Today, some employees who have a valid excuse to be absent from work, such as a physical or mental condition, are still going to work, and this behavior is considered “presenteeism”.
Presenteeism and productivity unquestionably go hand in hand. Even if they are being paid to be there, an employee’s productivity will suffer if they are physically or emotionally unwell.
Therefore, the crucial query is: why do people feel compelled to report to work even when they are ill and unable to do so?
Even if it doesn’t come to mind, chances are you’ve done it at least once in your professional career. Presenteeism is the term for lost productivity and performance caused by workers reporting to work when they are ill, worn out, or simply too preoccupied with personal matters to concentrate on their work. Oh, and in case you were curious, presenteeism also applies if you simply come to work to be paid while your job is, so to speak, “making you sick” of it (Applauz Resources, 2023).
The distinction between presenteeism and absenteeism, as well as how it affects employee engagement and productivity, should also be discussed.
When employees don’t show up for work, it is called “absenteeism”.
It may have a detrimental effect on production and is a sign of disengagement within the workforce. Not to mention, absenteeism negatively impacts the bottom line of the business.
For a full-time worker, the average rate of absence rose from 8.8 days in 2014 to 9.6 days in 2017, according to Statistics Canada.
However, the subject of “presenteeism,” which costs firms ten times more than absenteeism, has received less attention.
We’ve learned from the pandemic that working long hours in the workplace isn’t always necessary to be effective. What keeps presenteeism so important?
It’s difficult to recall a period when individuals put in at least 40 hours a week, and frequently much more, in order to please their superiors. However, prior to the epidemic, it was commonplace in the workplace to show up for work only to appear dedicated, regardless of performance. According to statistics from a UK survey conducted before the outbreak, 80% of employees reported presenteeism in the workplace, and a quarter of those questioned indicated it had gotten worse during the prior year.
But now that remote work is more common, both employers and employees have a chance to reconsider this deeply established presenteeism. Presenteeism has long been recognized as a problem because it can cost a country’s economy tens of billions of dollars when sick people drag themselves into the workplace and spread their illnesses to others. It also fosters toxic workplace environments that encourage overwork because those who put in long hours put pressure on others to do the same. We are aware that productivity, not being tethered to your desk or computer, is what matters, and we have been having this talk for years.
Presenteeism is still a serious problem, and there is great potential to cease the behavior in the context of a modern work environment. Evidence is mounting that we may not have made any progress at all in reducing presenteeism when employers summon employees back into the workplace, as people work longer hours than ever before and respond to emails and texts at all hours of the day to appear “engaged.”
Therefore, given what we now know, why is presenteeism still receiving such a heavy focus? It’s not only that bosses long for the chance to keep an eye on their workers. Instead, unconscious prejudices keep the practice going, and until we develop our capacity to see the harm it does and establish workplaces that forbid it, we’re likely to be perpetually chained to presenteeism.
Why do supervisors continue to tolerate presenteeism?
According to some organizational theory, strategy, and entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business in the United States, maintaining a presenteeism culture only benefits those “who have the time to show up early and leave late.” Aven also notes that this can unjustly favor some workers over others; for instance, parents would be forced to leave early.
Even though absenteeism is harmful, there are some indications that people who don’t show up for work may face penalties. For instance, despite the fact that it is almost unthinkable now, telecommuting has historically been associated with irresponsibility and has held certain individuals back. For instance, a 2019 study found that the wage growth of telecommuters who worked for companies where remote work was unusual was slower.
These aspects can worry employees, many of whom now worry that their performance will be hampered by their absence from the office. And the normalization of remote work during the pandemic hasn’t necessarily changed this; in 2020, researchers from human-resources software company ADP found that despite the rise in flexible working, 54% of British workers still felt obligated to physically come into the office at some point during the pandemic, especially those in their early- and mid-career.
There are two main psychological factors that drive presenteeism, according to Leigh Thompson, professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business in the US (as cited in Lufkin, 2021).
The “mere-exposure effect,” which asserts that the more exposure one has to someone or something, the stronger affinity one begins to acquire, is the initial theory. Making oneself more conspicuous, in Thompson’s opinion, may help a worker win others over just by being there, even if those around them are ignorant of it or are unable to precisely describe what about the “presentee” appeals to them. They have a grin and an attitude that could be regarded as leadership potential, says Thompson. The presenter could then advance without your knowledge or get paid more.
This bias coexists with the “halo effect,” a psychological concept that connects positive opinions of someone with who they really are. “You start to think of the person who’s bringing you coffee or asking about your weekend as maybe ‘a sweet’guy’—but then I take the mental step of thinking you’re a productive worker, too,” asserts Thompson. Because of your kindness, I instinctively assume that “the guy must be a hard worker as well,” despite the fact that you haven’t offered any evidence to back up that assumption in the context of the coffee cup. Employees who work in person may benefit from perks like promotions as a consequence.
・Showing up just because of obligation
Ironically, despite the potential benefits of being present at work, employees aren’t always more productive when they put in extra hours or invest in face time. Workers still feel pressure to perform, both in person and now online, because supervisors may not always be aware that their employees aren’t truly doing anything more.
In actuality, not fewer but more hours have been worked globally throughout the epidemic. The average daily working hours in 2020 grew by more than a half hour on a yearly basis. The thought is that if everyone else is online, I should be as well. Many managers believe the most visible employees are the most productive because they are the only ones they see (Lufkin, 2021).
Despite how detrimental presenteeism is, there are some signs that those who don’t show up for work can really face consequences.
This issue is rather recent. It was simpler to quantify concrete results in the past when the economy was more centered on manufacturing: this gets constructed, this doesn’t. However, it has also been noted that “as we’ve shifted to a knowledge economy, it’s much squishier to measure what output actually looks like.” Because of this, managers sometimes mistakenly believe that employees are productive as long as they are at their desks.
Because they see their coworkers participating in the same conduct and are aware that their managers encourage this behavior in a visible way, employees fall victim to the presenteeism trap. This is particularly true for workers who are concerned about the stability of their employment during times of economic uncertainty, as we are right now as a result of COVID-19. They labor in order to show that they are trustworthy, capable of handling pressure, and capable of doing well.
However, this ultimately backfires since workers’ hurried completion of tasks diminishes the quality of their output. For instance, presenteeism costs each employee in the UK 35 lost workdays per year, and studies have shown that after working more than 50 hours a week, productivity begins to decline.
Putting a stop to presenteeism
Presenteeism must be less of a priority, both physically and digitally, at this moment of unprecedented scrutiny and radical change in working practices. Many still assume that they must always be electronically present, even though more employees don’t have a physical place where they may be present.
However, a significant, top-down rewriting of what is valued in the workplace and why is required in order to solve big existential issues like presenteeism, which fundamentally affects how we work.
According to Sonenshein (as cited in Lufkin, 2021), a fantastic place to start is for employees, especially leaders, to set a better example of behavior. Leave when everyone has completed the day. Sign out. Workers who stick around just for the sake of performance urge other employees to do the same, which results in a destructive cycle.
Of course, it’s easier said than done. Determining their own biases and knowing about phenomena like mere exposure and halo effects may help managers better understand why presenteeism occurs. Other than “who leaves the office last” or “who responds to emails at dawn,” experts call on teams to utilize better, clearer criteria to gauge productivity.
Thompson claims that a good place to start is by just examining raw performance: “I think leaders and supervisors need to ask themselves a priori, ‘Here’s what my team’s going to be working on next month or next quarter. What are my minimum expectations, and who is exceeding them?”
Unfortunately, presenteeism still has its obvious characteristics in our contemporary workplace. It’s a competition to see who can put in the most effort; the fact that the behavior has spread from actual workstations to virtual ones shows how deeply it has permeated our professional lives; that cannot go on. People will eventually burn out since they have been struggling with this for the past 15 months.
“You would hope that during a pandemic, there would be a switch.” But, without a good hard look at our ingrained biases, transformation may be tough. “Unfortunately,” says Sonenshein, “I’m not sure things are really going to change” (Lufkin, 2021).
References
Applauz Resources. (2023). What Is Presenteeism at Work and Why Should You Care. [online] Available at: https://www.applauz.me/resources/what-is-presenteeism-at-work [Accessed 10 August 2023].
Lufkin, B. (2021). Why presenteeism wins out over productivity. [online] www.bbc.com. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210604-why-presenteeism-always-wins-out-over-productivity [Accessed 7 August 2023].
