Here's the contrast nobody's talking about: New Zealand workplaces are getting safer in almost every measurable way. Fewer people are falling off ladders, fewer are getting crushed by machinery, fewer are breaking bones on construction sites.

And yet 9,768 workers filed ACC claims last year for compression syndrome. Carpal tunnel. Trapped nerves. Repetitive strain injuries. The kind of damage that builds up over months of typing, clicking, lifting, gripping. (Source: Stats NZ, work-injuries-by-industry)

That's the highest figure since 2009. Back then, New Zealand had fewer office workers, fewer people staring at screens for eight hours straight, fewer warehouse staff scanning barcodes until their wrists gave out.

The trajectory tells the story. In 2021, compression syndrome claims dropped to 6,378. For a moment, it looked like the problem was solving itself. Then it spiked: 9,714 in 2022, 9,039 in 2023, and now 9,768 in 2024.

What happened between 2021 and 2022? We came back to the office. Hybrid work ended for many. Kitchen tables were swapped for hot desks with monitors at the wrong height. Ergonomic assessments became something HR mentioned once in an induction email, then never again.

Compression injuries are invisible until they're not. You don't collapse at your desk. You just notice your fingers are numb when you wake up. Your wrist aches after an hour of spreadsheets. You shake out your hand between emails. Then one day you can't open a jar, can't hold a pen, can't sleep because the pain wakes you at 3am.

These aren't minor inconveniences. Severe carpal tunnel requires surgery. Recovery takes months. Some people never regain full strength or sensation. And unlike a broken leg, there's no dramatic moment to point to. Just thousands of identical movements, repeated until something gives.

The numbers suggest we've traded one type of workplace danger for another. Fewer people are being crushed by forklifts. More are being broken down by bad posture and repetitive tasks.

Here's what makes this worse: compression injuries are almost entirely preventable. Adjustable desks. Proper keyboard trays. Regular breaks. Rotation between tasks. Equipment that fits human hands instead of forcing hands to adapt to equipment.

But prevention costs money upfront. Treatment costs ACC money later, and costs workers their hands, their careers, their ability to pick up their kids without wincing.

So while we celebrate falling accident rates - and we should - we're quietly building an epidemic of injuries that won't show up in the news. No ambulances. No investigations. Just 9,768 people last year who filed paperwork saying their body couldn't keep up with their job anymore.