The aim was to examine how workers with repetitive strain injuries (RSIs)/ work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) experience sickness, by drawing upon the notions of "experience of illness" and "disease narratives". The narrative interview technique and thematic analysis were used to understand the categories emerging from the discourse of the eight participants in this study. The results indicated that "body inefficiency" for work was shown by the mismatch between the production required for the work and what the workers' bodies produced. The body played a sign-supporting role regarding changes in behavior and body structure, thereby helping to consolidate the imagery of disability. Thus, metaphors publicly attested to professional decline and discredited the condition of illness. It was concluded that although the disability was expressed early among the perceptions of the workers' inefficiency within the productive process, it seemed to be legitimated later, at the cost of the workers' chronic disease and disability.
illness experience; Disability; RSI; Occupational diseases