“I got hurt at a company event.”

The whole case is “reasonable expectancy”

Not whether attendance was formally mandatory. The question is whether an employee in your position would reasonably understand that participation was expected.

Facts that point toward coverage:

• The event was on work time or partly on work time
• It was on the employer’s premises
• The employer paid for it and organized it
• A supervisor asked you to attend — even casually, even without saying “required”
• Attendance was taken, tracked, or noticed
• Non-attendance had consequences, or was believed to
• It served a business purpose — team building, training, recruiting, client entertainment, a safety meeting, a charity event the company sponsored
• You were paid, reimbursed, or given a stipend for going
• The activity is part of the job’s normal expectations — a sales dinner, a client golf outing, a recruiting event

Facts that point away:

• Purely social, off-site, off-hours, organized by coworkers rather than the company
• Genuinely optional, with a real and known freedom not to attend
• No business purpose

Where this comes up

The holiday party. Fact-intensive, and frequently compensable where attendance was expected and the employer hosted and paid.

Team-building and offsites. Usually the strongest cases — they exist for a business purpose.

Company sports leagues. Turns on how the team was organized, whether the employer paid, and whether supervisors recruited players.

Charity walks, runs, and rides the company sponsors — especially where employees were solicited by management.

Client golf, dinners, and entertainment. Often squarely within the job for anyone in a sales or business development role.

Employer-sponsored fitness activities and wellness challenges.

And public safety is different. Firefighters and peace officers have separate rules for injuries during physical training and off-duty activities. Public safety presumptions.

What to preserve now

The invitation. Email, Slack, flyer, calendar entry — exact wording matters enormously. “Please join us” reads differently from “All staff are expected to attend.”

Who asked you. A supervisor’s request is materially different from a coworker’s.

Whether it was on paid time, and any reimbursement or stipend.

Who else went, and whether anyone declined without consequence.

The employer’s stated purpose for the event.

And write down the conversation in which you were asked, while you remember the words.