A lockout or violation can feel like your job is on pause, even when you're ready to move forward. For employers, it can feel just as disruptive because staffing plans and compliance requirements collide fast. The truth is that most return cases don't fail because people refuse to cooperate. They fail because the steps are completed out of order, documents don't match, or follow-ups get missed when work gets busy again. A return plan should be predictable, verifiable, and easy to track across changing sites and supervisors.