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| Monday, 01 March 2010 00:20 | |||||
During one of the flu seasons, I found one of my colleagues resting her head on her desk one day. I approached her and asked if she was feeling all right. She just looked at me with her droopy eyes and said that if she only had a choice, she would stay home in bed. However, she had a deadline that needed to be met. If this is something that you have done before; show up for work even though you probably should have stayed at home to rest, you’re probably a practitioner of “presenteeism”. What is presenteeism? When people show up for work sick, stressed, injured or burnt out, this problem is called “presenteeism” and presents a drain in productivity. In other words, present in body, but not in mind. Alain Thauvette, a senior vice president with Desjardins Financial Security indicated in an interview with Ottawa Citizen two years ago that employees feeling that they must show up for work even if they are too sick to be there is a major factor in employee stress and distraction. Cary Cooper, Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at Manchester University in the United Kingdom coined the term presenteeism. The coining of the term was to describe the overwork and feelings of job insecurity resulting from downsizing and restructuring in the 1990s. There are two types of behaviours of employees that are referred to when presenteeism takes place. First, employees show up to work to put in excessive work hours as a stubborn way to show commitment or a way of coping with job insecurity. Second, presenteeism describes sick or injured employees who go to work. According to statistics, four in ten Canadians indicate that money issues were the main source of stress, anxiety and depression. Many of them said that the potential hardship resulting from loss of pay is the reason they don’t take the necessary time off to recover from health problems. Approximately four out of ten workers who attempted to keep to their work schedule while suffering from physical health problems as a result of a mental health issue said they returned to work to avoid lost wages. Another study of a large public-sector organization reveals significantly strong links between workload, unhealthy working conditions and presenteeism. Graham Lowe, Sociology Professor at the University of Alberta surveyed non-supervisory employees in a provincial social services department in this study. He documented the degree of presenteeism and the reasons behind it. In the survey, employees were asked to report absenteeism within the last 12 months. Results showed that the typical employee went to work 6.7 days despite of illness or injury in the last 12 months prior to the survey. The reasons that respondents cited were, they didn’t want to fall behind their work or they went to work due to heavy workloads or a commitment to be responsible to clients. For employers, the main message is a negative impact on employee productivity and work-life balance. However, employees should be aware of the consequences of going to work sick, injured, burnt out or stressed. Over the past two years, 62% of 1,501 Canadians maintained their work schedules despite of illness, and made sacrifices in their personal lives. For companies, the result of presenteeism is productivity losses, but for employees the consequence is impact on their personal health and relationships. First things first, consider staying at home when you are sick (e.g. when you have a fever, especially when you could be contagious). If you’re really concerned about not coming in to work, speak with your Manager and Supervisor. Last but not the least, a far better approach would be to work smarter, not harder.
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Michele Majul is an HR Professional with Canada Post Corporation in Prairie Region. She graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology and a Certificate in Human Resource Management. Have a comment on this article? Send us your feedback
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