Presenteeism - a bigger problem than absenteeism?

OPINION: Forget about absenteeism. There’s a bigger issue infecting workplaces and it’s called ‘presenteeism’.

It’s when employees are on site but mentally absent. In defiance of their coughs and colds, they turn up to work thinking they’re doing the right thing. But they’re not.

There are three main causes spreading the plague of presenteeism. The first is a fear employees will lose a bit of cash or even their job. The second is a distressing worry the work will pile up while they’re off sick. And the third is an overwhelming guilt that workmates will be left to carry the load. What they really end up carrying is the newly introduced office bug.

Other side effects include asinine mistakes when a mind is too cluttered by illness to think clearly, as well as reduced productivity when employees can’t work to their ordinary capacity despite receiving their ordinary wages.

All of this is crippling employers a lot more than those lazy buggers chucking sickies. Earlier this year, an analysis of 60,000 employees was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, which found that psychological pressures were the greatest contributors to diminished productivity at work.

I spoke to Dr Paul Lanthois, the head of the Work/Life Balance Foundation, who believes that employers should be helping their workers get healthy and fit.

He said, "A lot of them might say, ‘hang on, that’s not our responsibility’, and that what people do in their own time is their own business, but plenty of research shows the impact of wellness on productivity."

Afflictions of presenteeism and their workplace consequences have been compiled by MBF.

Depression, anxiety and stress depress performance by 13 per cent. Headaches and migraines slash it by 41 per cent. Lack of sleep erodes efficiency by up to a third. Neck and back pain crush productivity by one fifth. And obesity drags output down by around 14 per cent.

If an employee happens to suffer from several of these misfortunes at the same time, and that includes other ailments like influenza and hay fever, the result could be the paying of full-time wages for a part-time worker.

"Managers should be providing guidance and introducing health and wellness programs within the organisation,” says Dr Lanthois.

"They want to get more productivity out of people and to have them working harder, but it’s not sustainable if employees don’t have the capacity to work at that higher level. Managers need to see this is as an important business strategy."

Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating delivered the most public and scathing declaration of presenteeism last week. Though he didn’t mention the p-word by name, it was woven implicitly throughout his biting accusation that he carried Bob Hawke during four of his prime ministerial years. Blaming depression for Hawke’s "emotional and intellectual malaise”, he described Hawke’s subsequent performance as "lacklustre" and as "executive incapacity". If his allegations are correct, Bob Hawke had a severe bout of presenteeism.

What we know for sure is he wasn’t the only one. A report released in the UK in April by the Work Foundation found that 45 per cent of employees go to work when they’re unwell as opposed to only 18 per cent who choose to take a day off instead.

Their research revealed many sick employees felt compelled to come to work solely to prove they were genuinely unwell, leading to a widespread perception that managers don’t really care about their employees’ well-being.

Regardless, with tissues in hand, they schlep themselves to the office where they display the characteristics of Louie the fly, spreading disease with the greatest of ease, on everything from telephones to meeting rooms, and from table tops to chairs and doorknobs. 

Whatever reasons they possess for fronting up at work, it’s not good for them, their colleagues, or their employer. Workers should be cognisant of the wisdom in taking a day off when they need one.  And employers should recognise that a healthy employee means a productive workplace. As Leon Eldred famously said, "If I'd known I was going to live so long, I'd have taken better care of myself."

- © Fairfax NZ News