I'm guilty of presenteeism. I should've been at home, in my bed, sleeping and resting because of the nasty cough virus I contracted from my son. But I insisted in coming to work nonetheless. One week has passed; now, it morphed into a cough and colds combo. Add to that, the chest congestion became intolerable. And so I dragged myself to the doctor's clinic earlier to have myself checked up. Should've gone to the doctor a week ago but I was too stubborn, insisting that my cough wouldn't get worse. But I was wrong.
Presenteeism is the opposite of absenteeism. These are employees who opt to come to work despite their illness. Of late, I hear endless hacking and sneezing in the office. I'm not the only one guilty of presenteeism. There are others like me who chose to work rather than take time off to get quality bed rest.
The big question is WHY? Why do people choose to work when they're sick?
First, there's the fear of loss of income by the employee. Second, the allocated sick days may not be sufficient to cover the entire period to recuperate from the illness. Third, you're a full-fledged workaholic.
Sickness and health benefits vary from company to company. Some are generous in the sense that they allocate longer paid sick days to the employees. Yet some companies, on the other hand, are unfortunately, scrimping on sickness and health benefits leaving the employees with little choice but to come to work in spite of their illness.
Presenteeism not only spreads the virus to other fellow employees, it also adversely affects the quality of output of the sick employee and ultimately, the company's output. When you're down with flu, feverish or drowsy due to colds, you're not operating in full capacity. You turn in a haphazardly done report. You miss deadlines. You commit more mistakes. The effects are costly to the company.
To address presenteeism, some companies allow their employees to work from home when they're ill. I believe this is more a viable solution. You can also suggest modifications to your existing employee healthcare plan. However, proposing to revise the sickness and health benefits might be a long shot especially during this time of crisis.
The best approach to handle presenteeism, in my opinion, is not to come to work at all. Listen to your body when it's not functioning 100%. Ignoring one's health is more expensive in the long run.
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11 comments:
I remember more than 10 years ago, the HR head of our company visited every division to talk about presenteeism. The verdict was - we must not go to work if we are ill, period.
One of the reasons I sometimes prefer to go to work is I don't want things to pile up on me. Sure now I can work from home, and it makes thing seasier. Our company has a policy that in our 4 week vacation entitlement, 2 weeks must be taken in full - consecutively and the rest you can take it any way you want. In one way it allows the staff to take a good rest and also ensures that someone can take over the work when he's gone :)
Some companies have liberal HR policies, others are stricter.
Same here, my work piles up when I take a leave.
Good thing you have longer vacation days. In my case, I only have 2 weeks. And that's vacation and sick days combined! :(
Here, some of my co-workers can work from home. I wish I can but my position doesn't allow me to.
A colleague resorts to Presenteeism even when she's so sick in order to use her sick days as additional vacation days. When I reviewed her charges to sick days last year, I noticed that all the days she charged to "Sick Day" fell either on a Monday or on a Friday. Hence, the time was used to enjoy a long weekend.
My Boss is against Presenteeism if one comes in very sick. On a number of occasions, I've seen him send people home for coming in very sick.
I am against it when an employee is indeed very sick and ought to get a lot of rest. Although the short-term effect could be loss of income, it is more important for the employee to get that much needed rest so as to prevent a worsening of his/her medical condition that could lead to an even greater loss of income.
Presenteeism is must here. It's because of our company's illogical policy to get a written sick leave from a doctor before you can do an actual sick leave. If its just a cough and cold, employees opt to go to work and spread the virus, rather than wait in line in the hospital before attended to by any doctor.
BTW, Happy Valentine's day, Mari.
Hi. I came from BlogusVox site.
I believe too that presenteeism isn't a good idea. It's more harmful than productive in the long run.
Have a good day! :)
Baker,
I agree that it's better to take a leave from work than spread the virus to your co-workers.
As for your colleague, I don't think she's really sick rather it's Monday sickness.
Blogusvox,
How can you go to the doctor if you're sick? Silly HR policy, 'no?
Happy valentine's day again to you and wifey!
Dee,
Same here. It's going to be more costly if people keep doing it.
Best,
M
Employees who resort to presenteeism so that he can use his sick days for an extended vacation leave are harming all the employees in general. Believe me, there are many employees in every industry who believe that if they have sick leave that has not been exercised for the year, they would automatically "fall sick" so that they could get their days off. There are those who could tell you when they would fall sick!
bayi,
that is what you called, scheduled sick days. :D
hey, this is a new term, presenteeism!ü
we do have our pamartir, you-cant-do-without-me drama everynow and then and to our own detriment, of course. in some ways, it's to elicit pity from co-workers and praise from the employer, but really, drama kings and queens of the office need not be Typhoid John and Mary at the same time!ü
God bless!
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