The negative impact of absenteeism is understood by managers and employers. But, there is a common threat in the workplace that can be even more dangerous to the company culture, “presenteeism”.
It sinks through the ranks, takes away employee happiness, and steals productivity. The article aims to help the readers learn about presenteeism, how it affects organizational productivity, and how can organizations overcome this destructive phenomenon.
What is presenteeism?
It is defined as coming to work despite distress, illness, or injury, resulting in a loss of productivity. This is considered as a reduction in productivity that arises from personal or health issues. In simple terms, presenteeism is when an employee is present at work but is unable to perform duties because of stress or any other health problem.
Often people confuse it with malingering but that is a different term that is related to the tendency of employees to avoid work by pretending to be ill. But, presenteeism is a condition in which an employee is unable to perform to the best of his/her abilities because of mental and physical health challenges.
Why is it more dangerous than “Absenteeism”?
Presenteeism is far more difficult to spot than absenteeism. Besides, it also has far-reaching consequences that can be hard to track for employers.
Absenteeism can be measured easily through quantitative techniques. If a manager sees a subordinate not showing up at work then he/she can take managerial actions, instantly. However, it is difficult to tp identify which of the employees are muddling through mental and physical challenges that are affecting their work performance.
Most of the time, employers are unable to spot the mental challenges and low-grade illness which tend to grow worse with time. Eventually, prolonged presenteeism leads to absenteeism because the minor illness becomes a chronic issue.
What can be done to reduce presenteeism?
Following are some of the methods to reduce presenteeism:
- Communicate the availability of leaves: In many organizations, managers tend to conceal the leave policy from the employees. This creates ambiguity and many employees are unaware of the number of sick, casual, annual, and other leaves available to them.
- Review leave policy: Organizations can also review their policies to check if they are providing adequate leaves or not.
- Provide flexibility by allowed to work remotely: Even if the standard policy does not allow working from home, occasionally arrangements can be made so that the indirect problems of presenteeism can be managed to a certain degree.
- Review workload: Sometimes employees do not want to come to work but they have to because of the work demands.
