Benefits to employees who return to work early

Prevention of wage loss: Workers’ Compensation benefits replace only part of the employee’s wages. Further, there is usually a 3-day waiting period before industrial disability or temporary disability payments begin. The sooner an employee returns to work, the sooner her or his income will return to its pre-injury level.
Faster recuperation: Soft-tissue injures are one of the major sources of Workers’ Compensation claims. Current medical counsel dictates that only a limited amount of rest is necessary and that anything more can, in fact, be debilitating because muscles will begin to atrophy.
Positive social reintegration: Being away from work for too long a period is alienating, leaving the injured employee feeling out of the loop and forgotten by co-workers.
Avoidance of "disability syndrome": Being disabled can become a vicious cycle, a self-fulfilling downward spiral. The longer an employee stays out of the workplace, the more that employee is likely to perceive himself or herself as disabled and the more difficult it becomes to re-establish the more rigorous discipline of being in the workplace eight hours a day.
Improved self-worth: Most of us receive some satisfaction from our jobs, a sense of contributing our skills and abilities to the whole. That feeling is lost the longer an employee stays off work.