Please note: the following article was developed for educational purposes only and covers a wide variety of general workplace safety concerns and considerations, some not relevant to workers' compensation coverage or commercial auto coverage.
As Halloween approaches and jack-o'-lanterns light up doorsteps across America, there's something truly spine-chilling we need to discuss that has nothing to do with ghosts, goblins, or things that go “BOO!” in the night.
We're talking about real workplace injuries. The kind that make you wonder, "How on earth did that happen?" The kind that sound too bizarre to be true yet are unfortunately all too real.
In our 2025 State of Workplace Safety report and 2025 Employee Voice on Workplace Safety report, we asked employers and employees to share their real-life workplace safety horror stories. What we discovered was more frightening than any horror movie: from flying frozen fish to rogue pickles, from golf ball accidents to chairs that burned, these incidents reveal serious gaps in workplace safety protocols.
This spooky season, we're pulling back the curtain on the most unique workplace injuries of 2025 … not to scare you, but to help you prevent these nightmares from haunting your business in 2026.
Picture this: you're going about your workday when suddenly—WHAM!—you're knocked unconscious. Not by a masked intruder or a supernatural force, but by something far more mundane and, frankly, preventable.
One small business reported an employee who was knocked out after being hit in the head by a golf ball. The culprit? A coworker who simply refused to stop practicing their swing at work.
In another equally bewildering incident, an employee was knocked unconscious by a frozen fish that was propelled through the air by a malfunctioning conveyor belt. And if that's not enough to make you reconsider your workplace hazard assessment, consider the jackhammer spike that bounced 20 feet in the air and punctured an employee's shoulder.
While these may sound like freak accidents, they’re not as uncommon as you may think. According to the National Safety Council, contact with objects and equipment is the third leading cause of workplace fatalities, resulting in 779 worker deaths in 2023, with many more resulting in serious but non-fatal injuries.
Prevention strategies:
Sometimes the most devastating injuries come from the most unexpected sources. Take, for instance, the employee who slipped on a pickle in the lunchroom and cracked their spine. Yes, you read that correctly: a pickle. One small, briny cucumber changed someone's life forever.
Another worker tripped over a charging cable during a virtual reality demo and sprained their wrist which is a thoroughly modern workplace hazard that didn't exist a decade ago. And in perhaps the most bizarre sitting-related injury we've encountered, an employee broke their hip while sitting in a chair that was positioned too low.
According to the National Safety Council, slips, trips, and falls are among the leading causes of nonfatal workplace injuries, with hundreds of thousands of cases reported annually that result in days away from work. These incidents cost businesses billions in workers' compensation claims and lost productivity.
Prevention strategies:
Some of the most cringe-worthy injuries from 2025 involved extreme temperatures and the devastating burns that resulted when employees weren't properly warned or trained.
One employee reached into a fryer, forgetting the oil was over 500°F, resulting in serious burns. Another suffered third-degree burns after sitting on a freshly cleaned office chair that was still scorching hot. Even a seemingly harmless lightbulb became a hazard when a new employee burned herself on one, unaware of how hot they can get.
Burn injuries are among the most painful and costly workplace injuries, often requiring extensive medical treatment, skin grafts, and lengthy recovery periods. According to the American Burn Association, over 40,000 people are hospitalized annually due to burn injuries, with workplace burns accounting for thousands of cases each year.
Prevention strategies:
Not all workplace nightmares involve dramatic accidents or bizarre mishaps. Some of the most insidious injuries develop quietly over time, the result of chronic stress and overwhelming workload.
One particularly sobering story came from an employee who reported that a 40-something-year-old coworker developed shingles on her face near her eye due to work stress. This isn't just an isolated incident. It's a warning sign of a much larger problem as corroborated in our 2025 Employee Voice on Workplace Safety report which found that Mental health has overtaken physical injuries as the #1 employee safety concern.
The World Health Organization reports that depression and anxiety cost the global economy an estimated $1 trillion per year in lost productivity, with an estimated 12 billion working days lost annually. The American Psychological Association reports that work is a significant source of stress for the majority of American adults, with chronic stress contributing to serious health conditions including cardiovascular disease, weakened immune systems, and mental health disorders.
Prevention strategies:
Sometimes the most dangerous things in a workplace are the everyday items we use without a second thought. Well, until something goes horribly wrong.
A housekeeping worker accidentally sprayed chemicals in her eyes because the bottle was facing the wrong direction. An employee stapled their hand instead of the document they were working on. Flower pots fell from a height and injured employees below. And in an incident that sounds like a cartoon but had real consequences, an employee forgot to turn off the lights one day, leading to a blown fuse that caused burns to another employee the following day.
Chemical exposures account for thousands of workplace injuries annually. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that approximately 2,000 U.S. workers sustain job-related eye injuries requiring medical treatment each day, with chemical burns being particularly common and potentially devastating.
Prevention strategies:
Halloween is meant for fun scares, costumes, haunted houses, and horror movies we can turn off when they get too intense. But the workplace safety nightmares we've shared here? They're frighteningly real, and for the employees who experienced them, there's no off switch.
Behind every bizarre injury is a person whose life was disrupted, a family affected by their recovery, and a business grappling with the aftermath. These incidents also reveal potential safety gaps: inadequate safety protocols, insufficient training, workplace cultures that prioritize productivity over protection, and a concerning gap between what employers think is safe and what employees actually experience.
Our dual perspective research from both employers and employees revealed crucial insights into where workplace safety efforts are falling short. While many employers express confidence in their safety measures, employees often tell a different story, one of stress, overlooked hazards, and accidents waiting to happen.
According to the National Safety Council, workplace injuries cost American businesses over $170 billion annually when accounting for medical costs, lost productivity, and administrative expenses. But beyond the financial impact, there's an immeasurable human cost: pain, suffering, lost wages, and sometimes permanent disability.
This Halloween, as you enjoy the spooky festivities and hand out candy to trick-or-treaters, take a moment to consider the real horrors that can happen when workplace safety is treated as an afterthought. These stories might seem too strange to be true, but they happened to real people at real businesses, and they could happen at yours.
The question isn't whether your workplace has potential hazards (every workplace does), but whether you're taking proactive steps to identify and address them before they turn into your next nightmare scenario.
Don't let 2026 bring a new chapter of workplace horror stories. Review Pie’s workplace safety research to understand the full picture of workplace safety opportunities facing small businesses and their workers.
Because the only nightmares at work should be the Monday morning kind and not the kind that land someone in the emergency room.
About the Research:
Pie Insurance commissioned YouGov PLC to conduct surveys of both employers and employees. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Details on sample sizes and fieldwork dates can be found in the full 2025 State of Workplace Safety and 2025 Employee Voice on Workplace Safety reports.
Thanks for reading! This content is intended for educational purposes only and does not imply coverage under workers' comp or other insurance offered through Pie Insurance Services, Inc. Please consult an agent or attorney for any questions regarding applicability of insurance.
