Put it in writing by text or email if you can.
• Name the body part and the date, time, and place.
• Get medical care and tell the provider it happened at work.
• Keep copies of everything, including discharge papers and work notes.

That written notice matters more than people think. If you say, "I hurt my hand at the shop on South Willow Street around 2 p.m. when the machine jammed," that is a lot harder to deny later than a vague conversation no one remembers.

New Hampshire also uses a specific notice form for accidental injury or occupational disease, but the big issue at the start is simpler than that: make the injury impossible to pretend never happened.

And yes, this includes injuries that seem minor at first.

Especially those.

A lot of work injuries in New Hampshire do not look dramatic on day one. A shoulder strain after hauling materials in Salem. A knee twist on ice in a parking lot after a March thaw and overnight refreeze. A breathing problem after dust, fumes, or chemical exposure at a plant or cleanup site. Spring in New Hampshire is sloppy, wet, and full of freeze-thaw nonsense. People go down on mud, black ice, metal stairs, loading docks, and half-cleared walkways all the time. What feels like "just sore" on Friday can turn into missed work by Monday.

If your boss says not to report it yet

That is a red flag.

Maybe not always malicious. Sometimes it's plain ignorance. Small employers in Belknap County or Coos County are not always great at paperwork. But if someone in management tells you to wait, keep it off the books, use your own health insurance, or "see how it goes," they are asking you to take the risk while they keep their options open.

Bad deal.

If you use your own health insurance without making clear that the injury happened at work, the records may start off wrong. Then later everybody fights about causation. The carrier says your treatment wasn't tied to the job. The employer says you never reported it properly. The medical chart says the pain started "at home" because the intake desk got the story wrong. Now you're burning weeks fixing something that should have been documented correctly the first day.

What if you already waited a few days?

Then report it now anyway.

Do not talk yourself into staying quiet because you missed the ideal window. People delay for all kinds of reasons. They think they'll get fired. They don't want to look weak. The pain gets worse slowly. They work a weekend shift and figure they'll mention it Monday. That happens.

What matters next is whether you stop the delay from getting worse.

Send the message. State that the injury happened at work. Be specific. If there were witnesses, name them. If there is video, say so before it disappears. If you were seen by an urgent care in Londonderry, Dover, Keene, or anywhere else, make sure the chart reflects that this was work-related.

The money issue people learn about too late

Workers' comp wage benefits in New Hampshire do not kick in for the first three days of disability unless the disability runs long enough under the statute. So if you miss only a short stretch, that can affect what gets paid and when. That is one more reason employers sometimes act casual at the start. They know a confused worker may go back, tough it out, and never push the claim forward.

Meanwhile the medical side of the claim can still matter a lot, even when the missed time is short.

A hand injury that keeps you on light duty. A back injury that needs imaging. A chemical exposure that turns into breathing problems a week later. A fall that seems minor until the headaches start. The first report and the first medical record are where those cases either stay clean or become a mess.

If your boss says wait, the safest translation is this: report it now, in writing, and make sure the medical record says it happened on the job.